+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE.
- Volume 9, Issue 50, June 10, 2011.

An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design and development. 

++ISSUE 50 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: DREAMWEAVER.
04: EVALUATION & TESTING.
05: EVENTS.
06: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE.
07: JAVASCRIPT.
08: MISCELLANEOUS.
09: NAVIGATION.
10: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.
11: TYPOGRAPHY.
12: USABILITY.


SECTION TWO: 
13: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site?

[Contents ends.]


++ SECTION ONE: New references.

+01: ACCESSIBILITY.

3 Questions to Determine Whether Your Blog Theme Designer Gives a Rip About Accessibility
By Glenda Watson Hyatt.
"...Here are three questions to ask when searching for a theme designer with knowledge and experience with web accessibility..."
http://blogaccessibility.com/3-questions-to-determine-whether-your-blog-theme-designer-gives-a-rip-about-accessibility/

Text Descriptions and Emotion Rich Images
By Leonie Watson.
"This article was first posted in 2007 on the eAccess blog. Three years later and I still believe that emotion rich images are important to blind people, particularly those who once had sight (and that's most of us). Results from the third WebAIM screen reader survey suggest I'm not alone, so I'm reposting the article here to encourage the debate to continue..."
http://tink.co.uk/2011/06/text-descriptions-emotion-rich-images/

Introducing The ChromeVox Blog 
By Google.
ChromeVox represents the next step in leveraging Web technology for improving the state of universal information access. This blog will cover the history and evolution of such solutions and lay out the long-term vision for access technologies built on the Web..."
http://chromevox.blogspot.com/2011/05/introducing-chromevox-blog.html?spref=tw


+02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.

Fluid Images
By Ethan Marcotte.
"We are pleased to present a portion of Chapter 3 of Responsive Web Design by Ethan Marcotte (A Book Apart, 2011). This chapter follows a previous chapter on fluid grids, expanding upon that grid with fluid images..."
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/fluid-images/

Where are the Poster Children for Responsive Design?
By Andy Budd.
"In my previous post I stated that while I didn't think responsive design was the right approach for every mobile experience, it was appropriate for 90% of cases and should become the natural default option..."
http://www.andybudd.com/archives/2011/06/where_are_the_poster_children_for_respon/

Spinning the Web
By Eric A. Meyer.
"Can CSS create art? That's a question I set out to explore recently, and I like to think that the answer is yes. You can judge for yourself: Spinning the Web, a photo set on Flickr..."
http://meyerweb.com/eric/thoughts/2011/06/03/spinning-the-web/

Cascading Style Sheets Standard Boasts Unprecedented Interoperability 
By W3C.
"W3C announced new levels of support today for Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), the language for adding style to Web content. W3C released an update to the core CSS standard, CSS 2.1, to reflect the current state of support for CSS features, and to serve as the stable foundation for future extensions..."
http://www.w3.org/News/2011.html#entry-9116

CSS 2.1 is Finally Final
By Adrian A. Roselli.
"W3C It's only been 13 years, but CSS version 2.1 is now officially a W3C Recommendation - essentially meaning the specification is final. Which of course means you are now all free to use it in your web pages..."
http://blog.adrianroselli.com/2011/06/css-21-is-finally-final.html 

CSS Mask-Image and Text
By Trent Walton.
"I recently wrote about Controlling Web Typography and focused on CSS pseudo selectors & down-to-the-letter control. As a web designer, I want the same level of control over type that print designers have, including texture. There are currently 2 webkit CSS properties that I've grown to love and hope gain more traction & browser support. My favorite would have to be background-clip:text, but it currently degrades poorly. A close second is mask-image, which you can apply to text..."
http://trentwalton.com/2011/05/19/mask-image-text/


+03: DREAMWEAVER.

New Dreamweaver Feature: W3C Validator Integration
By Greg Rewis.
"...When you're ready to validate your page, simply click the W3C Validator button and choose whether you want the local page on your computer validated or a page on a server. If you have any errors, they will appear in the W3C Validation panel..."
http://blog.assortedgarbage.com/2011/06/new-dreamweaver-feature-w3c-validator-integration/


+04: EVALUATION & TESTING.

The Myth of the One-Way Mirror
By Demetrius Madrigal and Bryan McClain.
"...There are many ways in which we can conduct user research-using a one-way mirror is just one option. Although we do not think doing research in a lab with a two-way mirror is always the best option in all situations, we do think it can provide value in certain situations-especially if you follow best practices and give the proper attention to the needs of participants. But, in this column, we wanted to point out that there are alternatives to using a lab with a one-way mirror that have worked well for us over the years. Ultimately, our goal is to ensure that participants are comfortable, understand their role in our design projects, and provide the best product feedback possible..."
http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2011/06/the-myth-of-the-one-way-mirror.php

The Impact Number Formats Have on Judgment and Decision Making
By Colleen Roller.
"...People use data in decision making only when they can glean meaning from it. They derive meaning through their ability to visualize data or to judge the value of something by making a comparison against a reference point or within the context of upper and lower bounds. Even though we can't say people always understand frequencies better than probabilities in percentage formats, we can rely on the consistency of the process people use to derive value and meaning-the process of comparison within the context that we provide. UX designers can play a pivotal role in driving effective consumer decision making by architecting decision making contexts that enable people to easily derive meaning from numeric data. Remember, the ease with which people can derive meaning dictates the extent to which they will use data."
http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2011/06/the-impact-number-formats-have-on-judgment-and-decision-making.php 


+05: EVENTS.

e-Access 11
June 28, 2011.
London, United Kingdom
http://www.headstar.com/eaccess11/

MERLOT/Sloan-C Conference Emerging Technologies Conference
July 11- 13, 2011.
San Jose, California, U.S.A.
http://sloanconsortium.org/et4online

CSS Summit 2011
July 26-27, 2011.
Online Conference.
http://environmentsforhumans.com/2011/css-summit/


+06: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE.

Comparing User Research Methods for Information Architecture
By Jim Ross.
"...Nowadays, there are multiple techniques and tools, both online and offline, for generative and evaluative user research for information architecture (IA), which provide greater insights on organizing and labeling information..."
http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2011/06/comparing-user-research-methods-for-information-architecture.php


+07: JAVASCRIPT.

Why a JavaScript Hater Thinks Everyone Needs to Learn JavaScript in the Next Year
By Mike Loukides.
"...Recently, we've seen some extremely important game-changers: jQuery, JSON, Node.js, and HTML5. JavaScript may have been a perfectly adequate language in the past, but these changes (and a few others that I'll point out) have made JavaScript a language that is essential for every developer to know. If there's one language you need to learn in the next year, it's JavaScript..." 
http://radar.oreilly.com/2011/06/time-to-learn-javascript.html

Modern Debugging Tips and Tricks
By Tiffany B. Brown.
"Making sure that your site works as expected in different browsers and devices can challenge even the most savvy web worker. Join Tiffany B. Brown as she explains error throwing and handling, code injection, and mobile debugging using JavaScript."
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/modern-debugging-tips-and-tricks/

Ten Oddities And Secrets About JavaScript
By Andy Croxall.
"This article is aimed at intermediate developers who are curious about more advanced JavaScript. It is a collection of JavaScript's oddities and well-kept secrets. Some sections will hopefully give you insight into how these curiosities can be useful to your code, while other sections are pure WTF material. So, let's get started..."
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2011/05/30/10-oddities-and-secrets-about-javascript/


+08: MISCELLANEOUS.

Knowledge / Importance Matrix for Wiki Project Coordination
By Mike Myles and Karen Smith.
"...a K/I Matrix is a relatively simple tool that you can add to any development process's set of tracking tools to gain new insights and recognize opportunities you might otherwise overlook."
http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2011/06/knowledge-importance-matrix-for-wiki-project-coordination.php


+09: NAVIGATION.

Planning And Implementing Website Navigation
By Kayla Knight.
"...Designing navigation is an art in itself, and designers become better at it with experience. It's all about using good information architecture: 'the art of expressing a model or concept of information used in activities that require explicit details of complex systems.'..."
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2011/06/06/planning-and-implementing-website-navigation/


+10: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.

Schema.org and Pre-Existing Communities
By Henri Sivonen.
"I have been reading tweets and blog posts expressing various levels of disappointment and unhappiness about schema.org not using RDFa, not using Microformats or not having been developed in the open with the community. Since other people's perspectives differ from mine, I feel compelled to write down my take.."
http://hsivonen.iki.fi/schema-org-and-communities/

HTML5 Data- Attribute - Feed Content to Scripts
By Niels Matthijs.
"For most of you the new html5 data- attribute should be quite familiar by now. It was one of the first additions of html5 to become available right away. No problems with backwards compatibility, no browsers/browser versions being a pain in the ass, just clear and easy to use..."
http://www.onderhond.com/blog/work/html5-data-attribute-scripts-content-feeder


+11: TYPOGRAPHY.

Fonts, Typography, And How We Read Online
By Susan Weinschenk.
"I've been a fan of Kevin Larson's writing about fonts, typography and online reading for some time. I mention him in my latest book, 100 Things Every Designer Needs To Know About People. Kevin is a reading psychologist that works with typographers at Microsoft. He's part of a team at Microsoft with a goal to make reading online as easy and enjoyable as reading from paper. I recently interviewed Kevin for a podcast."
http://www.whatmakesthemclick.net/2011/06/03/first-podcast-kevin-larson-2/

Effective Use of Typography in Applications for Children
By Catalina Naranjo-Bock.
"...The key thing to appreciate about designing applications for children is that it offers the perfect chance for freedom of exploration in the use of digital typography, in combination with other visual and new media elements such as color, graphics, video, and animation. However, it is equally important to draw a distinction between this exploration and the user experience that we seek to provide. It is vital always to ensure, through user research and usability testing, that our visual design decisions support optimal usability and are in accordance with children's developmental stages."
http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2011/06/effective-use-of-typography-in-applications-for-children-3.php


+12: USABILITY.

Does (screen) Size Really Matter?
By Andy Budd.
"There's an interesting debate happening in the world of mobile design at the moment. In one camp we have the 'nativists' who believe that the best mobile experiences are tailored to a particular device. These are the people focused on creating platform specific mobile apps and mobile websites. Then we have the 'universalists' who believe in the 'one web', a place where all content and services can be delivered to multiple devices through the same URL..."
http://www.andybudd.com/archives/2011/06/does_screen_size_really_matter/

International Usability: Big Stuff the Same, Details Differ
By Jakob Nielsen.
"User testing on 3 continents confirmed that the main usability guidelines hold worldwide, but many other considerations exist to better support international users."
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/international-sites.html

A User-Centred Approach
By Gez Lemon.
"A sensible user-centred approach to inclusive web design is essential for a successful website and to build trust from your visitors/clients. Sandi's article outlines 10 basic principles that all web developers, designers and marketing people should consider essential reading. The 10 principles are summarised below..."
http://juicystudio.com/article/principles_inclusive_web_design.php


[Section one ends.]


++ SECTION TWO:

+13: 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.

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+ 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:
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+ 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.]