+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE. - Volume 12, Issue 50, June 5, 2014. An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design and development. ++ISSUE 50 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: BOOKS. 03: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. 04: DRUPAL. 05: EVALUATION & TESTING. 06: HTML5. 07: JAVASCRIPT. 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. How to Use the WAVE Tool to Test and Boost Site Accessibility By Virginia DeBolt. "The WAVE tool tests accessibility. Many other tools do the same thing, but this one is particularly user friendly and helpful..." http://www.webteacher.ws/2014/05/29/use-wave-tool-test-boost-site-accessibility/ Warning About Multiple H1... By Jukka K. Korpela. "A key problem in practice right now with only using H1s is that current browsers do not yet actually expose the correct outline depth of headings to accessibility software in the way that the HTML spec says they must..." http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-validator/2014May/0019.html More Delay for DOJ Web Regs - Does it Matter? By Law Office of Lainey Feingold. "...With these recent actions by the Department of Justice, there is no excuse for any site owner or developer to wait for regulations before undertaking digital accessibility plans. The ADA requires web accessibility. People with disabilities need web accessibility. It's good coding practice, good usability practice, good for business. And there is a recognized international standard that works. Let's stop waiting for regulations. Let's start making the promise of a web for everyone a reality." http://lflegal.com/2014/06/doj-delay/ Anniversary of Americans with Disabilities Act: July 26 By U.S. Census Bureau. "On July 26, 1990, President George H.W. Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act, which prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in employment, transportation, public accommodations, commercial facilities, telecommunications, and state and local government services..." http://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archives/facts_for_features_special_editions/cb14-ff15.html +02: BOOKS. Pickering, Heydon. Apps For All: Coding Accessible Web Applications. Smashing Magazine GmbH, 2014. +03: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. CSS Test for Accessibility Issues By Heydon Pickering. "A set of rules for test accessibility issues from the book Apps For All: Coding Accessible Web Applicatios..." https://github.com/felixzapata/cssTest-a11y First Public Working Draft - Non-element Selectors Module Level 1 By W3C. "The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Working Group has published a Working Draft of Non-element Selectors Module Level 1." http://www.w3.org/blog/news/archives/3878 CSS -Should We Change the Default for Overflow? By Greg Smith. "For the CSS overflow property, should auto or hidden be the default instead of visible?..." http://bocoup.com/weblog/new-overflow-default/ +04: DRUPAL. Drupal262 - Introduction to Panopoly and Drupal Distributions By David Snopek. "In this presentation, David Snopek is going to talk about (and demonstrate!) a Drupal distribution called Panopoly. Panopoly has many great features for site builders and users right out of the box..." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDSQskYD5VU What You Want Out-of-the-Box: Introduction to Panopoly and Drupal Distributions By David Snopek. David's MidCamp Chicago presentation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6-jTA62nTg simplytest.me "An online service that provides on-demand sandbox environments for evaluating drupal.org projects like modules, themes and distributions." https://drupal.org/project/simplytest http://simplytest.me/ +05: EVALUATION & TESTING. An Overview of Expert Heuristic Evaluations By Ritch Macefield. "An expert heuristic evaluation is a form of discount usability evaluation. The essential idea is that such evaluations are, or should be, quicker and cheaper to perform than usability studies with a sample of participants that are representative of actual users..." http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2014/06/an-overview-of-expert-heuristic-evaluations.php Selecting an Online Tool for Unmoderated Remote User Testing By Marieke McCloskey. "A good automated usability-testing tool offers recruiting flexibility, the ability to write your own tasks, and a video recording of the session." http://www.nngroup.com/articles/unmoderated-user-testing-tools/ Choosing the Right Metrics for User Experience By Pamela Pavliscak. "Metrics are the signals that show whether your UX strategy is working. Using metrics is key to tracking changes over time..." http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2014/06/choosing-the-right-metrics-for-user-experience.php The Hidden Benefits of Remote Research By Kathleen Asjes. "Kathleen Asjes shows us situations where remote research may actually be the preferable option..." http://www.uxbooth.com/articles/hidden-benefits-remote-research/ 5 Tips for Conducting a Mobile Usability Test By Jeff Sauro. "As companies continue to focus on improving the usability of their mobile websites and applications, testing these interfaces can feel a lot like testing websites in 1996-lots of surprises, unfamiliar conventions, workarounds, and frustrations..." http://www.measuringusability.com/blog/mobile-tips.php +06: HTML5. Testing Responsive Images By Mat Marquis. "At long last, the native picture element isn't just coming: it's here. The picture element has landed in Canary-Google's 'beta' channel for upcoming Chrome releases-and we can try it out for ourselves right now. Firefox isn't far behind, and WebKit work is officially underway." http://alistapart.com/blog/post/testing-responsive-images/ +07: JAVASCRIPT. Use ARIA to Expose the Role of Custom User Interface Components By Denis Boudreau. "Make sure custom user interface controls' roles are identified using ARIA roles..." http://dboudreau.tumblr.com/post/87162449697/use-aria-to-expose-the-role-of-custom-user-interface +08: NAVIGATION. Underlined Links - When Is It Ok To Break From Convention? By Steven Bradley. "Following convention leads to a more usable site. Convention presents the known and expected to visitors, which helps them orient themselves and lets them use existing knowledge and apply it to your site. If convention is so helpful, is it ok to ever break from it?..." http://www.vanseodesign.com/web-design/underlined-links-convention/ +09: USABILITY. So You Think You've Built a Good Infinite Scroll By Adrianr Roselli. "...what to test, expect, and review if you attempt your own version of an automatic infinite scroll..." http://blog.adrianroselli.com/2014/05/so-you-think-you-built-good-infinite.html Radio Buttons - Select One by Default or Leave All Unselected? By Kara Pernice. "Select a single radio button by default in most cases. Reasons to deviate or not: expedite tasks, the power of suggestion, user expectations, safety nets." http://www.nngroup.com/articles/radio-buttons-default-selection/ Not Every Good Writer Can Write for the Web By Paul Boag. Writing for the web has many unique challenges. Just because you can write well, does not mean you can write good web copy. http://boagworld.com/content-strategy/writing-for-the-web-is-hard/ On Styled Form Elements By Anthony Colangelo. "For almost 20 years, we've had the same input types and form elements we still use today: text fields and areas, password fields, select dropdowns, radio buttons, checkboxes, file fields, hidden fields, and the menagerie of button types including submit, reset, image, and plain old button..." http://alistapart.com/blog/post/on-styled-form-elements [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.]