+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE. - Volume 16, Issue 35, February 22, 2018. An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design and development. ++ISSUE 35 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: COLOR. 04: EVALUATION & TESTING. 05: EVENTS. 06: HTML. 07: JAVASCRIPT. 08: TOOLS. 09: USABILITY. SECTION TWO: 10: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site? [Contents ends.] ++ SECTION ONE: New references. +01: ACCESSIBILITY. Tables, CSS Display Properties, and ARIA By Adrian Roselli. "This post has two separate but related things going on. One is an example of one of my responsive tables with ARIA added, and the other is the Twitter conversation that started this along with some generalized responses…" http://adrianroselli.com/2018/02/tables-css-display-properties-and-aria.html Short Note on Hiding Stuff in Interactive Elements from Screen Readers By Steve Faulkner. "Symbols are cool. They add decoration and/or information to user interfaces. For screen reader users their inclusion can sometimes be annoying or confusing as the visual and aural user interface differ…" https://developer.paciellogroup.com/blog/2018/02/short-note-on-hiding-stuff-in-interactive-elements-from-screen-readers/ Assistive Technologies - The Switch By Hampus Sethfors. "A switch is an assistive technology primarily used by people with motor impairments to access and control computers, smartphones, electric wheelchairs, smart home appliances and more…" https://axesslab.com/switches/ Takeaways from 7 Principles of Inclusive Design By Deborah Edwards-Onoro. "In her 7 Principles of Inclusive Design webinar today, Henny Swan, director of user experience at The Paciello Group, discussed how accessibility and inclusive design fit together to create usable websites and web apps that work for everyone…" https://www.lireo.com/takeaways-7-principles-inclusive-design/ GitHub Contributions Chart By Adrian Roselli. "…the contributions chart is wildly inaccessible…if it is as important as many claim, then it needs to be rebuilt…" http://adrianroselli.com/2018/02/github-contributions-chart.html How to Scale Your Accessibility Initiatives By Empowering & Equipping Your Workforce By Dennis Lembree. "Great accessibility doesn't just happen…" https://www.deque.com/blog/empowering-equipping-workforce-a11y-success/ It's Illegal to Have an Inaccessible Website in Norway - and That's Good News for All of Us By Ida Aalen. "Laws can change attitudes, and changed attitudes can change how we act.…" https://medium.com/confrere/its-illegal-to-have-an-inaccessible-website-in-norway-and-that-s-good-news-for-all-of-us-b59a9e929d54 Section 508 Refresh: Five Things You Should Know By Equal Entry. "…All products must now conform to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG) level A and AA standards. Even if your product is not for the web, you are still accountable to WCAG as it is…" https://equalentry.com/section-508-refresh-five-things-you-should-know/ Countries that Have Adopted WCAG Standards (Map Updated) By Sofia Enamorado. "…Many countries around the world have adapted WCAG into their accessibility laws…" https://www.3playmedia.com/2017/08/22/countries-that-have-adopted-wcag-standards-map/ H.R. 620 Vote Enables Discrimination and Ignores Website Accessibility By Kim Krause Berg. "The outcry from advocates for the disabled gained momentum as the day to vote approached, but in the end H.R. 620 was passed and 51 million Americans with disabilities face losing their civil rights again…" https://searchnewscentral.com/blog/2018/02/21/h-r-620-vote-enables-discrimination-ignores-website-accessibility/ HR620 Passes in the House By Nicolas Steenhout. "…if we complain about accessibility, it's because we require access now, not six months down the road…" https://knowbility.org/hr620-passes-house/ +02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. Everything You Need to Know about CSS Variables By Ohans Emmanuel. "…In this guide, I'll show you how variables work natively in CSS, and how you can use them to make your life a lot easier…" https://medium.freecodecamp.org/everything-you-need-to-know-about-css-variables-c74d922ea855 Whitespace on The Web! - with CSS Grid (Video) By Jen Simmons. "CSS Grid makes it possible to have real white space on the web for the first time since we started using CSS for layouts…" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfIjFeBLhyA CSS Grid for UI Layouts By Josh Marinacci. "…In this article I'll show you how to use CSS Grid to improve application layouts that need to respond and adapt to user interactions and changing conditions, and always have your panels scroll properly…" https://hacks.mozilla.org/2018/02/css-grid-for-ui-layouts/ 10 Handy CSS Grid Code Snippets By Jake Rocheleau. "…This collection should offer plenty of resources to help you learn, customize, and restyle CSS grids for whatever you're doing on the web…" https://speckyboy.com/10-handy-css-grid-code-snippets/ +03: COLOR. High Contrast Option for Color Contrast By Dennis Lembree. "Most of use are aware of the color contrast guideline in WCAG 2.0 AA which states…" http://www.webaxe.org/high-contrast-option-for-color-contrast/ +04: EVALUATION & TESTING. Understanding Accessibility Testing: Think like a Dweller, Not a Builder By Albert Gareev. "…testing software design and implementation requires particular test techniques and a certain mindset: You need to think not like the builder of a house, but like the person who will make it their home…" https://www.stickyminds.com/article/understanding-accessibility-testing-think-dweller-not-builder Affinity Diagramming for Collaboratively Sorting UX Findings and Design Ideas By Kara Pernice. "Affinity diagramming has long been used in business to organize large sets of ideas into clusters. In UX, the method is used to organize research findings or to sort design ideas in ideation workshops." https://www.nngroup.com/articles/affinity-diagram/ How to Write a User Testing Report that People Will Actually Read By Matt Isherwood. "Over the decade or so I've been a UX designer, I've run a lot of user tests…" https://uxdesign.cc/how-to-write-a-user-testing-report-that-people-will-actually-read-652d15d2f92e Measure What Matters By Jared Spool. "…The quantitative data that we collect often drives important product decisions, but numbers garnered from out-of-the-box solutions like Google Analytics often generate arbitrary data points that don't really tell us much. Metrics paint only part of the picture: the what, and not the why. For the why to happen, we need qualitative measures. We need the narrative behind the numbers to establish and track metrics that provide true insight into the user experience, the value, and the outcome of what we create." https://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2018/02/21/measure-what-matters-2/ +05: EVENTS. Overcoming the Challenges of Designing UX at Scale March 8, 2018. Richfield, Minnesota, U.S.A http://uxpamn.org/event-2830038 John Slatin AccessU 2018 May 14-16, 2018. Austin, Texas, U.S.A https://knowbility.org/education/accessu/ M-Enabling Summit June 11-13, 2018. Washington, DC, U.S.A http://www.m-enabling.com/ Fluent Conference June 12-14, 2018. San Jose, California, U.S.A. https://conferences.oreilly.com/fluent/fl-ca National ADA Symposium June 17-20, 2018. Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, U.S.A http://www.adasymposium.org/ Assistive Technology and Testing with Assistive Technology June 20, 2018. Online http://www.accessibilityassociation.org/content.asp?admin=Y&contentid=524 UXPA International Conference June 26-June 28, 2018. Rio Mar, Puerto Rico http://uxpa2018.org/ +06: HTML. Updating All the Examples in the HTML5 Spec By Terence Eden. "I'm currently helping to edit the HTML5 specification. As part of our preparations for HTML5.3 I've started going through the provided examples and improving them. This blog post explains the what, why, and when of the process…" https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2018/02/updating-all-the-examples-in-the-html5-spec/ +07: JAVASCRIPT. The JavaScript Learning Landscape in 2018 By Jason Rodriguez. "Raise your hand if this sounds like you: You've been in the tech industry for a number of years, you know HTML and CSS inside-and-out, and you make a good living. But, you have a little voice in the back of your head that keeps whispering, "It's time for something new, for the next step in your career. You need to learn programming."…" https://css-tricks.com/javascript-learning-landscape-2018/ +08: TOOLS. Unused CSS By Jitbit. "Scan your website for unused CSS selectors." https://www.jitbit.com/unusedcss/ +09: USABILITY. Confirmation Dialogs Can Prevent User Errors - If Not Overused By Jakob Nielsen. "8 UX guidelines to avoid many serious user errors reduce the risk that people automatically agree to a warning without realizing the consequences." https://www.nngroup.com/articles/confirmation-dialog/ The 3 B's Test For When to Follow Design Trends (Video) By Katie Sherwin. "Know when to follow or banish a design trend. The 3 B's: Budget, Brand, and Behavior will help you make the right decisions. https://www.nngroup.com/videos/3-bs-design-trends/ Really Bad UX Mistakes That Even Great Teams Make By Jonathan Kim. "Some of your most important UX decisions will be the things you don't do…" https://www.appcues.com/blog/bad-ux-mistakes A Comprehensive Guide To UI Design By Christopher Murphy. "…my fifth article in this series of ten articles dives into the details of designing user interface components…" https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2018/02/comprehensive-guide-ui-design/ ++ 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.]