+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE. - Volume 12, Issue 38, March 13, 2014. An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design and development. ++ISSUE 38 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: HTML5. 06: JAVASCRIPT. 07: MISCELLANEOUS. 08: NAVIGATION. 09: USABILITY. SECTION TWO: 10: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site? [Contents ends.] ++ SECTION ONE: New references. +01: ACCESSIBILITY. Techniques for WCAG and Understanding WCAG Documents Updated, Including Additional WAI-ARIA Techniques By Andrew Kirkpatrick. "The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Working Group is pleased to announce the publication of updates to two W3C Working Group Notes = Techniques for WCAG 2.0 and Understanding WCAG 2.0..." http://www.w3.org/blog/2014/03/wcag-techniques-updated/ WCAG Techniques for Image Text Alternatives By Joshue O Connor. "...The alt attribute has some advantages: alt is used not only by screen reader users but also search engines for indexing purposes; alt is very well supported by browsers and assistive technologies; and alt is shorter to type than aria-labelledby. But even with these advantages, authors have expressed an interest in using ARIA..." http://www.w3.org/blog/2014/03/wcag-techniques-for-image-text-alternatives/ How Accessibility Impacts Responsive Design By Sailesh Panchang. "Sure the focus of responsive design is on the ability of the layout to adapt to the user's screen. Such optimization makes it easier to read and navigate the content on different screen sizes by making the content 'bend and move'..." http://www.deque.com/blog/accessibility-impacts-responsive-design/ Accessible Responsive Images By Ted Drake. "...This article will touch on responsive design's impact on image accessibility..." http://www.last-child.com/accessible-responsive-images/ Creating Accessible Content By Dey Alexander. "Accessibility isn't just the domain of designers and developers. Web writers have an important role to play, ensuring content does not create barriers for people with disabilities. 10 tips for web writers..." http://www.4syllables.com.au/resources/web-writing-tips/accessible-content/ Everything You Know About Accessibility is Wrong (Part 3) By Karl Groves. "...QA staff should never have functional acceptance tests that fail due to an automatically-detectable accessibility issue. Usability test participants should never have a failed task due to an automatically-detectable accessibility issue. It is entirely appropriate that the developer take on such testing of the own work..." http://www.karlgroves.com/2014/03/07/everything-you-know-about-accessibility-is-wrong-part-3/ CAPTCHA - How to Do It Right (ie. Don't Use CAPTCHA) By Gian Wild. "Not convinced that CAPTCHAs are inaccessible?..." http://www.gianwild.com/2014/03/captcha-how-to-do-it-right/ DOJ Enters Into Landmark Web and Mobile App Consent Decree By Ken Nakata. "...the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ or Justice) entered into a consent decree with H&R Block over Web and mobile app accessibility. The case (National Federation of the Blind v. HRB Digital LLC) represents the first time that Justice intervened in and required a consent decree in a lawsuit based only on Web and mobile app accessibility. Under the consent decree (cite to http://www.ada.gov/hrb-cd.htm), H&R Block must undertake a number of stringent requirements..." http://blog.hisoftware.com/2014/compliance/doj-enters-into-landmark-web-and-mobile-app-consent-decree US Accessibility Court Case Against H&R Block Settled By Tim Lohman. "Tax preparer H&R Block has settled a case brought against it alleging that its subsidiaries, HRB Digital LLC and HRB Tax Group Inc., violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)." http://www.accessiq.org/news/news/2014/03/us-accessibility-court-case-against-hr-block-settled +02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. Alphabetical List of CSS Properties By David Storey. http://ref.openweb.io/CSS/ Filling the Space in the Last Row with Flexbox By Chris Coyier. "...The solution is essentially making the children able to wrap with flex-wrap, and then filling the space with flex-grow..." http://css-tricks.com/filling-space-last-row-flexbox/ Popping Out of Hidden Overflow By Agop Shirinian. "The following is a guest post by Agop Shirinian. Agop ran into an interesting scenario where he needed an element to be scrollable in one direction, while allowing the overflow in the other direction. You'd think that's what overflow-x and overflow-y are for, but it's not that simple. I'll let Agop explain." http://css-tricks.com/popping-hidden-overflow/ +03: EVALUATION & TESTING. The Value of Involving People with Disabilities in User Research By Sarah Horton. "...Often a project team has one 'Lorax' who speaks for users, trying to make a case against designs that are unintuitive, difficult, and frustrating to use. In the end, real-life, first-person accounts or demonstrations of how an interaction is difficult to use or how content is difficult to make sense of have much more weight than the perspective of one lone team member..." http://www.usertesting.com/blog/2014/03/04/the-value-of-involving-people-with-disabilities-in-user-research/ Mobile Testing Process By Jonathan Avila. "The increasing use of screen readers on mobile devices means organisations must address the accessibility of their mobile content, Jonathan Avila, Chief Accessibility Officer at SSB BART Group writes." http://www.accessiq.org/news/features/2014/03/mobile-testing-process 4 Types of Customer Analytics Data to Collect By Jeff Sauro. "To get a better understanding of problems and opportunities for your customers, you'll want to collect data from each of the following four customer analytics groups: descriptive, behavioral, interaction, and attitudinal." http://www.measuringusability.com/blog/customer-analytics.php Is Observing One User Worse Than Observing None? By Jeff Sauro. "It's possible for product stakeholders to be misled from watching a single session during a usability study. This leads teams to have a 2 or more rule when observing. However, watching just a single user still provides information on the impact of an interface problem." http://www.measuringusability.com/blog/observing-none.php +04: EVENTS. Refresh Seattle March 26, 2014. Seattle Washington, U.S.A. http://refreshseattle.org/ Funka Accessibility Days April 8-9, 2014. Madrid, Spain http://www.funkanu.com/en/Our-services/Funka-Accessibility-Days/ Drupalcon June 2-6, 2014. Austin, Texas, U.S.A. https://austin2014.drupal.org/ AHEAD 2014 July 14-19, 2014. Sacramento, California, U.S.A. http://www.ahead.org/conferences/2014-cfp edu Web Conference August 4-6, 2014. Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A. http://www.eduwebconference.com/ +05: HTML5. HTML5Accessibility.com Updated By Steve Faulkner. "Since October 2010 I have been testing and recording information on HTML5Accessibility.com about the implementation of accessibility support in browsers for new HTML5 features. I had let the updates to the site slide, but have made a concerted effort in 2014 to provide the information on the latest browsers. For now only windows browsers are covered. Support information for Mac browsers (Safari, Chrome, Firefox) will be coming soon..." http://blog.paciellogroup.com/2014/03/html5accessibility-com-updated/ Closed Captioning, It's Not Just for Accessibility! TextTrack in HTML5 Video By Jay Munro. "When I hit the gym, I try to get a Stairmaster in front of a TV that's showing closed captioning. Since I listen to music, I don't want to listen to the TV. With closed captioning, I can enjoy my music, and keep an eye on world events. Closed captioning was originally conceived for hard of hearing viewers and offering programming in other languages without re-dubbing. Captioning can be a word for word transcription or translation of screen content, or it can be used for additional content like titles, locations, or commentary. " http://blogs.msdn.com/b/mediastuff/archive/2014/03/05/closed-captioning-it-s-not-just-for-accessibility-texttrack-in-html5-video.aspx +06: JAVASCRIPT. Easy ARIA Tip #7 - Use 'listbox' and 'option' Roles When Constructing AutoComplete Lists By Marco Zehe. "One question that comes up quite frequently is the one of which roles to use for an auto-complete widget, or more precisely, for the container and the individual auto-complete items. Here's my take on it..." http://www.marcozehe.de/2014/03/11/easy-aria-tip-7-use-listbox-and-option-roles-when-constructing-autocomplete-lists/ +07: MISCELLANEOUS. Web at 25 - Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the Invention of the Web By Tim Berners-Lee. "Twenty-five years ago today, I filed the proposal for what was to become the World Wide Web. My boss dubbed it 'vague but exciting'. Luckily, he thought enough of the idea to allow me to quietly work on it on the side..." http://www.webat25.org/ Web Turns 25, Seems Popular By Adrian Roselli. "The world wide web has officially lasted 25 consecutive years, which means it's catching up to its parent, the Internet, which itself is bearing down on 45. That's an important distinction. The Internet is not the web, it is the foundation on which the web was born..." http://blog.adrianroselli.com/2014/03/web-turns-25-seems-popular.html Sarah Horton and Whitney Quesenbery - Introducing A Podcast for Everyone By Adam Churchill. "In this premiere episode of A Podcast for Everyone, UIE's Adam Churchill interviews Sarah Horton and Whitney Quesenbery about the book that inspired the podcast, A Web for Everyone." http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2014/03/06/sarah-horton-and-whitney-quesenbery-introducing-a-podcast-for-everyone/ Evolving Responsive Web Design By Jeffery Zeldman. "In What We Mean When We Say 'responsive' and Defining Responsiveness, Lyza Danger Gardner and Jason Grigsby cut to the heart of a disagreement I had three years ago with Ethan Marcotte, the creator of Responsive Web Design and author of Responsive Web Design, a book I published in 2011." http://www.zeldman.com/2014/03/09/evolving-responsive-web-design/ +08: NAVIGATION. Writing Hyperlinks - Salient, Descriptive, Start with Keyword By Marieke McCloskey. "To help users quickly find what they need, anchor text should stand out from the body content and accurately describe the page that it refers to." http://www.nngroup.com/articles/writing-links/ Information Wayfinding, Part 3: Designing for Wayfinding By Tyler Tate. "How can we make ever-growing volumes of information accessible and useful to people without overwhelming them?" http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2014/03/information-wayfinding-part-3-designing-for-wayfinding-1.php On Links and Accessibility By Jens O. Meiert. "...there's also an accessibility side to links. At least a perceived one, as, so I intend to show, bare elements pointing to tangible resources using plain language with adequate information scent are enough..." http://meiert.com/en/blog/20140306/on-links-and-accessibility/ +09: USABILITY. On Naming Buttons By Martha Aldridge. "What I'm actually talking about is the language we use in the software we design, specifically when it comes to buttons. Gone are the days of 'Click here to ' and now, we as designers and researchers spend much more time getting the wording on action buttons correct..." http://www.nomensa.com/blog/2014/on-naming-buttons/ If It Isn't Broken, Don't Fix It By Pabini Gabriel-Petit. "Over the last few years, I've been noticing a disturbing trend in UX design: changes in the design of successful software user interfaces that actually degrade rather than enhance the user experience." http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2014/03/if-it-isnt-broken-dont-fix-it.php Page Speed - How Soon Will Visitors See Your Content? By Louis Lazaris. "If you've spent any time testing the performance of your websites and applications, then at some point you may have come across WebPagetest.org. If you haven't, then it's well-worth checking out..." http://www.sitepoint.com/page-speed-soon-visitors-see-content/ 5 Second Test - An Important Conversion Optimization Tool By W Craig Tomlin. "...The 5 second test is a powerful tool to test the communicative ability of a webpage and provide data for conversion optimization. Remember that the test purpose is to evaluate how well the page communicates the following three critical elements..." http://www.usefulusability.com/5-second-test/ The Complexity-Simplicity Trade Off By Gerry McGovern. "...Many of the systems organizations give to their employees are usability monstrosities. The reason for this is that senior management just doesn’t care..." http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/new-thinking/complexity-simplicity-trade [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.]