+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE. - Volume 14, Issue 50, June 9, 2016. 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: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. 03: EVALUATION & TESTING. 04: EVENTS. 05: HTML5. 06: JAVASCRIPT. 07: TOOLS. 08: TYPOGRAPHY. 09: USABILITY. 10: XML. SECTION TWO: 11: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site? [Contents ends.] ++ SECTION ONE: New references. +01: ACCESSIBILITY. Optimizing for Accessibility + SEO Formatting & Link Overlaps By Laura Lippay. (Hat tip to Jennifer Sutton) "In today's post on accessibility + SEO, we're digging into on-page aspects that include formatting text, colors, links, and content that we can't see see but machines can..." https://moz.com/blog/seo-accessibility-formatting-and-links Optimizing for Accessibility + SEO: Images, Video and Non-Text Elements By Laura Lippay. "In the first two posts in this series we covered site and page structure overlaps, and formatting and linking overlaps. In this final post we'll cover accessibility and SEO overlaps when coding for media elements." https://moz.com/blog/seo-accessibility-images-video WebAIR: Web Accessibility Information Resource By David Swallow. "This document lists the content types and questions in WebAIR. Under each content type are a number of questions, each of which links to more information. The "More information" links provide descriptions of why the issue is important, how to fix the problem, code examples, and further resources..." https://www.cs.york.ac.uk/hci/webair/index.htm Supporting the Development of Accessible Websites (Video) By David Swallow. "Despite many web accessibility initiatives over the last fifteen years, web developers still struggle to create websites that are accessible to people with disabilities. For the last six years, David has worked closely with web developers to understand the difficulties they encounter and to determine how best to support them. This presentation provides an overview of his research and describes the development and evaluation of a new accessibility information resource for supporting web developers in the creation of accessible websites." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUBx5RpXGMc How to Make Websites Become User Friendly and Accessible for Everybody By John Stevens. "Easy to implement tips and tricks on website accessibility..." https://hostingfacts.com/website-accessibility-guide/ Using Plain Language to Enhance eRecruiting By Partnership on Employment & Accessible Technology (PEAT). "Here's a news flash: Accessibility matters to people with all kinds of disabilities-not just those with vision and hearing impairments..." http://www.peatworks.org/talentworks/resources/plain-language What Are WCAG Success Criteria? By David MacDonald. "and 8 tips on how to write them..." http://davidmacd.com/blog/what-are-WCAG-success-criteria.html Americans with Disability Act (ADA) Website Accessibility Requirements Delayed By Michael Pillion and Eric Pennesi. "When we last discussed the application of Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to websites (see our April 2015 post), the US Department of Justice (DOJ) appeared primed to propose the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0, Level AA as the standard required for public accommodations in the private/non-government sector..." http://www.natlawreview.com/article/americans-disability-act-ada-website-accessibility-requirements-delayed +02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. Molten Leading in CSS By Chris Coyier. "...Tim's coined phrase "molten leading", which is essentially line-height that depends on line length. It's actually a "triadic" relationship..." https://css-tricks.com/molten-leading-css/ +03: EVALUATION & TESTING. How to Assign the Severity of Usability Problems By Jeff Sauro. "...Here are five steps to follow for establishing a system for assigning problem severity after observing problems in a usability test..." http://www.measuringu.com/blog/severity-ratings.php Diary Studies: Understanding Long-Term User Behavior and Experiences By Kim Flaherty. "User logs (diaries) of daily activities as they occur give contextual insights about real-time user behaviors and needs, helping define UX feature requirements." https://www.nngroup.com/articles/diary-studies/ Testing is Not an Issue of Not Enough Money or Time By Gerry McGovern. "The key to digital transformation involves organizing around the customer. To do that you must continuously test with the customer." http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/new-thinking/testing-not-issue-not-enough-money-or-time Run Parallel Design and Development Sprints By Hannah Alvarez. "...Many leading companies find that the most effective way to incorporate user tests into their agile development cycle is to have their design team (UI/UX designers, visual designers, user researchers, and product managers) run a design sprint parallel to their development team..." https://www.usertesting.com/blog/2016/06/07/user-testing-agile-development/ +04: EVENTS. San Francisco UX Conference June 25-July 1, 2016. San Francisco, California, U.S.A. https://www.nngroup.com/training/san-francisco/ Toronto UX Conference July 10-15, 2016. Toronto, Canada. https://www.nngroup.com/training/toronto/ AHEAD 2016 July 11-16, 2016. Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S.A. https://www.ahead.org/conferences/2016 Generate San Francisco 2016 July 15, 2016. San Francisco, California, U.S.A. http://www.generateconf.com/san-francisco-2016/ HCI International 2016 July 17-22, 2016. Toronto, Canada http://2016.hci.international/index.php +05: HTML5. Finishing HTML5.1 ... and Starting HTML 5.2 By Charles McCathie Nevile. "Since we published the Working on HTML5.1 post, we've made progress. We've closed more issues than we have open, we now have a working rhythm for the specification that is getting up to the speed we want, and we have a spec we think is a big improvement on HTML5..." https://www.w3.org/blog/2016/06/finishing-html5-1-and-starting-html-5-2/ +06: JAVASCRIPT. Making your JavaScript Pure By Jack Franklin. "JavaScript code can easily grow into a thicket of dependencies that harbors wily and persistent bugs. Keeping the rows neat with functions that don't reach outside their scope makes your codebase more reliable and easier to document. Jack Franklin suggests looking for opportunities to use pure functions-it could make maintaining the code a stroll in the park for your future self." http://alistapart.com/article/making-your-javascript-pure aria-sort (property) By Rakesh Paladugula. "aria-sort (property) is used to inform the screen reader user whether the columns or rows in a grid can be sorted. Aria-sort (property) is used to a table header or a grid header. This aria-sort (property) can be used both for column headers or row headers. aria-sort (property) has two possible values "ascending" and "descending"..." http://www.maxability.co.in/2016/06/aria-sort-property/ You Don't Need JavaScript for That! By Cristina Silva. "...Here are some components I use created by using only CSS..." https://robots.thoughtbot.com/you-don-t-need-javascript-for-that Progressive Enhancement and Modern JavaScript By Caolan. "Recently, I realised that I've been writing single page applications (SPAs) for about seven years..." http://caolan.org/posts/progressive_enhancement_and_modern_javascript/ +07: TOOLS. Tables Bookmarklet for Accessibility Testing By Paul J. Adam. "Tables Bookmarklet for Accessibility Testing inserts data table tags and attributes into the DOM with a yellow highlighted background so you can quickly identify the accessibility errors." http://pauljadam.com/bookmarklets/tables.html +08: TYPOGRAPHY. In Plain Sight: Text, Contrast, and Accessibility By Ryan Frederick. "Contrast is one of the basic elements of graphic design. It lets us tell things apart. Yet in UI design, at least for the web, there is a perpetual temptation to skimp. Things tend towards gray-on-gray." https://medium.com/shopify-ux/in-plain-sight-5639c9afb4c6 +09: USABILITY. Why Users Abandon Forms with Select Menus By UX Movement. "Form abandonment is like someone agreeing to meet up with you but then canceling last minute. Users who are interested in what a site offers have no trouble starting a form. But when it comes to completing it, they'll have many reasons not to." http://uxmovement.com/forms/why-users-abandon-forms-with-select-menus/ On Icons By ia.net. "Icons save space. Icons look crisp. Icons give quick answers to hard questions: How do we make it nicer? How can we brand it? How do we make it more fun? We love icons. Until they start messing with our minds..." https://ia.net/know-how/on-icons +10: XML. More About SVG Masking - Properties And Attributes By Steven Bradley. "...In the clipping part of this series I showed how CSS handles clipping and I'd like to do the same for masking..." http://vanseodesign.com/web-design/svg-masking-properties-attributes/ [Section one ends.] ++ SECTION TWO: +11: 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.]