+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE. - Volume 10, Issue 23, November 29, 2012. An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design and development. ++ISSUE 23 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: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS. 08: TYPOGRAPHY. 09: USABILITY. SECTION TWO: 10: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site? [Contents ends.] ++ SECTION ONE: New references. +01: ACCESSIBILITY. How Accessible are Google Apps? By Meris Stansbury. "Accessible technology experts cite many problems with Google Apps, though they say improvements are occurring..." http://www.ecampusnews.com/technologies/how-accessible-are-google-apps/ Google Has Not Met Accessibility Standards By Giacomo Bologna. "Laura Patterson, the University's chief information officer, made appearances at both Central Student Government and Rackham Student Government meetings last week to address concerns with the University's transition to Google services, which have been criticized for a lack of accessibility for disabled students..." https://www.michigandaily.com/news/u-cio-google-has-not-met-accessibility-standards Accessible Apps 'More Usable by Everyone' By Dan Jellinek. "Mobile apps that are designed to be accessible to people with disabilities are more usable by everyone, the London meeting of a group for usability professionals has heard..." http://www.headstar.com/egblive/?p=1254 Accessibility in HTML5 By Clarissa Peterson. "This is a summary of my session on HTML5 accessibility at Accessibility Camp Toronto (I didn't use slides for my talk, so you're getting this instead)..." http://www.clarissapeterson.com/2012/11/html5-accessibility/ Recent Legal Issues in Higher Education and Web Accessibility By Cyndi Rowland. "... have found that if you are not following this aspect of web accessibility it is easy to lose sight of the momentum that is building rapidly. With that in mind, I thought it might be helpful to briefly review what has been happening in the recent past. What I share below are thumbnail sketches of legal complaints and resolutions that affect web accessibility in higher education since 2009. If I have missed anything and you have other complaints or resolutions to share, please add your comments below. I am hopeful that this can be useful to those trying to find this content in one place..." http://ncdae.org/blog/recent-legal-issues/ Web Accessibility Law in Higher Education By Jonathan Whiting. "I am often asked by people if their institution has a legal obligation to provide web content that is accessible to individuals with disabilities. The short answer to this question is yes, but sometimes there is confusion regarding which laws apply to a specific institution. This post provides a quick glance at the three most significant laws regarding web accessibility in higher education-Section 508, The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and Section 504..." http://ncdae.org/blog/web-accessibility-law/ Legal Costs Can be Big to Defend Inaccessible Web Content in Postsecondary Education By Linda Goetze. "The cost that may result from legal action is a strong incentive for institutions of higher education to improve their efforts to make web content accessible for those who benefit from it. This article outlines some of the costs incurred when litigation is the last resort..." http://ncdae.org/resources/articles/legalcosts.php +02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. Responsive Column Layouts By Nick La. "Typically, to create a column layout, you would need to add the first or last classes to reset the margin space and clear the float. Today I'm going to share a very simple CSS trick to create a responsive column layout using nth-of-type pseudo class..." http://webdesignerwall.com/tutorials/responsive-column-layouts In Defense of Descendant Selectors and ID Elements By Jeffery Zeldman. "...I find occasional stinkers. Take the notion, now concretizing into dogma, that id should almost never be used because it has 'too much specificity,' and that class names are always preferable. Respectfully, I call bunk..." http://www.zeldman.com/2012/11/21/in-defense-of-descendant-selectors-and-id-elements/ Native CSS Feature Detection Via the @supports Rule By Chris Mills. "We have practised feature detection to allow us to provide appropriate code to browsers with differing levels of standards support for a while now, but we've always needed 3rd party libraries to handle it. But not for much longer: The CSS3 Conditional Rules Module Level 3 provides the @supports at-rule and associated JavaScript API, providing a native mechanism for doing CSS feature detection. In this article we'll give you the lowdown on how this rule works, looking at a real example in the process..." http://dev.opera.com/articles/view/native-css-feature-detection-via-the-supports-rule/ Why Use @supports Instead of Modernizr? By Bruce Lawson. "...The reason to use @supports over Modernizr is performance; functionality that's built into the browser will always be faster than adding it in script. Removing an external dependancy saves an HTTP request to download Modernizr and doesn't require time to execute the JavaScript..." http://my.opera.com/ODIN/blog/why-use-supports-instead-of-modernizr Native CSS Feature Detection With @supports By Craig Buckler. "Consider the following CSS snippet..." http://www.sitepoint.com/supports-native-css-feature-detection/ 03: EVALUATION & TESTING. 10 Things to Know About Unmoderated Usability Testing By Jeff Sauro. "...Here are 10 things to know about this essential usability testing method that's reducing the cost and improving the frequency of usability testing..." http://www.measuringusability.com/blog/unmoderated-things.php +04: EVENTS. MinneWebCon April 15-16, 2013. Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.A. http://www.minnewebcon.umn.edu/ UX Immersion Conference 2013 April 22-24, 2013. Seattle, Washington, U.S.A. http://www.uie.com/events/ux_immersion/2013/ Learn. Act. Innovate. April 24, 2013. Newcastle upon Tyne, England, United Kingdom http://industryconf.com/ +05: JAVASCRIPT. A Few New Things Coming To JavaScript By Addy Osmani. "In this post, I will review some of the features I'm personally looking forward to landing and being used in 2013 and beyond..." http://addyosmani.com/blog/a-few-new-things-coming-to-javascript/ How To Define Required Inputs With ARIA And HTML5 By Ted Drake. "It's important to let users know when a form input is required. Most developers do this via visual tricks; such as placing an asterisk near the input, using color, or other background images. While this helps the sighted viewers, we need to define the labels clearly for screen reader users..." http://developer.yahoo.com/blogs/ydn/posts/2012/11/how-to-define-required-inputs-with-aria-and-html5/ +06: MISCELLANEOUS. What You'd Need to Replace the Web By Ian Hickson. "Occasionally, people e-mail me to say something along the lines of 'I've come up with something to replace HTML!'. So far I haven't seen anyone come close. I hope that one day, someone will actually come up with something that really will replace what the Web is today..." https://plus.google.com/107429617152575897589/posts/SiLdNL9MsFw +07: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS. New Main Element Approved, then Blocked By Adrian Roselli. "When I saw main proposed as an element a few months ago (or content or maincontent as alternate names), I didn't think the process to fold it into the HTML specification would move very quickly..." http://blog.adrianroselli.com/2012/11/new-main-element-approved-then-blocked.html The Use Cases for a
Element in HTML By Silvia Pfeiffer. "The W3C HTML WG and the WHATWG are currently discussing the introduction of a
element into HTML..." http://blog.gingertech.net/2012/11/28/the-use-cases-for-a-main-element-in-html/ +08: TYPOGRAPHY. Text Contrasts By Openweb. "Text contrasts are a key point for website accessibility. They ensure maximum readability for people with permanent vision impairments (vision impairment, etc.), temporary impairment (fatigue, poor screen quality, etc.)É and all other people..." http://openweb.eu.org/articles/text-contrasts Effects of Typography on Reader Mood and Productivity By Dmitry Fadeyev. "...The lesson here is twofold. First, good typography has a clear impact on the mood of the reader. People who are reading a well typeset page are more engaged in the experience and find that time flies by faster. Second, research has shown that positive mood improves creative problem solving1, and since typography can be used to influence mood, it is possible that good typography also has direct effect on our productivity, at least in the sphere of certain creative tasks. Good typographic design then is not just a way to communicate the character of your text and strengthen reader engagement, it could boost their cognitive performance, too." http://www.usabilitypost.com/2012/11/23/effects-of-typography-on-reader-mood-and-productivity/ +09: USABILITY. Blurring of the Lines By Dmitry Fadeyev. "...It doesn't make any sense to port a user interface optimized for mobile touch devices to the desktop, and neither does it make sense to give tablet users the desktop interface. Each was custom built for its own environment, and each is optimized to be operated by different methods. In their compromise, what Microsoft are doing now is giving a tablet to people who want to buy a PC, and giving a PC to people who want to buy a tablet. Since there is no hybrid device that works great for everything, there is no point in compromising the experience by designing a hybrid UI." http://www.usabilitypost.com/2012/11/21/blurring-of-the-lines/ There is No Such Thing as the Internet or Web Anymore By Gerry McGovern. "The Internet has become so pervasive that people don't think they are on it anymore, even when they are.' http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/new-thinking/there-no-such-thing-internet-or-web-anymore [Section one ends.] ++ SECTION TWO: +10: 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.]