+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE.
- Volume 10, Issue 27, December 27, 2012.

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: EVENTS.
04: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE.
05: JAVASCRIPT.
06: MISCELLANEOUS.
07: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.
08: USABILITY.

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

[Contents ends.]


++ SECTION ONE: New references.

+01: ACCESSIBILITY.

Adapting Online Learning Resources For All: Planning for Professionalism in Accessibility
By Patrick McAndrew, Robert Farrow and Martyn Cooper.
"Online resources for education offer opportunities for those with disabilities but also raise challenges on how to best adjust resources to accommodate accessibility..."
http://www.researchinlearningtechnology.net/index.php/rlt/article/view/18699/html

Demystifying Accessibility
By Dara Skolnick.
"...My biggest overall takeaway from this experience was how inaccessible many sites are, and how frustrating it must be to a person with certain disabilities to regularly have poor web experiences. As developers, it's our job to keep this in mind when creating any site, whether it 'needs to be accessible' or not. You can bet that these lessons are being baked back into our work. Hopefully some of these will make it into your next projects as well..."
http://www.jetcooper.com/blog/demystifying-accessibility/

Improving Accessibility Can Close Digital Divide
By Rob Sinclair.
"In an increasingly interconnected world in which more and more services are being delivered online, it is imperative that people with disabilities are not left behind, writes Microsoft's chief accessibility officer.."
http://www.publicserviceeurope.com/article/2818/improving-accessibility-can-close-digital-divide

What's the Future of Web Accessibility?
By Whitney Quesenbery and  Sarah Horton. 
"What's will web accessibility be like in the future? This question has been knocking around in our heads for a while. We've always known we want to end the book with a look forward to the accessible web of the future..."
http://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/web-accessibility/blog/whats_the_future_of_web_access/

What Impact Will Facebook's New Accessibility Team Have?
By Sarah Pulis.
"It's hard not to want to cheer out aloud at the introduction of the new accessibility team at Facebook while muttering "finally" under your breath."
http://www.accessiq.org/news/commentary/2012/09/what-impact-will-facebooks-new-accessibility-team-have-0

Accessibility for iPhone and iPad Apps
By Matt Gemmell.
"Ensuring that your iPhone or iPad app is accessible (in this case, to visually impaired users) is the right thing to do, and thankfully it's very easy - in many cases, there's no work to do at all. This article for iOS developers describes how to implement accessibility support."
http://mattgemmell.com/2010/12/19/accessibility-for-iphone-and-ipad-apps/

PDF Documents and Accessibility Support
By Ramon Corominas.
"...most of its accessibility features are not 'accessibility supported'..."
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-wai-ig/2012OctDec/0270.html


+02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.

Selective Styling in CSS3
By Jason Cranford Teague.
"Selective styling is the closest that CSS gets to traditional computer programming, allowing you to style elements if they meet certain criteria. This level of styling can get increasingly complex, so Jason Cranford Teague uses this chapter to start out as simply as possible and build a firm foundation of understanding..."
http://www.peachpit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1997937

How To Add Realism With CSS Box Shadow And Text Shadow
By Steven Bradley.
"You can add visual interest and a sense of realism to a design is by adding depth and one of the popular ways you can add depth is by incorporating the impression of a light source through shadows..."
http://www.vanseodesign.com/css/shadows/

CSS Baseline -  The Good, The Bad And The Ugly
By Espen Brunborg.
"Vertical rhythm is clearly an important part of Web design, yet on the subject of baseline, our community seems divided and there is no consensus as to how it fits in - if at all - with our growing and evolving toolkit for designing online..."
http://coding.smashingmagazine.com/2012/12/17/css-baseline-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/

Dive Into Flexbox
By Greg Smith. 
"Flexbox is a new layout mode in CSS3 that is designed for the more sophisticated needs of the modern web. This article will describe the newly-stablized Flexbox syntax in technical detail. Browser support is going to grow quickly, so you'll be ahead of the game when support is wide enough for Flexbox to be practical. Read on if you want to know what it does and how it works!..."
http://weblog.bocoup.com/dive-into-flexbox/

CSS Media Queries: A Quick Guide
By Bruce Anderson.
"A quick introduction and guide to using CSS media queries in order to make your Web site easy to view at various screen sizes."
http://www.scripttheweb.com/css/mq.html


+03: EVENTS.

An Event Apart Boston
June 24-26, 2012.
Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A. 
http://aneventapart.com/event/boston-2013?/2013/boston/


+04: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE.

How to Visualize Your Site as a Treemap
By Todd Moy.
"Early into a content audit a few weeks ago, I wanted to visualize the website in conjunction with pageview data. I suspected that the site had a few isolated hotspots of activity and some large dormant areas, but I wanted more certainty. I also wanted a visceral sense of where the content lived and what was important..."
http://viget.com/inspire/how-to-visualize-your-site-as-a-treemap


+05: JAVASCRIPT.

Getting Touchy - An Introduction to Touch Events 
By Patrick Lauke.
Patrick's Web Standards Days presentation: "Beyond smartphones and tablets, touchscreens are finding their way into laptops and even desktop computers. With hardware support for touch becoming increasingly ubiquitous, it's time to explore what new possibilities are available to developers. This session will cover the basics of handling touch events - from making sure simple single-tap interactions are as responsive as possible, all the way to full multitouch, gesture-enabled, cross-browser interfaces."
http://events.yandex.ru/talks/367/

Is aria-hidden Supposed to Only Hide Content for Screen Readers/Assistive Technology, or Is It Supposed to Hide Content Altogether?
By WebAIM Thread.
"Think of aria-hidden as simply *indicating* that content is hidden
from all users. Aria-hidden should not be used for displaying content
visually, but hiding it from screen reader users. However, in
practice, it can function this way, though this wouldn't be a correct
usage of it..."
http://webaim.org/discussion/mail_thread?thread=5654

JavaScript Design Patterns 
By Joseph Zimmerman.
"This is the first article in a series about common design patterns used in JavaScript. Design patterns are proven ways of programming to help make your code more maintainable, scalable, and decoupled, all of which are necessary when creating large JavaScript applications, especially in large groups. In Part 2 of this series, you're introduced to another 3 design patterns: adapter, decorator, and factory. Part 3 discusses 3 more design patterns: proxy, observer, and command..."
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/html5/articles/javascript-design-patterns-pt1-singleton-composite-facade.html


+06: MISCELLANEOUS.

Take Time to Make Time
By Jeff Loiselle.
"... You have to take the time to make the time. Knowledge is power, and in the technology field, relevant knowledge is evolving at an extremely fast rate. If you don't take the time to keep your skills sharp, you will ultimately be left behind. Devote a small portion of your day for learning, and know that even a little is enough."
http://webadvent.org/2012/take-time-to-make-time-by-jeff-loiselle


+07: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.

Hot in Web Standards: November-December 2012
By Lea Verou.
"Lea Verou's final 2012 report on the latest developments at the W3C, including the FPWD of HTML 5.1, the addition of the <main> element, news on the rescheduled W3Conf and more..."
http://www.netmagazine.com/features/hot-web-standards-novemberdecember-2012


+08: USABILITY.

Content Planning Demystified
By Erin Kissane.
"It turns out that the only real way to avoid a trainwreck with editorial work is to get ahead of the trouble, line everything up carefully, and leave oodles of room for all the pieces to connect on time. The same is true of content strategy, content planning, and just about everything to do with content on the web, except for the writing itself - and that, too, usually takes far longer than anyone expects. If you're not a professional editor and you suddenly find yourself dealing with content creation, you're almost certainly going to underestimate the time and effort involved, or to skip something important in the planning process that pops up to bite you later."
http://24ways.org/2012/content-planning-demystified/

Older Adults Get More Tech Savvy
By Catherine Gaddy.
"While older adults may have started to embrace technology by sharing grandkid photos, as time goes on, increasingly diverse use of the Internet is likely to be seen across all age groups. We believe it is now time to retire the notion (no pun intended) that 'older adults are online only for social reasons,' and look at the diverse needs and interests for content and service delivery among all older adults."
http://www.humanfactors.com/downloads/dec12.asp#research


[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.

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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:
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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.]