+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE. - Volume 12, Issue 21, November 14, 2013. An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design and development. ++ISSUE 21 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: HTML5. 07: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE. 08: JAVASCRIPT. 09: MISCELLANEOUS. 10: NAVIGATION. 11: USABILITY. SECTION TWO: 12: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site? [Contents ends.] ++ SECTION ONE: New references. +01: ACCESSIBILITY. Accessible Google Maps By Dylan Barrell. "...First things first, Google has really made absolutely no attempt to make Google maps accessible at all and the fact that I can take a weekend, without access to their code and make it basically fully keyboard and screen reader accessible (at least for the basic functionality) speaks to how irrelevant accessibility seems to be to them. Shame on you Googlers..." http://unobfuscated.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/accessible-google-maps.html?m=1 Accessible Form Labeling Basics By Dylan Barrell. "The most basic and important aspect of making forms accessible is to ensure that the form fields have perceivable labels and that all instructions and error messages are programmatically associated with the form field..." http://unobfuscated.blogspot.com/2013/10/accessible-form-labeling-basics.html?m=1 Accessible Form Layout By Dylan Barrell. "Most people think of blind users when thinking about accessibility, however there are other disabilities that are impacted by bad form design, following some simple layout principles can address the major issues faced by these disability groups..." http://unobfuscated.blogspot.com/2013/10/accessible-form-layout.html?m=1 Web Accessibility Fundamentals - Exclusive Presentation [VIDEO] By Jared Smith via Deque. "...we are please to bring you video and slides from Jared Smith's talk 'Web Accessibility Fundamentals'. Jared Smith is the Associate Director of WebAIM (Web Accessibility in Mind and is a highly regarded speaker about web accessibility issues." http://www.deque.com/web-accessibility-fundamentals-exclusive-presentation-video 5 Top Tools for Web Accessibility By Jared Smith. "Even though web accessibility can be a complex thing, there are some basic tools you can use to help ensure your web content is usable by people with disabilities..." http://cehsatusu.blogspot.com/2013/11/guest-blog-5-top-tools-for-web.html Podcast 98 - AHG13 By Dennis Lembree. "The 16th Annual Accessing Higher Ground Accessible Media, Web and Technology Conference (hash tag #AHG13) was held recently in Westminster, Colorado at a very nice venue, the Westin Westminster..." http://www.webaxe.org/podcast-98-ahg13/ Accessibility In Practice - Can Design Thinking Help? By Sarah Horton. "...One of the design thinking concepts we are working with is the idea of prototyping and iterating. Rather than reworking policies, position responsibilities, training efforts, development methods, and accountability to support accessibility in practice across the board, throughout an organization, we propose to create a model for one project or project team, execute the model, and evaluate and refine the model until it works. Then we would look to applying the working model across the larger organization..." http://blog.paciellogroup.com/2013/11/accessibility-practice-can-design-thinking-help/ Uncle Sam Orders Airlines Make Websites Accessible To Disabled Passengers By Roberto Castiglioni. "All airlines operating flights to, from, and within the United States will have to make their websites accessible within two years, a new DOT rule states." http://www.reducedmobility.eu/20131108395/The-News/uncle-sam-orders-airlines-make-websites-accessible-to-disabled-passengers.html +02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. Multi-Line Padded Text By Chris Coyier. "This is one of those tricky CSS things that I see come up every few months. I guess what better place to address it than CSS-Tricks eh?" http://css-tricks.com/multi-line-padded-text/ +03: DREAMWEAVER. HTML5 Video in Dreamweaver CC By Virginia DeBolt. "...There's now an HTML5 Video command in the Insert menu. Once you have a placeholder for the video element on the document page, the Properties Panel gives you all the options you need to manage your video in Document View..." http://www.webteacher.ws/2013/11/11/html5-video-dreamweaver/ +04: EVALUATION & TESTING. User Stories Don't Help Users - Introducing Persona Stories By William Hudson. "User stories are one of the most popular alternatives to traditional user requirement specifications. But despite their promising name, user stories are not about - and don't necessarily help - users at all. In most cases, user stories are written about roles that users adopt and take no account of the needs and behaviors of real users. Were that not indictment enough, user stories suffer from demonstrable flaws in structure and are often written by the wrong people at the wrong time. Here, I examine the background of user stories in their current form, highlight their failings, and propose a more appropriate alternative for the development of interactive systems: persona stories." http://interactions.acm.org/archive/view/november-december-2013/user-stories-dont-help-users-Introducing-persona-stories +05: EVENTS. The National Association of Government Webmasters Conference September 9-12, 2014. St. Paul, Minnesota, U.S.A. http://nagw.org/news/2013/11/12/nagw-2014-national-conference +06: HTML5. Responsive Images - End of Year Report By Bruce Lawson. "It's nearly two years since I suggested a element as a strawman proposal as a way to solve the problem of responsive images, so let's have a look at how we're doing..." http://html5doctor.com/responsive-images-end-of-year-report/ +07: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE. Flat vs. Deep Website Hierarchies By Kathryn Whitenton. "Information can be organized in either flat or deep hierarchies; both have their advantages and pitfalls." http://www.nngroup.com/articles/flat-vs-deep-hierarchy/ +08: JAVASCRIPT. Accessible JavaScript Gestures By Dylan Barrell. One of the problems with creating accessible dynamic HTML applications that work well across multiple browser and AT platforms is the issue of keyboard accessibility on a touch device. The major mobile operating systems like iOS and Android all allow a keyboard to be attached (via Bluetooth or otherwise) and used in conjunction with the other assistive features. In fact on iOS, the keyboard is only really usable as the major input device when you have VoiceOver turned on. http://unobfuscated.blogspot.com/2013/11/accessible-javascript-gestures.html?m=1 An Introduction To DOM Events By Wilson Page. "..As developers, we should understand how DOM events work, so that we can harness their potential and build engaging experiences..." http://coding.smashingmagazine.com/2013/11/12/an-introduction-to-dom-events/ Immediately Invoked Constructors and Object Literals By Axel Rauschmayer. "By now, you are probably familiar with immediately invoked function expressions (IIFEs, [1]). This blog post looks at immediately invoked constructors and immediately invoked object literals." http://www.2ality.com/2013/11/immediately-invoked.html +09: MISCELLANEOUS. Standings.md (Responsive Images) By Mat Marquis. "Wondering what the current standings are for the Responsive Images Community Groups efforts? Look no further." https://gist.github.com/Wilto/7453901 screen.width is Useless By Peter-Paul Koch. "Yesterday I tested screen.width/height and related properties in the mobile browsers. The conclusion is that screen.width/height is completely unreliable." http://www.quirksmode.org/blog/archives/2013/11/screenwidth_is.html +10: NAVIGATION. Emulating Google - Is It Always the Right Choice for Navigation? By Jeffrey Easton. "...As designers we need to fight the impulse to use search as a primary navigation style whenever we are confronted with a site or application that our users are struggling to navigate...Search is generally not the right answer for sites and applications. In fact, a user asking where they can search is usually a solid sign that the structural design is awful. It is an indicator of failure. It is rarely an effective model... the core of the problem with search is recognition vs. recall. Your user should be able to pick the item they need from your navigation, and then proceed quickly through a minimal number of selections with increasing scent of their desired functionality..." http://www.humanfactors.com/downloads/Nov13.asp +11: USABILITY. Why You Should Not Use Image Carousels on Your Website By Christian Watson. "A web design element that I have commonly used is the image carousel or image slider. However, I recently caught up with some articles that highlight usability issues with them. This has caused me to question my fondness for them as a way to present hero content above the fold when space is limited..." http://www.smileycat.com/miaow/archives/006605.php Design for Fingers and Thumbs Instead of Touch By Steven Hoober. "...Edges are...more difficult to hit accurately, take more time to hit accurately, and cause users to have reduced confidence in their ability to hit them accurately..." http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2013/11/design-for-fingers-and-thumbs-instead-of-touch.php Putting People's Needs First By Gerry McGovern. "...By giving people what they needed, the organization got more of what it needed..." http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/new-thinking/putting-people%E2%80%99s-needs-first 10 Facts About the Brain that will Help You Design Better Websites By Joe Leech. "Psychology provides a framework for understanding how your users think. This post explains how to use that knowledge to improve your websites." http://www.creativebloq.com/web-design/psychology-tips-ux-11135216 Performance is the New SEO By Niels Matthijs. "Being a front-ender is more than just flashing some fancy html5, css3 and javascript magic in people's faces. A small but important part of our job is to steer a project in such a direction that the resulting front-end code stays maintainable and up to par, quality-wise..." http://www.onderhond.com/blog/performance-new-seo Halo Effect By Jen Cardello and Jakob Nielsen. "The Halo Effect is when one trait of a person or thing is used to make an overall judgment of that person or thing. It supports rapid decisions, even if biased ones." http://www.nngroup.com/articles/halo-effect/ [Section one ends.] ++ SECTION TWO: +12: 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.]