+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE. - Volume 14, Issue 42, April 14, 2016. 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: DRUPAL. 04: EVALUATION & TESTING. 05: HTML5. 06: JAVASCRIPT. 07: NAVIGATION. 08: TYPOGRAPHY. 09: USABILITY. SECTION TWO: 10: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site? [Contents ends.] ++ SECTION ONE: New references. +01: ACCESSIBILITY. Building More Accessible Technology By Google. "...Accessibility Scanner is a new tool for Android that lets developers test their own apps and receive suggestions on ways to enhance accessibility..." https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2016/04/building-more-accessible-technology.html Accessibility Research at W4A: Some Conversations From the Field By David Sloan. "It's always worth reflecting on the nature and impact of accessibility research that's presented and discussed at W4A, beyond traditional academic measures of impact..." http://www.w4a.info/2016/blog/2016/04/11/accessibility-research-at-w4a-some-conversations-from-the-field/ Will 'ALT Tags' Soon be a Thing of the Past? By John Eric Brandt. "A year or so ago, I was meeting with a group of disability coordinators from the state college system and I was speaking about new and exciting assistive technologies and services that were just over the horizon... http://jebswebs.net/blog/2016/04/will-alt-tags-soon-thing-past/ +02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. Working with rem in CSS By Virginia DeBolt. "Is the relative measure rem new to you?..." http://www.webteacher.ws/2016/04/08/working-rem-in-css/ Flexible Sized Grids with auto-fill and minmax By Rachel Andrew. "Various unimplemented parts of the CSS Grid Layout specification are making their way into browsers, and I was excited to see that the auto-fill keyword and minmax() function are appearing. .." https://www.rachelandrew.co.uk/archives/2016/04/12/flexible-sized-grids-with-auto-fill-and-minmax/ Aligning Text Smartly in CSS By Vijay Sharma. "Have you ever thought of aligning text smartly in CSS?..." http://nocode.in/aligning-text-smartly-in-css/ +03: DRUPAL. Drupal 8 Accessibility By Marcy Sutton. "I recently wrote on Accessibility Wins about the WCAG initiative in Wordpress and a few people in the community let me know they weren't the first ones to do it! Drupal, now in its 8th major version, has prioritized accessibility for years, and it powers over a million sites..." https://a11ywins.tumblr.com/post/142415962898/drupal-8-accessibility Who Works with Drupal's Theme System? Personas to understand theming needs By Marc Drummond. "What do you think about Drupal's theme system? What's your preferred way to change the appearance of a Drupal site? As with many things, that depends..." http://www.marcdrummond.com/posts/2016/04/12/drupal-theme-system-personas +04: EVALUATION & TESTING. Better to be Approximately Right than Exactly Wrong By Jeff Sauro. "...When you find yourself paralyzed during the planning stage, consider whether you're holding out for the perfect metric or method to get the perfect result. Exactness on the wrong question is not the same as not doing the research at all--but the two are close cousins in the failed-research family. An approximate result is better than an unattainable result and certainly better than no result at all.." http://www.measuringu.com/blog/approx-right.php +05: HTML5. Working on HTML5.1 By Léonie Watson. "...Now the Web Platform Working Group (WP WG) is working towards an HTML5.1 release within the next six months, and a general workflow that means we can release a stable version of HTML as a W3C Recommendation about once per year..." https://www.w3.org/blog/2016/04/working-on-html5-1/ +06: JAVASCRIPT. Accessible Progressive Disclosure Revisited By Jeremy Keith. "I wrote a little while back about making an accessible progressive disclosure pattern. " https://adactio.com/journal/10475 +07: NAVIGATION. A Couple of Alternatives to the Hamburger Menu By Kenan Yusuf. "...In this short post, I will share some of my preferred menu styles and examples of them being used..." http://kyusuf.com/post/a-couple-of-alternatives-to-the-hamburger-menu +08: TYPOGRAPHY. Font Awesome 4.6 Released By Dave Gandy. "Making accessibility more accessible..." https://articles.fortawesome.com/font-awesome-4-6-released-d7213342698a Typography Tips for a Better User Experience By Studio Function. "...Here's a list of 5 easy ways to improve the typographic quality and effectiveness of any website, email, or digital product design...." https://medium.com/studio-function/typography-tips-for-a-better-user-experience-30a1a48371e6 +09: USABILITY. Young Adults/Millennials as Web Users (Ages 18-25) By Kate Meyer. "Members of the often misunderstood Millennial generation exhibit unique behaviors and approaches to digital interfaces. They are confident and error prone, and they have high expectations of websites." https://www.nngroup.com/articles/young-adults-ux/ The Anatomy of a List Entry By Kim Flaherty. "To support scanning and product comparison, item descriptions on listing pages should have a visual design and layout that preserve content priorities." https://www.nngroup.com/articles/list-entries/ A Stronger Visual Cue for Text Fields By UX Movement. "All clickable user interface elements need visual cues that signify clickability..." http://uxmovement.com/forms/a-stronger-visual-cue-for-text-fields/ Why I Love Ugly, Messy Interfaces - And You Probably Do Too By Jonas Downey. "...We needn't all pray at the beautiful minimalist design altar. Design doesn't have to be precious. Toss out your assumptions and build what works best." https://m.signalvnoise.com/why-i-love-ugly-messy-interfaces-and-you-probably-do-too-edff4a896a83 Improving the Digital Reading Experience By Information Architects Inc. "...The computer is an extension of our mind. To design better software we need to build interfaces as extensions of our mental processes, rather than analogies of our body..." https://ia.net/know-how/improving-the-digital-reading-experience [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.]