+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE. - Volume 10, Issue 27, December 30, 2011. An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design and development. ++ISSUE 27 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: EVALUATION & TESTING. 04: EVENTS. 05: JAVASCRIPT. 06: MISCELLANEOUS. 07: NAVIGATION. 08: PHP. 09: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS. 10: USABILITY. SECTION TWO: 11: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site? [Contents ends.] ++ SECTION ONE: New references. +01: ACCESSIBILITY. A Resolution for an Accessible New Year? By Karen Mardahl. "This year, Glenda Sims made a wish for a more accessible web. It's not nice to spoil someone's good wish, but I don't think she'll get her wish for Christmas. Santa would definitely need many, many helpers like fairy godmothers, Mary Poppins, and, well, you get the idea. That's where you come in. I hope you know about the Fix the Web project. (If not, do hop over and read about it, and then come back here for one more tip.) There are more fantastic resources for reporting and grading the accessibility of websites..." http://www.stc-access.org/2011/12/28/a-resolution-for-an-accessible-new-year/ Reading Level By Dey Alexander. "One of the key skills web writers need is the ability to write clearly and plainly. Unfortunately a lot of web content is unnecessarily dense and complex, making it difficult to read. Oddly enough, this is often the case on large sites where providing information to users is the site's main purpose..." http://www.4syllables.com.au/2011/12/accessibility-web-writers-part-15/ Text-Only is Not Accessible By Karl Groves. "...For us to build a more accessible web, we should be careful to understand that Universal Design involves ensuring an environment is usable for all users not just those who are blind or who use a specific user agent or device. Lynx can be a good tool for providing quick (and free!) accessibility feedback on your site but it should not be regarded as the ultimate criteria for determining whether your website is accessible. Most tools, be they toolbars, alternate browsers, automated tools, or checklists are useful in testing for accessibility. The ultimate deciding factor however, is whether real people can use the system." http://www.karlgroves.com/2011/12/28/text-only-is-not-accessible/ US Access Board Releases Another Sec. 508/ICT Proposed Rule: Public Hearings Upcoming By Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology. "On December 8, 2011, the U.S. Access Board released a new draft of the Sec 508 "refresh"/ICT rule for Public Comment. The draft rule jointly refreshes the Board's Section 508 standards and its Section 255 guidelines which address access to computer hardware and software, websites, media players, electronic documents, telephones and cell phones, PDAs and other ICT products. Comments are due by Wednesday March 7, 2012..." http://www.coataccess.org/node/10084 Web Accessibility Myths 2011 By Jonathan Hassell. "It's the time of year when web accessibility advocates tend to produce accessibility myths blogs..." http://www.hassellinclusion.com/2011/12/accessibility-myths-2011/ HTML Speech Incubator Group Final Report By W3C. "This document is the Final Report of the HTML Speech Incubator Group. It presents the deliverables of the group, including use cases, requirements, design decisions, and preliminary proposals for html elements, a JavaScript API, and a protocol for implementing both. It is expected that this work will feed directly into new standards-track working groups in W3C and the IETF to bring this work to completion..." http://www.w3.org/2005/Incubator/htmlspeech/XGR-htmlspeech-20111206/ +02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. Position: Fixed Revisited By Peter Paul Koch. "Now that iOS, Android, and BlackBerry all have a new implementation of position: fixed let's see what changed since the last time we looked..." http://www.quirksmode.org/blog/archives/2011/12/position_fixed.html +03: EVALUATION & TESTING. Usability Testing Includes Users as Stakeholders By Mary Brodie. "...The determination of the right number of users to test is based less on a "golden number," and more on the goals for testing, what is being tested, and if you want to consider your users as stakeholders..." http://uxmag.com/articles/usability-testing-includes-users-as-stakeholders +04: EVENTS. The Usability Week 2012 Conference February 26 - March 2, 2012 in New York, U.S.A. March 11-16, 2012 in Las Vegas Nevada, U.S.A. March 19-23, 2012 in Edinburgh, Scotland. April 2-7, 2012 in San Francisco, California, U.S.A. April 23-27, 2012 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. http://www.nngroup.com/events/ +05: JAVASCRIPT. Response JS: Mobile-First Progressive Enhancement in HTML5 By Jonathan Christopher. "This is a very interesting project. Responsive design will continue to be a steady topic of conversation in 2012 and tools like this help propel us to talking about it applicably..." http://mondaybynoon.com/20111227/response-js-mobile-first-progressive-enhancement-in-html5/ JavaScript as a First Language By John Resig. "At Khan Academy we've been investigating teaching Computer Science to students in some new and interesting ways. The most interesting aspect of which is that we're likely going to be teaching them JavaScript as their first language..." http://ejohn.org/blog/javascript-as-a-first-language/ JavaScript Character Escapes By Mathias Bynens. "Having recently written about character references in HTML, I figured it would be interesting to look into JavaScript character escapes as well..." http://mathiasbynens.be/notes/javascript-escapes +06: MISCELLANEOUS. State of the Web: of Apps, Devices, and Breakpoints By Jeffery Zeldman. "...responsive design is not dead; it has only begun. It is not a panacea but was never intended to be. It is simply the beginnings of an approach. I respect those colleagues who say breakpoints are dead, understand how they reached this conclusion, and am eager to see where it takes them in the coming months as they experiment with new methods, perhaps developing wonderful and unforeseen best practices. I hope design will be a brilliant part of these new methods, not something that gets abandoned to create a bland but workable lightweight experience for all. But I also believe it is possible to draw a different conclusion from the same data. It is even possible, I believe, to say the present data doesn't matter-at least not in the long run..." http://www.zeldman.com/2011/12/29/state-of-the-web-of-apps-devices-and-breakpoints/ Should Your Blog Use Responsive Web Design? By Virginia DeBolt. "Two trends converged during 2011. One from the world of Internet connected devices and the other from web site design world. Statistics show that more people are connected to the Internet through some sort of mobile device than through a desktop or laptop computer. Web designers are scrambling to make sure that web pages are going to work on all those devices - phones, tablets, and computers..." http://www.webteacher.ws/2011/12/27/should-your-blog-use-responsive-web-design/ +07: NAVIGATION. Using the HTML5 Nav Element By Leonie Watson. "HTML5 introduces the nav element for marking up sections of a page that contain navigational links. Used wisely the nav element is a big help to screen reader users, as well as a step forward in semantic meaning..." http://tink.co.uk/2011/12/using-the-html5-nav-element/ +08: PHP. Code for the Users, Not for the Spec By Drew McLellan. "...We have a policy of having no frequently asked questions. If users are asking about something with regularity, then it means we're either not explaining things clearly, or the product can be improved..." http://phpadvent.org/2011/code-for-the-users-not-for-the-spec-by-drew-mclellan String Handling Functions By James Appleyard. "PHP has a vast selection of built-in string handling functions that allow you to easily manipulate strings in almost any possible way. However, learning all these functions, remembering what they do, and when they might come in handy can be a bit daunting, especially for new developers. There is no way I can cover every string function in one article, and besides, that is what the PHP manual is for! But what I will do is show how to work with some of the most commonly used string handling functions that you should know. After this, you'll be working with strings as well as any concert violinist!..." http://phpmaster.com/string-handling-functions/ Keep the Front in the Front By Rachel Andrew. "...By handing control of the front-end development to front-end developers, you allow them to do their job to the best of their ability, unhampered by things appearing in their markup that they were not expecting. You also shift responsibility for that area of the site to them. If you generate reams of markup via PHP, then any time it needs to be changed, or if there is a problem with validation or any CSS issues, the request will come back to you." http://phpadvent.org/2011/keep-the-front-in-the-front-by-rachel-andrew +09: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS. Confusion Over HTML5 and WAI-ARIA By Karl Groves. "...Two Important Points to Understand...The HTML specification is the shortest path to true accessibility...WAI-ARIA doesn't do anything to the DOM..." http://www.karlgroves.com/2011/12/24/confusion-over-html5-wai-aria/ Are You Confused by HTML5 and WAI-ARIA Yet? By Everett Zufelt. "This article seeks to answer common questions about the use of WAI-ARIA in HTML5..." http://zufelt.ca/blog/are-you-confused-html5-and-wai-aria-yet "Living Standards" By Charles McCathieNevile. "So here beginneth the thread, and I'll explain in a reply some things I think are better about the living standards model (obviously, the current model is far from perfect, and I think there is a bunch of good thinking behind 'living standards' even if I think the conclusion is wrong) and some things I think are important about the stable version world. Maybe we end up with something everyone thinks are improvements which doesn't mean the discussion is over, but that we can propose them to W3C in the meantime, and if they really have broad consensus we can at least make things better before we get to where we want to be..." http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-w3process/2011Dec/0002.html +10: USABILITY. There's No Formula for Great Designs By Andy Clarke "Before he combined them with fluid images and CSS3 media queries to coin responsive design, Ethan Marcotte described fluid grids - one of the most enjoyable parts of responsive design. Enjoyable that is, if you like working with math(s). But fluid grids aren't perfect and, unless we're careful when applying them, they can sometimes result in a design that feels disconnected..." http://24ways.org/2011/theres-no-formula-for-great-designs The Myth Of The Sophisticated User By Robert Hoekman Jr. "...It doesn't matter how savvy your users are, better design benefits everyone. Having a proficient audience is no excuse to slack off. You're still designing for human beings, and human beings, one and all, have better things to do than try to make sense of a weak design..." http://uxdesign.smashingmagazine.com/2011/12/28/myth-of-sophisticated-user/ [Section one ends.] ++ SECTION TWO: +11: 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.]