+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE. - Volume 12, Issue 42, April 10, 2014. An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design and development. ++ISSUE 42 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: COLOR. 04: DREAMWEAVER. 05: DRUPAL. 06: EVALUATION & TESTING. 07: EVENTS. 08: HTML5. 09: JAVASCRIPT. 10: MISCELLANEOUS. 11: NAVIGATION. 12: TOOLS. 13: USABILITY. SECTION TWO: 14: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site? [Contents ends.] ++ SECTION ONE: New references. +01: ACCESSIBILITY. I Will Tell You Later By Svetlana Kouznetsova. "...Please share all aural information via quality captioning and transcription with us NOW, not LATER. We deserve full and equal rights to communication access at the same time like everyone else." http://audio-accessibility.com/news/2014/04/i-will-tell-you-later/ Two New Options for Creating Accessible Video Content By Luis Perez. "When combined with the latest accessibility features built into iOS and OS X, accessible content creates a powerful platform for empowering people with all levels of ability by giving us equitable access to information, services and learning. In this post, I will discuss two new (at least to me) options for creating accessible content: the addition of captioning support in Vimeo, and the YouDescribe service for creating audio described YouTube videos..." http://luisperezonline.com/2014/04/03/two-new-options-for-creating-accessible-video-content/ Web Accessibility and Cognitive Disabilities By Tim Lohman. "Access iQ spoke with Stefan Johansson, an accessibility expert at Funka, on the major issues associated with web accessibility and cognitive disabilities." http://www.accessiq.org/news/news/2014/04/web-accessibility-and-cognitive-disabilities Keyboard-Only Navigation for Improved Accessibility By Marieke McCloskey. "...People who are unable to use a mouse or see the screen need to access all website content and functionality through their keyboard alone. To make your website keyboard accessible it is important to allow users to: 1) follow along with where the keyboard focus is, 2) navigate to all interactive elements, and 3) bypass the navigation if there are many links." http://www.nngroup.com/articles/keyboard-accessibility/ (Touch) Test Results By Patrick H. Lauke. "Some of the more interesting data points from running my various touch/pointer tests on a variety of devices/browsers. All tests carried out manually, trying to get the cleanest possible results (e.g. getting a "clean" tap without any finger movement)..." http://patrickhlauke.github.io/touch/tests/results/ Accessible Website Forms and WCAG By Tim Lohman. "Access iQ spoke to Andreas Cederbom, an Accessibility Expert at Funka, about WCAG and common issues encountered when creating accessible website forms..." http://www.accessiq.org/news/news/2014/04/accessible-website-forms-and-wcag Is the Alt Attribute Dead? By Jonathan Avila. "In general, when the alt attribute can be used developers should continue to use the alt attribute..." https://www.ssbbartgroup.com/blog/2014/04/08/is-the-alt-attribute-dead/ +02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. Stripes in CSS By Chris Coyier. "Stripes are pretty easy to do in CSS these days. CSS gradients via the background-image property really got our back. I thought I'd document some variations in one easy to reference place..." http://css-tricks.com/stripes-css/ +03: COLOR. Usability Tip: Don't Rely on Color to Convey Your Message By Tammy Guy. "In general-but particularly in the design world-color is a powerful tool. It conveys moods and emotions, adds presence to designs, and builds brand identities. All too often, however, users who suffer from any color deficiencies struggle to navigate their way through our color-drenched world..." http://uxmag.com/articles/usability-tip-dont-rely-on-color-to-convey-your-message Easy Color Contrast Testing By Jenn Lukas. "...When it's this quick and simple to check contrast, there's no reason not to add this accessibility test into our workflow." http://alistapart.com/blog/post/easy-color-contrast-testing +04: DREAMWEAVER. Tips on Using the Dreamweaver CC Layout Grid By Virginia DeBolt. "I've learned a few things about how the Dreamweaver CC layout grid system works after making about 30 different layouts with it and struggling to figure out its bugs..." http://www.webteacher.ws/2014/04/07/tips-using-dreamweaver-cc-layout-grid/ +05: DRUPAL. Inline Form Errors for Accessibility and UX By bowersox. "This proposal stems from the Form Error Design Wiki where we gathered feedback from accessibility stakeholders (such as Everett Zufelt) as well as UX stakeholders (yoroy, bojhan)..." https://drupal.org/node/1493324 +06: EVALUATION & TESTING. Open Accessibility Testing Needs YOU By Karl Groves. "...No willing participant will be turned away. Even if you're not a skilled developer, please feel free to swing by and tell us about something you want to see tested." http://www.karlgroves.com/2014/04/05/open-accessibility-testing-needs-you/ The Moderator's Survival Guide: Handling Common, Tricky, and Sticky Situations in User Research By Donna Tedesco and Fiona. "This is a sample chapter from Donna Tedesco and Fiona Tranquada's new book, The Moderator's Survival Guide: Handling Common, Tricky, and Sticky Situations in User Research..." http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2014/04/the-moderators-survival-guide-handling-common-tricky-and-sticky-situations-in-user-research.php +07: EVENTS. Usability Week Atlanta April 28-May 2, 2014. Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.A. http://www.nngroup.com/training/atlanta/ Usability Week Chicago May 12-16, 2014. Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A. http://www.nngroup.com/training/chicago/ Usability Week London London, England, United Kingdom June 1-6, 2014. http://www.nngroup.com/training/london/ Usability Week San Francisco June 21-27, 2014. San Francisco, California, U.S.A. http://www.nngroup.com/training/san-francisco/ +08: HTML5. Accessible Web Components, Part 1 By Addy Osmani and Alice Boxhall. "Custom Elements present a fantastic opportunity for us to improve accessibility on the web. To be accessible, elements need to work across multiple devices with varying screen-sizes and different kinds of input. Moreover, your elements should be usable by the broadest group of users, including those with disabilities. When designing for accessibility, there are four key areas of disability to consider: visual, hearing, mobility and cognition..." http://www.polymer-project.org/articles/accessible-web-components.html Usability and Accessibility Opportunities in a Web Component World By Steve Faulkner. "A discussion on the WHATWG list about the limitations/issues with the current design of the summary and details elements, brought forth the following comment..." http://blog.paciellogroup.com/2014/04/usability-accessibility-opportunities-web-compenent-world/ +09: JAVASCRIPT. Improvements to the Handling of the Aria-Pressed Attribute By Marco Zehe. "On Monday this week, Heydon Pickering brought to my attention that Firefox has a problem with the way it handles the aria-pressed attribute in some circumstances. aria-pressed is used on buttons (or elements that have a WAI-ARIA role of 'button') to turn it into a toggle button which can be either pressed or not. Think of the Bold, Italic, etc. toolbar buttons in your favorite word processor as an example..." http://www.marcozehe.de/2014/04/04/improvements-to-the-handling-of-the-aria-pressed-attribute/ Brendan Eich Steps Down as Mozilla CEO By Mozilla. "Mozilla prides itself on being held to a different standard and, this past week, we didn't live up to it. We know why people are hurt and angry, and they are right: it's because we haven't stayed true to ourselves..." https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2014/04/03/brendan-eich-steps-down-as-mozilla-ceo/ +10: MISCELLANEOUS. Sarah Horton and Larry Goldberg - Discussing CVAA By Sean Carmichael. "If you work in media broadcasting or telecommunications you have probably heard of the U.S. legislation called CVAA, shorthand for the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act. This law, signed by President Obama in October 2010, seeks to ensure that accessibility requirements keep pace with advances in communication technologies..." http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2014/04/04/sarah-horton-and-larry-goldberg-discussing-cvaa/ EdgeConf Accessibility Conference Panel Video By Chris Heilmann, Moderator. "The web is changing fast. Are accessibility standards keeping pace? What should developers of single page apps do to help users of assistive technologies? How do we anticipate assistive technologies developing in future? To what extent do new web technologies such as canvas and the web audio API either help or hinder those with accessibility needs? How much can we afford to invest in accessibility? http://youtu.be/npHcvAV2lew Lawson's Creek - A Few Words With the HTML5 Doctor (Interview) By Jeffery Zeldman. "Bruce Lawson is a web standards evangelist on Opera's Developer Relations team and a former member of The Web Standards Project's Accessibility Task Force. We recently caught up with Bruce to discuss web accessibility, HTML5, his publishing past, and other topics." http://aneventapart.com/news/post/lawsons-creek-a-few-words-with-the-html5-doctor +11: NAVIGATION. 4 Design Patterns That Violate Back-Button Expectations By Christian Holst. "In summary: Use history.pushState() to make sure your site invokes 'back' button behavior that aligns with the user's expectations. Specifically, ensure that any visual change the user will perceive as a new page is added to their browsing history, regardless of whether it's technically a new page or not..." http://baymard.com/blog/back-button-expectations Do Your Links Makes Sense on Their Own? By Luke McGrath. "This article explains what you need to do to meet Guideline 2.4.9 - Link purpose (link only) from the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0..." http://www.wuhcag.com/link-purpose-link-only/ Let Your Users Know Where They Are By Luke McGrath. "Some of your users may have problems understanding the structure of your website. They can get lost, especially during actions like checkouts that take place over a few pages. You can help your users by making it clear where they are on your website. This might be as simple as adding breadcrumbs to your website..." http://www.wuhcag.com/location/ Google SEO and Web Accessibility By Tim Lohman. "Access iQ spoke with Michael Wahlgren, CEO and founder of search engine marketing and web development company Pineberry, on the relationship between accessible websites and Google search engine optimisation (SEO)." http://www.accessiq.org/news/news/2014/04/google-seo-and-web-accessibility-0 +12: TOOLS. Universal Media Player (UMP) By Terrill Thompson. "UMP is a fully accessible cross-browser media player. It uses the HTML5