+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE. - Volume 14, Issue 15, October 8, 2015. An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design and development. ++ISSUE 15 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: HTML5. 05: JAVASCRIPT. 06: MISCELLANEOUS. 07: NAVIGATION. 08: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS. 09: TOOLS. 10: TYPOGRAPHY. 11: USABILITY. SECTION TWO: 12: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site? [Contents ends.] ++ SECTION ONE: New references. +01: ACCESSIBILITY. Tips for Getting Started with Web Accessibility By Education and Outreach Working Group (EOWG). Get started with accessibility. These tips introduce some basic considerations for making your website more accessible to people with disabilities, and provide links to additional guidance. Tips are grouped by activity; information relevant to your work might be in more than one page. http://www.w3.org/WAI/gettingstarted/tips/ Why Autoplay is an Accessibility Issue By Robin Christopherson. "Autoplay hit the headlines recently when a video showing the deaths of two journalists was seen by people scrolling through their Facebook and Twitter feeds. The video automatically started playing as the posts loaded and showed graphic images which shocked and horrified many people..." https://www.abilitynet.org.uk/blog/autoplay-is-an-accessibility-issue Designing Mobile Apps for Use by People with Cognitive Disabilities By Jonathan Avila. "This post is based on a panel presentation that I gave at the 2015 M-Enabling Summit in Washington DC on June 2nd..." http://www.ssbbartgroup.com/blog/designing-mobile-apps-for-use-by-people-with-cognitive-disabilities/ What to Do If iTunes Removed Your Uncaptioned Video By Emily Griffin. "Apple warned media companies that starting July 1, 2015, it would pull movies and video clips from the US iTunes store if they lacked closed captions. Apple stayed true to its word..." http://www.3playmedia.com/2015/08/20/what-to-do-if-itunes-removed-your-uncaptioned-video/ Work Begins on Extensions to WCAG 2.0 By Andrew Kirkpatrick. "Last week a new charter for the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Working Group (WG) was formally approved by W3C after having been reviewed by the W3C Member organizations. For the first time since the finalization of WCAG 2.0 in 2008, this charter allows the Working Group to explore ways to provide guidelines beyond WCAG 2.0..." https://www.w3.org/blog/2015/10/work-begins-on-extensions-to-wcag-2-0/ ATAG 2.0 is Here and There's Lots to Celebrate By Scott Hollier. "...Dr Scott Hollier highlights the increasing importance of ATAG 2.0 for people working towards achieving accessibility compliance..." http://www.accessiq.org/news/w3c-column/2015/10/atag-20-is-here-and-theres-lots-to-celebrate A Transcript Extension for HTML By Chaals McCathie Nevile, editor. "This document describes an extension to HTML which explicitly identifies a transcript linked to a media object such as audio or video. It was created to meet requirements for transcriptions that are described in the Media Accessibility User Requirements (MAUR)." http://www.w3.org/TR/2015/NOTE-html-transcript-src-20151001/ Over-Reliance on Automated PDF Accessibility Checkers By Ted Page. "The PDF accessibility checker built into Acrobat Professional (version 11 onwards) is a very useful tool. BUT..." http://diginclusion.com/blog/over-reliance-on-automated-pdf-accessibility-checkers/ The Business Case for Issue Prevention - Extreme Accessibility By Karl Groves. "There have long been discussions on the accessibility industry surrounding the business case for accessibility..." https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/business-case-issue-prevention-extreme-accessibility-karl-groves +02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. Understanding and Using rem Units in CSS By Adrian Sandu. "Today we increase the count by having an in-depth look at rem units, which have excellent browser support and a polyfill if you need support for old IE..." http://www.sitepoint.com/understanding-and-using-rem-units-in-css/ +03: EVALUATION & TESTING. Usability Testing with People on the Autism Spectrum: What to Expect By Zsombor Varnagy-Toth. "In the last year, I've conducted about 30 usability tests with adults and children who are on the autism spectrum..." http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2015/10/usability-testing-with-people-on-the-autism-spectrum-what-to-expect.php Testing for a User Need By David Travis. "One of the most important questions faced by start-ups and established companies alike isn't, 'Is my system usable?' or 'Is this a great user experience?', but "Do people actually need this thing?' This article presents a structured interview technique for checking if you have identified a user need." http://www.userfocus.co.uk/articles/testing-for-a-user-need.html +04: HTML5. Using Heading Elements to Create a Document Outline By Ire Aderinokun. "The outline for an HTML document shows the structure of the content on the page. This is useful for user agents, who can use the outline to create, for example, a table of contents for the document. This can then be used by screen readers to help people better navigate the page..." http://bitsofco.de/2015/using-heading-elements-to-create-a-document-outline/ Why ContentEditable is Terrible By Nick Santos. "The first time I sat across a table from Jacob (@fat), he asked bluntly, 'How do you write a text editor?'..." http://html5doctor.com/the-contenteditable-attribute/ Consider Aligning WHATWG Main Element Definition with W3C Definition By Steve Faulkner. "The main element was designed and implemented based on the concept of there being a single instance within a document, the markup pattern was based on data of id value usage in the wild. The whatwg definition differs markedly from the orginal definition. This leads to confusion for developers..." https://github.com/whatwg/html/issues/100 +05: JAVASCRIPT. Everything You need to Know about Javascript Accessibility (Video) By Karl Groves. "Is it really possible to understand JavaScript and accessibility in 40 minutes? This presentation will discuss touch on all of the major concerns with dynamic content and accessibility. It could be awesome or it could be a disaster, but one thing's for sure: there will be no slides, just live coding." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baR9OvL4g7w Concatenating Typed Arrays By Axel Rauschmayer. "Typed Arrays don't have a method concat(), like Arrays do. The work-around is to use the method..." http://www.2ality.com/2015/10/concatenating-typed-arrays.html ES6 - Methods Versus Callbacks By Axel Rauschmayer. "There is a subtle difference between an object with methods and an object with callbacks..." http://www.2ality.com/2015/10/methods-vs-callbacks-es6.html Enumerability in ECMAScript 6 By Axel Rauschmayer. "Enumerability is an attribute of object properties. This blog post explains how it works in ECMAScript 6." http://www.2ality.com/2015/10/enumerability-es6.html +06: MISCELLANEOUS. The Internet of Things Won't Work Because Things Don't Work By The Royal Frontier. "...But we are promised and shown a world where technology is gorgeous and streamlined and helpful and light and unobtrusive. We don't live in that world. That world is a fantasy. The hope that the Internet of Things will allow us to be free from daily headaches and logistical errors is naive..." http://www.theroyalfrontier.com/the-internet-of-things-wont-work/ The Pros and Cons of 5 Current Web Design Trends By Jason OConnor. "...At the end of 2015 going into 2016 I can see a number of trends that are wildly popular now. Let's take a look at five of the most prominent..." http://www.webteacher.ws/2015/10/01/pros-cons-5-current-web-design-trends/ +07: NAVIGATION. Utility Navigation - What It Is and How to Design It By Susan Farrell. "Utility navigation consists of secondary actions and tools, such as contact, subscribe, save, sign in, share, change view, print. These activities strongly affect website visitor satisfaction, user experience, and engagement. Put utilities where people expect and need them." http://www.nngroup.com/articles/utility-navigation/ +08: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS. U.S. Web Design Standards By 18F o GSA and US Design Services. "Open source UI components and visual style guide to create consistency and beautiful user experiences across U.S. federal government websites..." https://playbook.cio.gov/designstandards/getting-started/ U.S Web Design Standards By Rakesh Paladugula. "Re-inventing the wheel is what we all hate. This formula is proven success in all sectors including the digital world. Many corporate organizations are already following the formula. Recently 18F o GSA and US Design Services jointly developed a web tool kit to help the digital information of federal government..." http://www.maxability.co.in/2015/10/u-s-web-design-standards/ +09: TOOLS. Web Inspector Keyboard Shortcuts By Nikita Vasilyev. "Web Inspector is loaded with tools to make web development easier and more effective..." https://www.webkit.org/blog/4038/web-inspector-keyboard-shortcuts/ Accessibility Testing with Android Talkback By Henny Swan. "Android has a number of accessibility features that are directly affected by how you design and build your website or application. These include..." https://www.paciellogroup.com/blog/2015/10/accessibility-testing-with-android-talkback/ Tools for Website Accessibility Testing By Deborah Edwards-Onoro. "...There's a wealth of information, posts, resources, and online tools to help you design and build accessible sites. But how do you evaluate your website for accessibility?..." http://www.lireo.com/website-accessibility-testing-tools/ 11½ Free Tools for Testing Website Accessibility (Video) By David Berman. "In this webinar, David Berman, the #1 rated speaker on the topic of web accessibility standards as well as an international expert in the field, will share with you the best tools his team uses when auditing and testing websites and documents...." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cw1__O45p6E +10: TYPOGRAPHY. How to Choose the Right Fonts for Small Screens By Nurit Bahat. "You need to ensure your typography choices meet the needs of your mobile audience, says Webydo's Nurit Bahat." http://www.creativebloq.com/web-design/how-choose-right-fonts-small-screens-91516966 +11: USABILITY. Why Designers Think Users Are Lazy: 3 Human Behaviors By Kara Pernice. "Do you ever think your users are lazy, or maybe even a little bit dumb? Device Inertia, momentum behavior, and selective attention are common behaviors that can make users seem slothful. However, interface design, not deficient user effort, is the true cause for these error-prone user paths." http://www.nngroup.com/articles/lazy-users/ Framework for Cloud Usability [DRAFT] (PDF) By Brian Stanton, Mary Theofanos, and Karuna P Josh. "Organizations are increasingly adopting cloud-based services to meet their business needs. However, due to the complexity and diversity of cloud systems it is important to evaluate the user experience within a framework that enc ompasses the characteristics that define the user experience. In this paper, we propose a cloud usability framework to provide a structure to evaluate the key attributes of the cloud user experience. The framework includes five attributes and 21 elements that characterize this user experience. Generally these describe the consumer's expectations of the cloud." http://www.nist.gov/itl/cloud/upload/CloudFrameworkIR.PDF Why You Should Avoid These 7 UX Misconceptions By Chris Zook. "...Here are seven of the most popular UX misconceptions out there right now, confronted with the truth to balance them out..." http://blog.usabilitytools.com/7-ux-misconceptions-to-avoid/ The 8 Worst UX Mistakes Coming From Experts By Piotr Koczorowski. "...Here is the list of 8 worst practices in UX design..." https://medium.com/swlh/the-8-worst-ux-mistakes-coming-from-experts-692884971f80 Website Speed - The Power of One Second [Infographic] By Deborah Edwards-Onoro. "Imagine your co-worker sends you a text with an online resource you've been searching for. You select the link on your smartphone, excited to get the information you need for a work project. Eight seconds later, you're still waiting..." http://www.lireo.com/website-speed-the-power-of-one-second-infographic/ Making User-Centred Design Agile By Frontend.com "...UCD and Agile are two systems that have developed separately, share superficial similarities (in terms of featuring iterations or cycles), but are based on fundamentally different worldviews - the holistic versus the compartmentalised. The system described above is a solution in flux that will continue to adapt and grow as the Agile approach to development is refined." https://medium.com/@Frontend_UX/making-user-centred-design-agile-455021b22ae6 [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 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.]