+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE. - Volume 9, Issue 07, August 14, 2010. An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design and development. ++ISSUE 07 CONTENTS. SECTION ONE: New references. What's new at the Web Design Reference site? http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/webdesign/ New links in these categories: 01: ACCESSIBILITY. 02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. 03: EVALUATION & TESTING. 04: EVENTS. 05: JAVASCRIPT. 06: MISCELLANEOUS. 07: NAVIGATION. 08: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS. 09: TOOLS. 10: TYPOGRAPHY. 11: USABILITY. SECTION TWO: 12: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site? [Contents ends.] ++ SECTION ONE: New references. +01: ACCESSIBILITY. Making Maps Accessible By Sarah Bourne. "With most things there are formulaic answers to the question, 'How do I make that accessible?' For this feature of a web page, do this. For a text box in a form, use a label. For a data table, provide a summary and heading information. The W3C collects and publishes these techniques; if they are not easy to remember, they are easy to look up. But some things don't boil down to a simple formula..." http://technology.blog.state.ma.us/blog/2010/08/making-maps-accessible.html University Web Site for People with Learning Disabilities: Starting a Redesign By John Rochford. "Today, I visited a local university that has a campus-based program for students with learning disabilities. I am helping to make the programÕs Web site more accessible to its students..." http://clearhelper.wordpress.com/2010/08/11/university-web-site-for-people-with-learning-disabilities-starting-a-redesign/ Personas By AEGIS project. "Personas are hypothetical archetypes of actual users. Although they are imaginary, they are defined with significant rigour and precision. This level of accuracy can only be reached by founding the personas on real data obtained from field research studying real people. The aim here is to make them approachable for all members of a project-team so that developers, designers, managers and other stakeholders can develop empathy for their end-users. The persona can almost become a real person, which will facilitate all layers in a project team to keep thinking from the user's perspective without being influenced by personal biases. During the entire design-process all developers, managers and other team members can refer in a critical manner to the personas to assure the work progresses on the right path. Design efforts can be prioritized or given a specific weight per functionality which will help prioritise the different use cases within AEGIS..." http://www.aegis-project.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=63&Itemid=53 The accesskey Attribute - Do We Still Need It? By Emma Sax. The accesskey attribute has been part of the HTML specification for over ten years and its purpose is to give keyboard users a shortcut to access a specific area of the page or to jump to a different page. In HTML5 the accesskey may be used on any element, but do web developers still need to use it? http://www.punkchip.com/2010/08/the-accesskey-attribute/ Remaining Challenges of Measuring the Accessibility of Web Sites According to WCAG 2.0 By egovernments. "The paper identifies the following challenges. The described challenges are in the authors experience unclear parts WCAG 2.0, which often means that the testers need interpret the texts and take decisions of how it should be understood. This could easily lead to inconsistency among testers as the testers may understand the texts differently." http://egovernments.wordpress.com/2010/08/11/remaining-challenges-of-measuring-the-accessibility-of-web-sites-according-to-wcag-2-0/ Creating Sites Accessible to People with Cognitive Disabilities By Gian Wild. http://www.egov.vic.gov.au/topics-a-z/d/disability-services-topics-a-z/creating-sites-accessible-to-people-with-cognitive-disabilities-accessibility-toolkit-version-3-2009.html HTML5 Working Group Decision on ISSUE-30 longdesc By Sam Ruby, Maciej Stachowiak, and Paul Cotton. "The HTML 4.01 Specification includes an attribute named longdesc, intended to make images and frames more accessible to people using non-visual user agents. The HTML5 draft does not include this attribute. Some Working Group members have suggested that it be added/reinstated...the HTML Working Group hereby adopts the Change Proposal to not include the longdesc attribute in the language." http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html/2010Aug/att-0112/issue-30-decision.html Notice of Impending Formal Objection to HTML5 Issue 30 Decision (@longdesc) By John Foliot. "Please be advised that I intend to work with a group of others to create a Formal Objection to this decision. In particular, I am appalled by the comments..." http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html-a11y/2010Aug/0027.html Strategic Decisions in a Strategy-less Environment By Shelley Powers. "...The W3C cannot afford to be so cavalier as to arrogantly pronounce itself above government and other organizational mandates. The browser companies may deem themselves to be above such consideration, but the W3C cannot be so short sighted, and thoughtless. The W3C also cannot possibly afford to undermine its own credibility by introducing conflicts between its own recommendations: to recommend longdesc in one of its documents, while, at the exact same time, making it obsolete in another. The whole point of deprecation is to prevent such anomalies from occurring. Folly. Pure folly..." http://burningbird.net/node/118 +02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. Expanding Images Using HTML5 and tabindex By Chris Coyier. "...you can give attributes a tabindex attribute, like you would a form element, which allow allows :focus without the editability. This article has been updated to go that route instead..." http://css-tricks.com/expanding-images-html5/ Data Theft With CSS By Zachary Weinberg. "...This attack works because a webpage in quirks mode can load anything as a style sheet, even if its really a HTML page coming from someone elses server..." http://www.owlfolio.org/htmletc/css-data-theft/ 29 Useful Things You Can Do With CSS3 By Underworld Magazines. "CSS is growing every year with new a creative ways to code your website, with css3 it give you great ways to make creative buttons, shadows, gradients , and a lot more things. Here is 29 Useful Things you can do with CSS3. Take the time to check some of them and start learning some css..." http://www.underworldmagazines.com/29-useful-things-you-can-do-with-css3/ +03: EVALUATION & TESTING. Creative Ways to Use Unmoderated User Research By Demetrius Madrigal and Bryan McClain. "Over the past year or two, unmoderated usability testing has become a popular option to help guide product design. It is especially popular for Web sites, providing startups the opportunity to get relatively quick-and-easy user feedback on design iterations. From a user research perspective, the improper use of unmoderated research services presents a certain amount of danger. However, there are a number of ways you can use unmoderated user research tools that can provide a great deal of value. This month, well discuss some of the more interesting ways in which you can derive value from unmoderated research tools." http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2010/08/creative-ways-to-use-unmoderated-user-research.php +04: EVENTS. Douglas Crockford: Loopage August 27, 2010. Sunnyvale, California, U.S.A. http://www.meetup.com/BayJax/calendar/14371278/?from=list&offset=0 Accessibility Summit September 30, 2010. Online http://environmentsforhumans.com/2010/accessibility-summit/ +05: JAVASCRIPT. ARIA - A Quick Overview By Virginia DeBolt. "ARIA is Accessible Rich Internet Applications, a set of standards under development by the W3C. ItÕs part of the WAI (Web Accessibility Initiative)..." http://www.webteacher.ws/2010/08/13/aria-a-quick-overview/ Formatting Currency Values in JavaScript By Ray West. "As more and more data retrieval moves to AJAX to provide a more dynamic user experience, we start to lose much of the server side data formatting that is so convenient in most languages. When sending raw data back over XML or JSON, there is no opportunity for the server to reformat to display dates, times, and currency values as you would want them shown. This is especially tricky for currency formats, since JavaScript does not have a simple currency format function." http://www.communitymx.com/content/article.cfm?cid=960A5 +06: MISCELLANEOUS. Hypertext History By Jeremy Keith. "m not a big fan of acronyms in general but I like the word WWILF: What Was I Looking For. Its such a webby word..." http://adactio.com/journal/1683/ When The Axe Man Cometh - the Future of Institutional Web Teams By Brian Kelly. "'The doom and gloom of the impending cuts rang out loud and clear'described Deborah F. in her report on the IWMW 2010 event. I introduced this concern in the opening talk and then, in the second talk at the event, Susan Farrell asked Are web managers still needed when everyone is a web expert?' As described in a report written by Amy Chamier and published on the IWMW 2010 blog Susan, former head of Web Services at Kings College, London, explained how those with front-end skills are most at risk. Susans advice was to demonstrate the competitive advantage we deliver in turbulent times. We must show how websites run by web managers cut the cost of: (a) generating new customers (b) back office administration and (c) service delivery. And also, how websites run by amateurs can put an organisations reputation at risk. In her conclusions Susan left the audience with a final question: 'Without recognised qualifications and a professional body, do web managers and their specialist skills run the risk of extinction, as our duties are absorbed into other roles?'" http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/2010/08/09/when-the-axe-man-cometh/ +07: NAVIGATION. Shlock and Awe: Little Things on Your Website that Drive People Nuts By Kim Stearns. "...Death to dropdown menus - These pesky little menus will end up costing you a ton on development costs while delivering no value to the experience of your website. In fact, the annoyance factor of difficult-to-navigate menus may decrease the usage of your site, costing you more than you can calculate. Simple, usable menus will always provide the most accessibility and reduce the frustration that users feel when trying to jump around your website." http://www.fortyagency.com/stuff/post/shlock-and-awe s Best Practices To Design a Perfect HTML Navigation Bar By Antonio Lupett. "The navigation bar is an inevitable element in every website. In this post I want to share with you some simple practices and suggestions aimed at designing a perfect HTML navigation bar." http://woorkup.com/2010/08/09/best-practices-to-design-a-perfect-html-navigation-bar/ Breadcrumb Trail Design Showcase By Christian Watson. "Breadcrumb trails can be a useful secondary navigation tool.." http://www.smileycat.com/miaow/archives/002049.php +08: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS. Your Questions Answered Number 12 By Richard Clark "The latest round of HTML5 prescriptions is in! This week, weÕll briefly cover the HTML5 vs Flash debate, whether to use or
, HTML5 rich text editors, and the HTML5 charset and doctype..." http://html5doctor.com/your-questions-12/ HTML5 Reset (HTML5 and CSS templates) By Monkey Do. "...Now that modern browsers are starting to support some of the really useful parts of HTML5 and CSS3, it's time for an update, and we thought we'd put it out there for everyone to use. By no means do we see this as the end-all and beat-all, but we think it's a fairly good starting place that anyone can take and make their own..." http://html5reset.org/ HTML5: Introduction to By Estelle Weyl. "The HTML5 Canvas specification is a JavaScript API for coding drawings. The canvas API allows the definition of a canvas context object as the element on your HTML page inside which we can draw..." http://www.standardista.com/canvas-tutorial +09: TOOLS. CSS3 Playground By Mike Plate. "Use this web application to experiment and learn about new css3 capabilities. The styles applied when changing the different settings should follow the principles of progressive enhancements and will work in all browsers that support the setting. Just change the settings and see how the rectangular box changes according to your changes..." http://css3.mikeplate.com/ +10: TYPOGRAPHY. No to Text Resize Widgets By Dennis Lembree. "...Say no to text resize widgets. To enlarge text for users, the browser should be used (many reasons below). See this video from OpenConcept on how to text-resize in your browser..." http://webaxe.blogspot.com/2010/08/no-to-text-resize-widgets.html +11: USABILITY. Myth #23: Choices Should Always be Limited to 7+/-2 By Zoltan Gocza. "...research shows that broad and shallow menu structures generally work better than deeper menus. Also, link-rich e-commerce homepages, like that of Amazon with 90+ product category links, are found to be more usable than homepages with only a few links...." http://uxmyths.com/post/931925744/myth-23-choices-should-always-be-limited-to-seven Corporate Blogs - Front Page Structure By Jakob Nielsen. "Showing summaries of many articles is more likely to draw in users than providing full articles, which can quickly exhaust reader interest." http://www.useit.com/alertbox/blog-front-pages.html Avoid Being Embarrassed by Your Error Messages By Caroline Jarrett. "Put a person and a computer together, and you have the possibility of an error. Put two computers together: more possibilities for error. People make mistakes and computers do unexpected things. We try to design out the errors as much as possible, but inevitably, we end up dealing with error messages. Its easy to find plenty of recommendations about creating error messages. For example..." http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2010/08/avoid-being-embarrassed-by-your-error-messages.php Updating Our Understanding of Perception and Cognition: Part II. By Jeff Johnson. "This is the second of my two articles for UXmatters, summarizing some of what researchers have discovered about human perception and cognition over the past thirty years. These articles are not meant to be comprehensive; they are just an overview of what I learned while preparing to write my new book: Designing with the Mind in Mind. The first article in this series focused on visual perception, while this article focuses on cognition and cognitive / perceptual speed." http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2010/08/updating-our-understanding-of-perception-and-cognition-part-ii.php Don't Use a Long Word When a Short Word Will Do By Rachel McAlpine. "...Plainer English is not Nobrainer English..." http://contented.com/contented/2010/writing-tip-dont-use-long-word-when-short-word-will-do [Section one ends.] ++ SECTION TWO: +12: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site? Accessibility Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/accessibility Association Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/associations Book Listings. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/books Cascading Style Sheets Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/css Color Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/color Dreamweaver Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/dreamweaver Evaluation & Testing Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/testing Event Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/events Flash Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/flash Information Architecture Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/architecture JavaScript Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/javascript Miscellaneous Web Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/misc Navigation Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/navigation PHP Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/php Sites & Blogs Listing. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/sites Standards, Guidelines & Pattern Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/standards Tool Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/tools Typography Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/type Usability Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/usability XML Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/xml [Section two ends.] ++END NOTES. + SUBSCRIPTION INFO. WEB DESIGN UPDATE is available by subscription. For information on how to subscribe and unsubscribe please visit: http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/webdevlist The Web Design Reference Site also has a RSS 2.0 feed for site updates. + TEXT EMAIL NEWSLETTER (TEN). As a navigation aid for screen readers we do our best to conform to the accessible Text Email Newsletter (TEN) guidelines. Please let me know if there is anything else we can do to make navigation easier. For TEN guideline information please visit: http://www.headstar.com/ten + SIGN OFF. Until next time, Laura L. Carlson Information Technology Systems and Services University of Minnesota Duluth Duluth, MN U.S.A. 55812-3009 mailto:lcarlson@d.umn.edu [Issue ends.]