+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE. - Volume 12, Issue 07, August 07, 2013. An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design and development. ++ISSUE 07 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: DRUPAL. 04: EVALUATION & TESTING. 05: HTML5. 06: JAVASCRIPT. 07: MISCELLANEOUS. 08: NAVIGATION. 09: PHP. 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. Making Websites Accessible Without Sacrificing Aesthetics By Simon Norris. "Fifteen years after the Web Accessibility Initiative was launched, which aimed to improve web usability for those with disabilities, online accessibility is still widely ignored. Far too often there is a belief that a compromise must be made between accessibility and an attractive design. As a result, a myriad of misconceptions have emerged, often preventing people from making a determined effort to integrate accessibility into their websites..." http://www.nomensa.com/blog/2013/making-websites-accessible-without-sacrificing-aesthetics/ Focus Control and Mobile Accessibility By Ted Drake. "This post follows a presentation I gave at the Mobile+Web Conference in Boston, July 2013. This deals specifically with the impact of providing focusability in mobile applications, whether iOS, Android, or web applications. Each platform provides unique methods and requirements..." http://www.last-child.com/focus-mobile-accessibility/ Preserving Correct Reading Order (video) By Gosia Mlynarczyk. "This video explains how inserting dynamic content can affect logical reading and focus order." http://www.nomensa.com/blog/2013/preserving-correct-reading-order/ Improving the Accessibility of Social Media in Government By howto.gov. "Social media is transforming how government engages with citizens, allowing agencies to share information and deliver services more quickly and effectively than ever before. As social content, data, and platforms become more diverse, agencies have a responsibility to ensure these digital services are accessible to all citizens, including people with disabilities..." http://www.howto.gov/social-media/using-social-media-in-government/improving-accessibility Proposed Outcomes For NFB Versus H&R Block By Chris Hofstader. "In April, the National Federation of the Blind filed a lawsuit against H & R Block, the AMerican tax preparation giant over their failure to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. NFB asserts that Block, by having a CAPTCHA with no audio alternative prohibits blind people from using their web site, hence, is out of compliance with the ADA." http://chrishofstader.com/proposed-outcomes-for-nfb-versus-hr-block/ Does Web Accessibility Really "place ruinous obligations on websites"? - Analysis of Internet Association Brief By Hassell Inclusion. "...assuming the articles are correct in reporting what the brief says, what are we to make of this extraordinary statement?..." http://www.hassellinclusion.com/2013/08/web-accessibility-ruinous-obligation/ The Story Behind the BBC Mobile Accessibility Guidelines By Henny Swan. "The BBC has now published a set of draft Mobile Accessibility Standards and Guidelines to the wider web development community, a ground-breaking project which has been in development for a year now [see also - news, earlier in this issue of E-Access Bulletin]. While written primarily for BBC employees and suppliers to use, the corporation's hope is that they might be useful for any individual or organisation building mobile web content and native apps..." http://www.headstar.com/eablive/?p=907 Selling Accessibility - Framing the Message By Karl Groves. "Yesterday I was doing some cleaning of my computer's files and came across the slide deck for Selling Accessibility (which you can see under Presentations). It also reminded me of two things littering my desk for a while which I 'borrowed' from my room at the Marriott in San Diego during last year's CSUN Conference: The shower tag and towel tag..." http://www.karlgroves.com/2013/08/02/selling-accessibility-framing-the-message/ +02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. Responsive Retrofitting By Ben Callahan. "Responsive retrofitting, at it's core, is about compromise for this reality. It's about finding a way to use responsive techniques on legacy sites to create a better experience for more users. While most of us probably agree that the web is never really done, we often choose 'File > New' over a steady evolution of our sites. The truth is, we don't always get to start over. This article is about putting our users first, taking small steps toward a more universal experience and understanding when doing so is the right approach..." http://webstandardssherpa.com/reviews/responsive-retrofitting Spacing The Bottom of Modules By Chris Coyier. "Ah the humble module! A good many designs these days make use of modules in the content-y and app-y sites alike. A chunk of information, an advertisement, a grouped set of functionality... could be anything. The fact that they likely have visual similarity yet can contain anything leads to an interesting CSS challenge: how do you pad the inside consistently?..." http://css-tricks.com/spacing-the-bottom-of-modules/ +03: DRUPAL. Your Guide To Extending RSS Feeds in Drupal By Robert Bates. "...what do you do if you need finer-grained control over your feed generation, and possibly even custom extensions that comply with the RSS standard?..." http://www.phase2technology.com/blog/your-guide-to-extending-rss-feeds-in-drupal/ CMSs are Dead, Long Live CMSs By Darren Mothersele. "A few people have asked me what happened to my site: is it still Drupal? Where did the comments go? The short answer is I've joined cool crowd and started experimenting with static site generators, but I'm going to give you the long answer. It's a multi-faceted issue, and an excuse to finally blog about the end of the CMS era. And, no, I'm not leaving Drupal. I still very much believe that Drupal is the best tool for a lot of projects. I just don't want to manage my own site that way..." http://www.darrenmothersele.com/blog/2013/08/02/cms-is-dead-long-live-cms/ Why do Organizations Hate Their Content Management System? By Gerry McGovern. "There seems to be a major disconnect between those who purchase a content management system (CMS) and those who actually have to use it." http://gerrymcgovern.com/new-thinking/why-do-organizations-hate-their-content-management-system +04: EVALUATION & TESTING. Just Follow the Script - Working With Pro and Proto-Pro Co-Researchers By Dana Chisnell. "She wrote to me to ask if she could give me some feedback about the protocol for a usability test. 'Absolutely,' I emailed back, 'I'd love that'..." http://usabilitytesting.wordpress.com/2013/08/01/just-follow-the-script-working-with-pro-and-proto-pro-co-researchers/ How to Test Responsive Designs By Steve Ralston. "Stop resizing that browser, you're gonna wear it out!' How many times have you heard that one? Well okay, maybe not so many times, but if you develop responsive design web sites, you know what I'm talking about: with every DOM or CSS edit you're dragging that browser edge back and forth, testing your changes and looking for anything broken..." http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2013/07/how-to-test-responsive-designs-for-free/ 7 Signs You Have a Problem Persona By W Craig Tomlin. "If you create user experiences or marketing programs and use personas, then be on the lookout for the seven signs you may have a problem persona..." http://www.usefulusability.com/7-signs-you-have-a-problem-persona/ +05: HTML5. The HTML5 form Attribute By Craig Buckler. "HTML4 and XHTML insisted that all form elements Ñ including the submit button Ñ were contained within a single
É
block. While this is rarely an issue, it can lead to design challenges and I certainly recall struggling with early versions of ASP.NET which enforced a single form on every page. In general, if you required an input field outside the form, you'd need to JavaScript to import it's value when the form was submitted...nterestingly, the form attribute allows you to place a field in one form which is submitted in another. Alternatively, you could change form attributes in JavaScript rather than importing values, e.g..." http://www.sitepoint.com/the-html5-form-attribute/ +06: JAVASCRIPT. How I Came to Grudgingly Accept Aria-Hidden By Marco Zehe. "...I still think that aria-hidden is a rather dangerous attribute, I count on the educational skills of the accessibility community at large to make sure the situation doesn't get really bad! And I will do my part to help with that effort." http://www.marcozehe.de/2013/08/02/how-i-came-to-grudgingly-accept-aria-hidden/ BPOW: ESC key to Close Modals and Menus By Jeff Smith. "Using the Esc key to close toggle-able widgets such as modals and pop-over menus is becoming so prevalent in user interfaces that it's usually expected by users. The concept is so simple that there's no reason not to add it into your websites and web applications..." http://simplyaccessible.com/bpow/closing-modals/ +07: MISCELLANEOUS. Balancing Act - Features, Budgets and Timelines By Adrian Roselli. "So much of web development is really just a snapshot in time. Within weeks, days or even hours, the landscape will change. A new browser will be released, a new technique will appear, and so on. As web developers, we often want to tweak; to implement the latest techniques and deliver a 'perfect' site. The reality is, though, budgets and timelines dictate what we can do..." http://webstandardssherpa.com/reviews/balancing-act-features-budgets-timelines +08: NAVIGATION. How Much Navigation Can Responsive Patterns Hold? By Steven Bradley. "How many levels of navigation and how many links to include at each level is something I consider with every design, but I've been thinking about it more than usual the last couple of weeks..." http://www.vanseodesign.com/web-design/how-much-responsive-navigation/ +09: PHP. Rasmus Lerdorf at PHP London By Marijus Kilmanas. "July's PHP London had a particularly notable speaker - Rasmus Lerdorf himself presenting what's new in PHP. So many people wanted to attend that, with limited venue capacity, a live (and recorded) video stream was used for the first time. You can skip straight to seeing the slides and video of the session if you like, or keep reading for my impressions of the evening..." http://techportal.inviqa.com/2013/08/02/rasmus-lerdorf-at-php-london/ +10: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS. Crippling the Web By Tim Kadlec. "...This is what excites me about the web and it's why web technology tends to be my focus. That ubiquity, that ability to get your information to anyone with a device connected to the web, is incredibly inspiring. This is why I tend to get so frustrated when we do things that eliminate that superpower..." http://timkadlec.com/2013/07/crippling-the-web/ +11: TYPOGRAPHY. Text Resizing - Why Page Zoom is Not Good Enough - or is It? By Detlev Fischer. What do you need to do to ensure that users can resize the text on your web page? A quick look at WCAG's "How to meet 1.4.4 (Resize Text)" suggests that relying on browsers' page zoom is sufficient. So far, failure F69 has given us reason also to require text-only resizing to work. Now WCAG WG has announced an overhaul of F69..." http://www.bitvtest.eu/articles/article/lesen/zoom-and-text-resizing.html Why Browser Zoom Testing Sucks for Accessibility By Denis Boudreau. This post was motivated by a discussion that took place while the EasyChecks document was being developed over at the Education and Outreach Working Group. During that time, colleagues and myself were also reviewing our manual testing methodology and found we were not in agreement as to how to interpret some of the WCAG 2.0 Success Criteria, including SC 1.4.4 - Resize Text. Right. Like disagreeing on WCAG 2.0 interpretations never happens in our field. http://www.denisboudreau.org/blog/2013/07/why-browser-zoom-testing-sucks-for-accessibility/ Browser Zoom Great for Accessibility By Alastair Campbell. "This post was motivated by Denis Boudreau's Why Browser Zoom Testing Sucks for Accessibility, even though I disagree with the method, it makes some good and important points and it will help set the context for this post..." http://alastairc.ac/2013/08/browser-zoom-great-for-accessibility/ +12: USABILITY. 5 Design Mistakes That Interfere With Your Online Usability By Sabina Idler. "Good usability - what does that even mean? The term has been around for quite a while now; long enough anyways to have gained some serious popularity. In a previous article we even argued that 'usability has become a commodity and is no longer a distinctive feature'. That is because people have long gotten used to certain design standards..." http://blog.usabilla.com/5-design-mistakes-that-interfere-with-your-online-usability/ Tablet Usability By Jakob Nielsen. "Flat design and improperly rescaled design are the main threats to tablet usability, followed by poor gestures and workflow." http://www.nngroup.com/articles/tablet-usability/ [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. 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.]