+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE. - Volume 16, Issue 06, August 02, 2017. An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design and development. ++ISSUE 06 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: EVENTS. 06: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE. 07: MISCELLANEOUS. 08: NAVIGATION. 09: TOOLS. 10: USABILITY. SECTION TWO: 11: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site? [Contents ends.] ++ SECTION ONE: New references. +01: ACCESSIBILITY. WCAG 2.1 Working Draft for Review By Michael Cooper. "The Accessibility Guidelines Working Group has published an updated Working Draft of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1. This draft includes two new success criteria..." https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-wai-ig/2017JulSep/0044.html Critical Development Considerations for Mobile Application Accessibility By Sanjay Nasta and Paul J. Adam. "Does mobile accessibility matter? Mobile has revolutionized how all of us use the internet. For people with disabilities, however, these devices have the potential to usher in unforeseen options for communication, independence, and more-but only if the applications on them have accessibility for the disabled built into their functionality and design..." https://www.microassist.com/digital-accessibility/mobile-application-accessibility-part-1-of-2/ Creating Accessible Online Courses with Canvas By Jayme Johnson. "This is a self-guided course designed to provide you with the basic information you need in order to create accessible online courses with Canvas..." https://ccconlineed.instructure.com/courses/297 Cauldron By Deque. "A fully accessible HTML, CSS, and Javascript front-end framework for creating web and mobile applications." https://pattern-library.dequelabs.com/ Lawyers Cash in on Suits Demanding ADA-Compliant Web Sites By Lisa Fickenscher. "Retailers across the country are getting slammed for operating Web sites that discriminate against the blind or visually impaired..." http://nypost.com/2017/07/11/lawyers-cash-in-on-suits-demanding-ada-compliant-web-sites/ Blind People Cook: A Web Accessibility Story By Law Office of Lainey Feingold. "...I've asked web accessibility leader and home cook extraordinaire Lucy Greco to join me in responding to the article, Lawyers cash in on suits demanding ADA-compliant websites..." http://www.lflegal.com/2017/08/blind-cooks/ ADA Web Accessibility Regulatory Processes Now "Inactive" By Jarret Cummings. "...Work on formal ADA regulations is delayed for now, but voluntary stakeholder collaborations involving EDUCAUSE and the broader higher education community continue to move forward...institutions should look to WCAG 2.0 AA as well as the ideas raised in the 2016 SANPRM and higher education's response to it to inform their accessibility planning and development efforts." http://er.educause.edu/blogs/2017/7/ada-web-accessibility-regulatory-processes-now-inactive +02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. 5 CSS Properties That You Probably Don't Know By Annarita Tranfici. "...In this article, I'll cover 5 CSS properties that are relatively new, that you've probably never heard of before and that I find very interesting. The aim of this article is to give you an overview of what they are, which values you can use, their use cases, and also some examples..." http://developer.telerik.com/topics/web-development/5-css-properties-probably-still-dont-know/ +03: COLOR. How Light Can You Go? By Brent Jackson. "Ever wonder what the minimum color contrast ratio is for different font sizes?..." http://jxnblk.com/grays/ +04: EVALUATION & TESTING. Why We Say No to Surveys and Focus Groups By Leisa Reichelt. "You can't get authentic, actionable insights in a few clicks...Services have to work for everyone...It's not about preference...Setting real-life tasks is more valuable than 'tell us what you think'..." https://www.dta.gov.au/blog/surveys-and-focus-groups/ Search-Log Analysis: The Most Overlooked Opportunity in Web UX Research By Susan Farrell. "Your website's search engine can tell you what your web visitors want, how they look for it, and how well your content strategy meets their needs." https://www.nngroup.com/articles/search-log-analysis/ The Art of Guerrilla Usability Testing By David Peter Simon. "Guerrilla usability testing is a powerful technique..." http://www.uxbooth.com/articles/the-art-of-guerrilla-usability-testing/ +05: EVENTS. Pacific Northwest PHP September 7-9, 2017. Seattle, Washington, U.S.A. http://pnwphp.com/ UX Conference New York City September 9-15, 2017. New York, New York, U.S.A. https://www.nngroup.com/training/new-york-city/ Smashing Conference Freiburg September 11-12, 2017. Freiburg, Germany https://smashingconf.com/ +06: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE. The Approachable Guide to Prototyping for Accessibility with Axure RP By Axure. "This guide pulls together a number of accessibility issues worthy of your consideration as you develop your next Axure RP prototype, along with some simple steps you can take in the tool to pilot your project toward an outcome that's more friendly for all types of people to consume..." https://www.axure.com/blog/approachable-guide-prototyping-accessibility-axure-rp/ Accessibility and Prototyping Axure in Conversation with Jennifer Sutton By Axure. "This interview is a companion piece to our new Approachable Guide to Prototyping for Accessibility with Axure RP..." https://www.axure.com/blog/accessibility-prototyping-axure-conversation-jennifer-sutton/ +07: MISCELLANEOUS. Frameworks, Libraries, and the Modern Web Developer: Web Development, Overdone By Jens Oliver Meiert. "...we're raising tool-dependent rather than self-reliant developers. It's the problem of us having slipped into a downward spiral, when we look to hire people fluent in Bootstrap, jQuery, and Less, rather than knowing how to write tailored quality code themselves; and to hire more tool-versed developers to solve problems we only have because of Bootstrap, jQuery, Less, and all those other tools..." https://meiert.com/en/blog/web-dev-overdone/ Web Development: How Making Our Own Lives Difficult Is More Important Than We Think By Jens Oliver Meiert. "...On the one hand, having good tools makes our work (and life) more efficient, more productive, a lot easier. But on the other hand, and this is what I was aiming at back then, and what we observe these days as well, does lack of tools make us set better priorities, make us more focused, and make us better craftsmen..." https://meiert.com/en/blog/difficult-developer-life/ +08: NAVIGATION. Accessible Custom Select Dropdowns By Dennis Lembree. "In web development, creating custom select dropdowns is difficult. It requires a lot of resources to sufficiently design (annotating the interaction, etc) and develop (the Javascript is fairly complex and the ARIA isn't easy) and then test..." http://www.webaxe.org/accessible-custom-select-dropdowns/ +09: TOOLS. The Practical Role of Automated Web Accessibility Testing Tools By Hiram Kuykendall. "...By understanding the limitations and costs associated with automated accessibility testing packages, organizations can strengthen their existing accessibility programs and create long-term, sustainable, accessible websites and web applications." https://www.microassist.com/digital-accessibility/role-web-accessibility-testing-tools/ Find aria-hidden With This Bookmarklet By Ted Drake. "Use this bookmarklet to find aria-hidden attributes on your page..." http://www.last-child.com/aria-hidden-bookmarklet/ +10: USABILITY. Effective UI Texts: Words to Avoid in Writing By Nick Babich. "Neat, coherent, and obvious texts make interfaces more intuitive and instill confidence. Below you will find all common words to avoid in writing when you create a text for your UI." https://icons8.com/articles/words-to-avoid-writing/ Media Use Habits: What, Why, When, and How People Read Online By Olesya Kukoleva, Anna Preobrazhenskaya and Olga Sidorova. "...We conducted a diary study to get a real picture of online media use and understand readers and their habits. To see media through users' eyes and better understand what, why, when, and how people read, we literally had to look at users' screens..." http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2017/07/media-use-habits-what-why-when-and-how-people-read-online.php If I Could Tell You 3 Things By Leisa Reichelt. "1.) Your organisation will benefit more from you being user centred than the users ever will... 2.) Orient everything you can in your organisation around real user journeys... 3.) Seek the truth, even if it's ugly..." http://www.disambiguity.com/if-i-could-tell-you-3-things-notes-from-a-brief-career-in-the-public-service/ Functional Fixedness Stops You From Having Innovative Ideas By Aurora Harley. "People's blindness to alternate uses of objects limits their problem-solving capabilities and stifles creativity. Overcome functional fixedness by abstracting problems to generate outside-the-box ideas." https://www.nngroup.com/articles/functional-fixedness/ Does Anyone Use Social Sharing Buttons on Mobile? By Moovweb. "...Users are 11 and a half times more likely to tap an advertisement than they are to tap on a social sharing button on mobile...." https://www.moovweb.com/anyone-use-social-sharing-buttons-mobile/ Disabled Buttons Don't Have to Suck! By Daniel Koster. "Disabled buttons often suck, but they don't have to..." https://medium.com/@DanielKoster/disabled-buttons-dont-have-to-suck-6dcd22b16b6 [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.]