+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE. - Volume 14, Issue 03, July 16, 2015. An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design and development. ++ISSUE 03 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: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS. 08: USABILITY. 09: XML. SECTION TWO: 10: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site? [Contents ends.] ++ SECTION ONE: New references. +01: ACCESSIBILITY. Let's Share More Accessibility Experiences By Adrian Roselli. "I think the accessibility community has an opportunity (has had an ongoing opportunity) to get its message across to the broader developer community that it hasn't realized. A couple recent write-ups make me think we should all be trying harder..." http://adrianroselli.com/2015/07/lets-share-more-accessibility-experiences.html Why Creating Accessible Digital Products is Important [Infographic] By Deborah Edwards-Onoro. "Creating an accessible digital product means anyone can use it. Because digital technology is a vital role in everyday life, designing digital products that are accessible benefits people with or without disabilities, as well as businesses..." http://www.lireo.com/creating-accessible-digital-products-is-important-infographic/ Multi-Modal Content Delivery for People with Cognitive Disabilities By John Rochford. "Textual content can be delivered in different modes to help people with cognitive disabilities comprehend it. These modes can include..." https://clearhelper.wordpress.com/2015/07/13/multi-modal-content-delivery-for-people-with-cognitive-disabilities/ Low Vision Proposal - Needs By Wayne Dick. "This is a first draft at defining what is needed to extend access to people with low vision/ partial sight..." http://nosetothepage.org/LVOverview/LV_Needs.html Labelling Forms, Images and Links - Screen Reader Compatibility By Powermapper. " Screen reader compatibility for a variety of form, image and link labelling techniques, showing how failures and techniques work in specific screen reader / browser combinations..." http://www.powermapper.com/tests/screen-readers/labelling/index.html Deep Visual-Semantic Alignments for Generating Image Descriptions By Andrej Karpathy and Li Fei-Fei. "We present a model that generates natural language descriptions of images and their regions. Our approach leverages datasets of images and their sentence descriptions to learn about the inter-modal correspondences between language and visual data..." http://cs.stanford.edu/people/karpathy/deepimagesent/ Get Started with Electronic Accessibility By University of Montana. This site includes info on creating accessible documents, Web sites, and media. http://www.umt.edu/accessibility/getstarted/ A11Y Slackers By Steve Faulkner. "A ubiquitous issue for people involved in moving the web forward is that there is always too much to do. Identifiying and prioritising tasks is critical. Identifying is fairly easy, prioritising not so. Priorities depend on both internal and external factors often beyond our control..." http://www.paciellogroup.com/blog/2015/07/a11y-slackers/ +02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. Dear Webdevs, from European Blind Union By Bruce Lawson. "...yes, please use viewport meta to make content responsive. But don't muck around with maximum-scale, minimum-scale, and user-scalable properties, as these restrict zooming..." http://www.brucelawson.co.uk/2015/dear-webdevs-from-european-blind-union/ CSS and Text Content - Screen Reader Compatibility By Powermapper. "Screen reader compatibility for CSS and text, showing how failures and techniques work in specific screen reader / browser combinations..." http://www.powermapper.com/tests/screen-readers/content/index.html Using the Web Speech API to Simulate CSS Speech Support By Leonie Watson. "The CSS Speech properties are intended to give content aural style, in the same way other CSS properties give content visual style. The CSS Speech module is unsupported by browsers, but the Web Speech API can be used to demonstrate something of the way CSS Speech might work in practice..." http://tink.uk/using-the-web-speech-api-to-simulate-css-speech-support/ CSS and System Fonts By Adrian Roselli. " This weekend I read a post about techniques to get Apple's new San Francisco font into your CSS. Since San Francisco is only just being added to iOS and OS X, it can be a bit tricky to get hold of it in Safari. What struck me was the use case outlined in the post for why a UI person might want to get that font into play..." http://adrianroselli.com/2015/07/css-and-system-fonts.html Print Stylesheet Approaches - Blacklist vs Whitelist By Chris Coyier. "The "blacklist" is a common approach to print stylesheets. We know that people probably don't need to see our site navigation if they print out an article on our site. So we hide it from print like we would hide it from the screen (display: none;). Is there a way to reverse that?..." https://css-tricks.com/print-stylesheet-approaches-blacklist-vs-whitelist/ 12 Little-Known CSS Facts (The Sequel) By Louis Lazaris. "I've been collecting more little CSS tips and tidbits for a new post. Because we all know that every successful movie should spawn a cheesy sequel, right?..." http://www.sitepoint.com/12-little-known-css-facts-the-sequel/ Quantity Ordering With CSS By Drew Minns. "Here is your mission, should you choose to accept it: create a table of items. Each item should span a third of the content area, with the fourth item starting on a new row, much like floats. However, a particular item must always display the price at the end of the first row..." http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2015/07/14/quantity-ordering-with-css/ +03: EVALUATION & TESTING. Remote Moderated Usability Tools Description, Benefits and Listings By W Craig Tomlin. "Remote moderated usability tools offer a better way to identify user experience task flow issues. Learn the description, benefits, method and tools for conducting remote moderated usability testing..." http://www.usefulusability.com/remote-moderated-usability-tools/ How To Use The System Usability Scale (SUS) To Evaluate The Usability Of Your Website By Nathan Thomas. "...The SUS has been tried and tested throughout almost 30 years of use, and has proven itself to be a dependable method of evaluating the usability of systems compared to industry standards..." http://usabilitygeek.com/how-to-use-the-system-usability-scale-sus-to-evaluate-the-usability-of-your-website/ 5 Things to Know about Likert Scales By Jeff Sauro. "...Here are five things to know about the famous Likert scale. (One for each response option!).." http://www.measuringu.com/blog/likert-scales.php +04: EVENTS. Web Accessibility Training October 6-7, 2015. Logan, Utah, U.S.A. http://webaim.org/training/ Connect.JS October 16-17, 2015. Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.A. http://connect-js.com/ HTML5 Developer Conference October 19-20, 2015. San Francisco, California, U.S.A. http://html5devconf.com/ Interact London October 20-21, 2015. London, England, United Kingdom http://2015.interactconf.com/ Web Directions 2015 October 29-30, 2015. Sydney, Australia http://www.webdirections.org/wd15/ Accessing Higher Ground November 16-20, 2015. Westminster, Colorado, U.S.A. http://accessinghigherground.org +05: HTML5. Headings - Screen Reader Compatibility By Powermapper. "Screen reader compatibility for HTML and ARIA headings, showing how failures and techniques work in specific screen reader / browser combinations..." http://www.powermapper.com/tests/screen-readers/headings/index.html HTML Elements - Screen Reader Compatibility By Powermapper. "Shows how different HTML elements behave in commonly used screen readers..." http://www.powermapper.com/tests/screen-readers/elements/index.html HTML Attributes - Screen Reader Compatibility By Powermapper. "Shows how different HTML attributes behave in commonly used screen readers..." http://www.powermapper.com/tests/screen-readers/attributes/index.html +06: JAVASCRIPT. The ARIA Roles Model Part 1 By Steven Bradley. "What can you do when the native semantics of the HTML you use don't communicate enough information or they don't communicate appropriate information to assistive devices? You use ARIA roles, states, and properties to communicate the semantics instead..." http://www.vanseodesign.com/web-design/aria-roles-model-1/ WAI-ARIA - Screen Reader Compatibility By powermapper. "Shows how different WAI-ARIA attributes behave in commonly used screen readers..." http://www.powermapper.com/tests/screen-readers/aria/index.html Designing with Progressive Enhancement By Jason Garber. "The following is the text (and links!) from my presentation at the seventh annual CSS Summit, delivered Tuesday morning, July 7th, 2015. Slides from this talk are also available." http://sixtwothree.org/posts/designing-with-progressive-enhancement +07: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS. Seeing the Extensible Web Manifesto Through By Mat Marquis. "Participating in the creation of a new standard means joining listservs that look like they were put together circa 1850 and asynchronous arguments in IRC channels that span any/all timezones. It means devoting your nights and weekends to learning how to tinker with specs and fighting with professional web standards reps. To get certain things done for real, you need to start attending F2F meetings-so, be prepared to buy the occasional out-of-pocket plane ticket to Europe and to burn through your vacation time. On top of it all, as a web developer, expect to have your vote count for less than that of a browser representative, and the vast majority of web standards participants are browser reps. It has all the makings of a lousy part-time job, minus the pay. Whenever I encourage web devs to get involved-to help change the power balance by sheer force of numbers-I do so with an unspoken apology..." https://bocoup.com/weblog/extensible-web-manifesto/ +08: USABILITY. Why Plain Language is Vital for Website Usability By Whitney Quesenbery. "Whitney Quesenbery explains how using the right words can help keep your content accessible..." http://www.creativebloq.com/web-design/why-plain-language-vital-website-usability-51514999 The Characteristics of Minimalism in Web Design By Kate Meyer. "Our analysis of 112 minimalist websites revealed the defining features of minimalism: flat design, limited color schemes, few UI elements, use of negative space, and dramatic typography. Some are used well; others less so." http://www.nngroup.com/articles/characteristics-minimalism/ 5 Rules to Better Design By Stelios. "...let's look at five rules that help guide our designs, from user flows to how we set the color of a button..." https://medium.com/@stothelios/design-philosophy-at-reliefwatch-156aab951e18 Recognizing a Bad User Interface at First Glance By Piet Hadermann. "When I wrote my previous blog post, it dawned on me that a trained eye can often spot unfriendly software a mile away..." http://www.hadermann.be/blog/134/recognising-a-bad-user-interface-at-first-glance/ How Button Placement Standards Reinforce User Habits By UX Movement. "Buttons work like door knobs. People wouldn't be able to use doors efficiently if door knobs weren't placed in a consistent area. But because they are, everyone with a hand can walk through doors without much thought. The placement standard of door knobs across doors creates an unconscious habit in people." http://uxmovement.com/buttons/how-button-placement-standards-reinforce-user-habits/ Login Form Usability Problem Solved By Ben Hunt. "Here's a little usability design problem for you..." http://webdesignfromscratch.com/usability/login-form-usability-problem-solved/ Digital Change is Cultural Change By Gerry McGovern. "...Digital change is cultural change. If you give digital tools to an organization with an old mind you get lots of PDFs, lots of emails, lots of other useless content, lots of pictures of actors pretending to be customers and lots of news propaganda from senior management that nobody wants to hear about..." http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/new-thinking/digital-change-cultural-change +09: XML. Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) WG: 2 Drafts Published By W3C. "The SVG Working Group has published a First Public Working Draft and one Working Draft..." http://www.w3.org/blog/news/archives/4806 [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 Drupal Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/drupal.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 HTML Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/html.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.]