+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE. - Volume 14, Issue 26, December 23, 2015. An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design and development. ++ISSUE 26 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: DREAMWEAVER. 04: EVALUATION & TESTING. 05: EVENTS. 06: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE. 07: JAVASCRIPT. 08: MISCELLANEOUS. 09: NAVIGATION. 10: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS. 11: USABILITY. 12: XML. SECTION TWO: 13: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site? [Contents ends.] ++ SECTION ONE: New references. +01: ACCESSIBILITY. The Accessibility Mindset By Eric Eggert. "Accessibility is often characterized as additional work, hard to learn and only affecting a small number of people. Those myths have no logical foundation and often stem from outdated information or misconceptions." https://24ways.org/2015/the-accessibility-mindset/ What are the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines? By Ai-Media. "Make your content accessibile with captions, transcripts, and audio description..." http://www.ai-media.tv/web-content-accessibility-guidelines-wcag/ Testing Labeling Icons By Adina Halter. "This exercise seeks to find the best method to give a text alternative to an SVG icon, whether it is used alone or inside of an anchor or button..." http://haltersweb.github.io/Accessibility/testing-icon-labeling.html How the W3C Text Alternative Computation Works By Bryan Garaventa. "Over the years, there has been a lot of confusion about the W3C Text Alternative Computation and how this works, especially when influenced by the addition of CSS and ARIA attributes..." http://www.ssbbartgroup.com/blog/how-the-w3c-text-alternative-computation-works/ National Basketball Association Complaint (PDF) "...Robert Jahoda('Plaintiff') seeks a permanent injunction requiring a change in the National Basketball Association's ('Defendant' or the 'NBA')corporate polices to cause Defendant's website to become, and remain, accessible..." http://www.graydonhead.com/docs/default-source/attorney-publications/nba-case.pdf West v. eHarmony Case Details eHarmony Complaint: "...eHarmony is denying blind individuals throughout the United States equal access to the goods and services eHarmony provides to its non-disabled customers through eharmony.com..." https://www.unitedstatescourts.org/federal/nysd/445692/ SIPE v. Red Roof Inns Case Details Red Roof Inns Complaint: "...Plaintiff Michelle Sipe brings this action against Defendant and asserts that its website is not accessible to blind and visually impaired consumers in violation of Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act..." https://www.unitedstatescourts.org/federal/pawd/225991/ +02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. Pseudo and Pseudon't By Jeremy Keith. "I like CSS pseudo-classes. They come in handy for adding little enhancements to interfaces based on interaction..." https://adactio.com/journal/10000 CSS Basics By Rachel Andrew. "...a couple of short modules on CSS selectors and length units..." https://thecssworkshop.com/css-basics +03: DREAMWEAVER. Is Dreamweaver a Serious Web Design Tool? By Fueled. "The team at Fueled examine the pros and cons of using Adobe's veteran web design software." http://www.creativebloq.com/adobe/dreamweaver-web-design-tool-121518352 +04: EVALUATION & TESTING. Are You Conducting a Heuristic Evaluation or an Expert Review? By Jeff Sauro. "...There's nothing wrong with inspecting an interface without heuristics; just don't call it a Heuristic Evaluation, call it an expert review..." http://www.measuringu.com/blog/he-expert.php The Complete Guide to Scenarios - Part Two By Neil Turner. "... I'm going to go through everything you need to know to start using scenarios to design products and service that really perform in the real world..." http://www.uxforthemasses.com/scenarios-part-two/ +05: EVENTS. Usability Week February 22-26, 2016 Los Angeles, Califorina, U.S.A. http://www.nngroup.com/training/losangeles/ Future Insights Live May 2-5, 2016. Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A. https://futureinsightslive.com/chicago-2016/ HighEdWeb Michigan May 5-6, 2016. Grand Rapids, Michigan, U.S.A. http://mi16.highedweb.org/ WebVisions Portland May 18-20, 2016. Portland, Oregon, U.S.A. http://www.webvisionsevent.com/portland/ Global Accessibility Awareness Day May 19, 2016. Everywhere http://www.globalaccessibilityawarenessday.org/ UXPA Seattle 2016 May 31-June 3, 2016. Seattle, Washington, U.S.A. http://uxpa2016.org/ +06: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE. Optimizing Your Design For Rapid Prototype Testing By Michelle Chu. "...here are six tips for designers to consider when creating prototypes specifically to generate user testing insight...." http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2015/12/optimizing-your-design-for-rapid-prototype-testing/ Complete Beginner's Guide to Information Architecture By UX Booth. "...In this article we'll discuss what information architecture really is, and why it's a valuable aspect of the user experience process..." http://www.uxbooth.com/articles/complete-beginners-guide-to-information-architecture/ +07: JAVASCRIPT. Reimagining Single-Page Applications With Progressive Enhancement By Heydon Pickering. "...In this article, I've introduced a solution for architecting progressive single-page applications using little more than a couple of CSS tricks, less than 0.5 KB of JavaScript and, importantly, some static HTML...You can embrace web standards while reaping the benefits of sharing data and functionality between different interface screens on a single web page. That is all that makes a single-page app a single-page app, really. Everything else is an add-on." http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2015/12/reimagining-single-page-applications-progressive-enhancement/ JavaScript: 2015 in Review By Craig Buckler. "JavaScript had a remarkable year..." http://www.sitepoint.com/javascript-2015-review/ Preparing for ECMAScript 6: Destructuring Assignment By Craig Buckler. "...In essence, ECMAScript 6 (ES2015) destructuring assignment allows you to extract individual items from arrays or objects and place them into variables using a shorthand syntax..." http://www.sitepoint.com/preparing-ecmascript-6-destructuring-assignment/ +08: MISCELLANEOUS. The Perfect Storm in Digital Law By Heather Burns. "Legislating the web has long been murky ground. When glacial processes, uninformed committees, and international politics meet the individualized culture of the internet, friction ensues. Despite the resulting confusion, it's our duty to work within the law-and to speak up for a better relationship between governing bodies and web professionals. Heather Burns guides us through the current dilemmas in digital law, and offers a solution: professionalizing our industry to ensure a seat at the table." http://alistapart.com/article/the-perfect-storm-in-digital-law +09: NAVIGATION. How Tabs Should Work By Remy Sharp. "...this post is my definition of how a tabbing system should work, and one approach of implementing that..." https://24ways.org/2015/how-tabs-should-work/ +10: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS. NYC HTML5 of Standards, De-facto Nonsense, How You Can Help Browsers and What to Learn Right Now By Christian Heilmann. "Yesterday I delivered my last planned talk of the year in the Facebook offices in New York as part of the NYCHTML5 Meetup..." https://www.christianheilmann.com/2015/12/16/nychtml5-of-standards-de-facto-nonsense-how-you-can-help-browsers-and-what-to-learn-right-now/ +11: USABILITY. Busting 9 UX Myths Like a Boss By Michael Georgiou. Expertise in UX design comes through continuous study and practice. It also comes from debunking these age old myths, which allow designers to derive maximum benefits of UX for their projects. http://blog.usabilitytools.com/busting-9-ux-myths-like-a-boss/ How Readability Can Make Sure People Actually Read Your Content By Sol Orwell. "What's the easiest way to increase time-on-site, decrease bounce, and make it more likely people share your content? Readability..." http://www.sjo.com/readability +11: XML. SVG Text On A Path - Part 1 By Steven Bradley. "Today I'll show you how to work with SVG text along straight line paths that change direction and next week I'll show you how to create SVG text along any curved path you can imagine..." http://vanseodesign.com/web-design/svg-text-on-a-path-part-1/ SVG Text On Path - Part 2 By Steven Bradley. "Creating SVG text along a path opens up some interesting and creative possibilities..." http://vanseodesign.com/web-design/svg-text-on-pathpart-2/ [Section one ends.] ++ SECTION TWO: +17: 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.]