+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE. - Volume 9, Issue 12, September 18, 2010. An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design and development. ++ISSUE 12 CONTENTS. SECTION ONE: New references. What's new at the Web Design Reference site? http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/ New links in these categories: 01: ACCESSIBILITY. 02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. 03: COLOR. 04: EVALUATION & TESTING. 05: EVENTS. 06: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS. 07: TOOLS. 08: USABILITY. SECTION TWO: 09: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site? [Contents ends.] ++ SECTION ONE: New references. +01: ACCESSIBILITY. Web Accessibility, Structured Negotiations and DOJ Rulemaking By Lainey Feingold. "...This post provides information, resources and examples of large commercial websites that have been designed to meet accessibility standards. These sites are operated by some of the largest entities in the United States, including Bank of America, Major League Baseball and CVS. These entities and the others referenced here have made their websites accessible without litigation as a result of Structured Negotiations and other advocacy efforts..." http://lflegal.com/2010/09/doj-anprm-web/ Accessibility and the Law: How good UX Can Keep You Out of Court By Gregory P. Care. "Website accessibility is obviously an integral part of user experience; a negative user experience is certain to occur when a consumer cannot access a commercial website, which, in turn, almost always carries negative business consequences. To make matters worse, an inaccessible website may also expose the site owner and/or designer to legal liability." http://www.uxmag.com/strategy/accessibility-and-the-law 6 Myths About E-Commerce Accessibility By Ryan Slight. "Our guest blogger Ryan Slight, from eSSENTIAL Accessibility Inc., explains some common misconceptions about making a website for people with physical disabilities..." http://blog.vortx.com/ecommerce/6-myths-about-e-commerce-accessibility/ +02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. Combining Meta Viewport and Media Queries Peter-Paul Koch. "If you want to make your websites ready form mobile, it's best to combine with width media queries. That will give your site the optimal width (as determined by the device vendor, who really ought to know), and your site will look the better for it." http://www.quirksmode.org/blog/archives/2010/09/combining_meta.html Parts of CSS3 in Internet Explorer now with CSS3 PIE By Roger Johansson. "One great thing about several CSS3 properties is that they let you save bandwidth and write cleaner markup. All those extra meaningless div and span elements you used to be forced to add to create rounded corners? Not needed. The images used for the same rounded corners, for dropshadows, and for gradients? Not needed either..." http://www.456bereastreet.com/archive/201009/parts_of_css3_in_internet_explorer_now_with_css3_pie/ +03: COLOR. Making Websites Accessible for People with Colour Recognition Deficiencies By Irene Lizarrag. "Colours on a website make a great impact on how visitors can use it, and how they perceive the message the website is trying to convey..." http://www.helium.com/items/1671376-colour-sight-dissabilities-colour-blindness-color-blindness-web-design-for-the-color-blind +04: EVALUATION & TESTING. Survey Respondents Prefer the Left Side of a Rating Scale By Jeff Sauro. "Subtle changes to response items in surveys and questionnaires can affect responses..." http://www.measuringusability.com/blog/left-side-bias.php 97 Things to Know about Usability By Jeff Sauro. "1. You are ultimately measuring an interface not users..." http://www.measuringusability.com/blog/usability.php +05: EVENTS. Understanding Accessibility September 30, 2010. Ottawa, Canada http://furtherahead.com/courses/understandingaccessibility/ Future of Web Apps October 4-6, 2010. London, United Kingdom http://futureofwebapps.com/london-2010/ Real World Accessibility for HTML5, CSS3 and ARIA October 7, 2010. Ottawa, Canada http://furtherahead.com/courses/realworldhtml5/ Do-It-Yourself Usability Testing October 20, 2010 Washington, DC, U.S.A. http://www.sensible.com/workshops.html Letting Go of the Words - Writing Web Content that Works October 21, 2010. Washington, DC, U.S.A. http://www.redish.net/content/DCworkshop2010.html Real World Accessibility for Ajax and Web Apps October 21, 2010. Ottawa, Canada http://furtherahead.com/courses/realworldajax/ Front-Trends October 21-22, 2010. Warsaw, Poland http://front-trends.com/ +06: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS. Review and Comment on the W3C HTML5 Specification By Shelley Powers. "I join with the IE Blog team in recommending that everyone take some time to review HTML5. However, I also realize that the HTML5 specification isn't a document for the faint of heart, or those short of time. In order to encourage wider review, I'm posting this as a guide through the labyrinth of processing algorithms, new elements, and cat-featured examples that we know as HTML5..." http://realtech.burningbird.net/reviewcomment-w3c-html5-specification How to Comment and When (HTML5) By Shelley Powers. http://realtech.burningbird.net/how-comment-and-when The HTML5 Document Structure By Shelley Powers. http://realtech.burningbird.net/reviewcomment-w3c-html5-specification/html5-document-structure Web Standards: from Working Draft to Recommendation By Adrian Bateman. "...Last Call is the signal that the working group believes the spec is functionally complete and is ready for broad review from both other working groups and the public at large. The working group must respond to all the comments received during Last Call and this often results in changes to the specification. A further Last Call could be necessary if the changes are substantial..." http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ie/archive/2010/09/13/web-standards-from-working-draft-to-recommendation.aspx An Example of HTML5 Markup By Virginia DeBolt. "From the doctype to new elements, HTML5 in many ways is a simplification as well as an addition to what can be done with HTML. Here's an example HTML5 page..." http://www.webteacher.ws/2010/09/17/an-example-of-html5-markup/ +07: TOOLS Longdesc FireFox Extension By Patrick H. Lauke. This FireFox extension adds a "View Image Longdesc" option to the image context menu. The Opera browser has this same type of Longdesc feature built in. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/273/ +08: USABILITY. 10 Usability Tips Based on Research Studies By Cameron Chapman. "This article discusses usability findings of research results such as eye-tracking studies, reports, analytics, and usability surveys pertaining to website usability and improvements. You'll discover that many of these usability tips will be common sense but are further supported with numbers; however, some might surprise you and change your outlook on your current design processes." http://sixrevisions.com/usabilityaccessibility/10-usability-tips-based-on-research-studies/ Recommendations for Usability in Practice - Final Version By Jasper van Kuik. "This is the final version of my recommendations for usability in product development practice, based on a PhD research project at the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering of TU Delft..." http://www.uselog.com/2010/09/recommendations-for-usability-in.html On the Web, Sell the Sausage, Not the Sizzle By Gerry McGovern. "...Customers who want to hire a van want van sizes, they want prices, and they want to do it all really fast. Traditional marketing and communication just gets in the way on the Web..." http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/nt/2010/nt-2010-09-13-Web-bacon.htm Simplicity is Not Overrated, Just Misunderstood By UX Movement. "This article is a response to 'Simplicity is Highly Overrated' by Don Norman...Usability and user experience design is all about making things simple and easy to use. I never would've expected such a contradictory statement coming from some one who co-founded the Nielsen and Norman group, a firm that offers usability consulting, training seminars and research reports. This statement puts a dagger into the back of usability and user experience design." http://uxmovement.com/design-articles/simplicity-not-overrated Children's Websites: Usability Issues in Designing for Kids By Jakob Nielsen. "New research with users aged 3-12 shows that older kids have gained substantial Web proficiency since our last studies, while younger kids still face many problems. Designing for children requires distinct usability approaches, including targeting content narrowly for different ages of kids." http://www.useit.com/alertbox/children.html Usability Study Shows Kids Don't Search By Liz Gannes. "While adult Internet users are increasingly 'search dominant,' kids navigate the web using bookmarks, remembering their favorite sites, and accessing paid subscription content and games. That's one of the findings from a new qualitative usability study on how children use the web by human-computer interaction researcher Jakob Nielsen of the Nielsen Norman Group. His report makes it seem as if kids have more of an app mentality than a search mentality when compared to adults..." http://gigaom.com/2010/09/13/usability-study-shows-kids-dont-search/ [Section one ends.] ++ SECTION TWO: +09: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site? Accessibility Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/accessibility.html Association Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/associations.html Book Listings. http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/books.html Cascading Style Sheets Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/css.html Color Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/color.html Dreamweaver Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/dreamweaver.html Evaluation & Testing Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/testing.html Event Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/events.html Flash Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/flash.html Information Architecture Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/architecture.html JavaScript Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/javascript.html Miscellaneous Web Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/misc.html Navigation Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/navigation.html PHP Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/php.html Sites & Blogs Listing. http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/sites.html Standards, Guidelines & Pattern Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/standards.html Tool Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/tools.html Typography Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/type.html Usability Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/usability.html XML Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/xml.html [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/itss/training/online/webdesign/webdev_listserv.html 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.]