[webdev] Web Design Update: March 12, 2006
Laura Carlson
lcarlson at d.umn.edu
Sun Mar 12 08:02:09 CST 2006
+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE.
- Volume 4, Issue 38, March 12, 2006.
An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design
and development.
++ISSUE 38 CONTENTS.
SECTION ONE: New references.
What's new at the Web Design Reference site?
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/webdesign/
New links in these categories:
01: ACCESSIBILITY.
02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.
03: EVALUATION & TESTING.
04: EVENTS.
05: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE.
06: JAVASCRIPT.
07: MISCELLANEOUS.
08: NAVIGATION.
09: PHP.
10: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.
11: TOOLS.
12: USABILITY.
SECTION TWO:
13: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site?
[Contents ends.]
++ SECTION ONE: New references.
+01: ACCESSIBILITY.
Accessibility First! A New Approach to Web Design
By Brian Rosmaita.
"This paper proposes an accessibility first pedagogy for web design, in
which the course is organized around the requirement of implementing
web pages accessible to visually impaired computer users. This approach
and its advantages are discussed in detail."
http://tinyurl.com/pcsx7
Evaluating Website Accessibility Part 1, Background and Preparation
By Roger Johansson.
"In more and more countries across the world it is becoming required
for government and other public service websites to be based on
standards and follow accessibility guidelines. That in turn is making
it necessary for the people involved in building and maintaining these
sites to be able to build accessible websites and evaluate website
accessibility...This three-part article series is intended to make it
easier for non-experts to perform a basic accessibility check. I hope
it will be helpful enough to make at least a few websites more
accessible..."
http://tinyurl.com/gn6fc
Introduction to Web Accessibility
By Patrick Kennedy.
"One of the hot topics of recent years has been web accessibility. And
for good reason. The industry is finally accepting responsibility for
providing access to information for anyone using a website, or indeed
an intranet. Despite this trend, a great deal of confusion and
misunderstanding continues to surround the subject, and this may be
stopping many from taking the necessary action. This paper is not a
step by step guide to making an accessible website, but rather a quick
overview to point readers in the right direction..."
http://www.steptwo.com.au/papers/cmb_introtoaccessibility/index.html
CATS (Creating Accessible Teaching and Support)
"The CATS Project has established a framework for good practice that
provides information and resources to assist universities to create
equitable access for students with disability and to comply with the
Disability Discrimination Act and the Disability Standards for
Education..."
http://www.adcet.edu.au/cats/default.aspx
Google's Doors Still Shut to Blind
By Susan Kuchinskas.
"Accessibility advocates have accused Google and Yahoo of shutting out
the blind. The door is still closed..."
http://asia.internet.com/news/article.php/3586166
Sign-Language Takes to the Web
By Phil Muncaster.
"Malcolm Wright explains how systems are developing to help firms reach
more people."
http://www.whatpc.co.uk/itweek/analysis/2151441/sign-language-takes-web
Podcasting and Accessibility
WebAim list Thread.
http://webaim.org/discussion/mail_thread.php?thread=2703
+02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.
Layout Gala
By Alessandro Fulciniti.
"In November 2005 I presented on pro.html.it a three-part article on
creating CSS layouts using techniques like negative margins, any order
columns and in some case opposite floats. The main goal of the article
was getting the maximum number of layouts based on the same markup,
each with valid CSS and HTML, without hacks nor workaround and a good
cross-browser compatibility. The result is a set of 40 layouts that
we've thought worth sharing: on each of them you'll find also a
download link (if you want, you can download the entire collection, 40
HTML pages in a single zip file). Further details can be found below
the gallery..."
http://blog.html.it/layoutgala/
Three Steps to a Two Column CSS Layout
By Virginia DeBolt.
"I certainly did not originate this method of creating a two column
layout, but I will summarize it for you. Step one: create a wrapper or
container div and give it a CSS rule: position:relative..."
http://www.webteacher.ws/2006/03/tip-three-steps-to-two-column-css.html
CSS Link Styles
By Chris Jason.
One of the easiest, yet most interactive, elements you can add to your
Web site is dynamic link text-links that change their appearance once
the user puts their cursor over them.
http://www.christopherjason.com/articles/css-link-styles/
+03: EVALUATION & TESTING.
Outliers and Luck in User Performance
By Jakob Nielsen.
"Six percent of task attempts are extremely slow and constitute
outliers in measured user performance. These sad incidents are caused
by bad luck that designers can -- and should -- eradicate."
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/outlier_performance.html
Interview-Based Tasks - Learning from Leonardo DiCaprio
By Jared M. Spool.
"What they didn't know -- what they learned later -- is they had done
everything right, almost. They'd recruited the right users, facilitated
the test properly, and analyzed the results effectively. There was only
one problem: the tasks didn't match what real users do with the site.
That one problem was the source of their current pain."
http://www.uie.com/articles/interview_based_tasks/
Determining Usability from Analytics
By Jared Spool.
"Can you assess the usability of a site or page by looking at the
reports from you analytics tool? Jared thinks not..."
http://tinyurl.com/fe8u5
+04: EVENTS.
UPA 2006: Usability Through Storytelling
June 12-16, 2006.
Broomfield, Colorado U.S.A.
http://www.upassoc.org/conferences_and_events/upa_conference/2006/
+05: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE.
Just Build It: HTML Prototyping and Agile Development
By Garrett Dimon.
"Chances are, you use some sort of prototyping to illustrate Web
interfaces for clients and stakeholders, and rely on those prototypes
for approval. Whether you're using visual design comps, wireframes,
site maps, process flows, page description diagrams (PDDs), or a
combination of these, your goal is always the same. You want to
mitigate the cost of making changes..."
http://tinyurl.com/j2k6p
+06: JAVASCRIPT.
A (Re)-Introduction to JavaScript
By Simon Willison.
"I gave a three hour JavaScript tutorial at ETech this morning, aimed
at people with previous programming experience who hadn't yet dived
deep in to JavaScript as a programming language...I'm posting the
slides here..."
http://simon.incutio.com/slides/2006/etech/javascript/js-tutorial.001.html
Script Smarter: Quality JavaScript from Scratch
By James Edwards and Cameron Adams.
"If you've avoided JavaScript, or only knew it in its previous 'toy
language' incarnations, now's the time to step up and get to know the
newer, smarter JavaScript. This hands-on tour will get you started with
JavaScript before illuminating the ways in which the DOM can be
utilized via JavaScript, the practicalities of pop-up windows, and how
JavaScript can work within a web page to produce slick DHTML effects."
http://www.sitepoint.com/article/javascript-from-scratch
How to Auto Include a Javascript File
By Mark Kahn.
"Many developers have a large library of JavaScript code at their
fingertips that they developed, their collegues developed, or that
they've pieced together. If you've ever wanted to easily find any
JavaScript file this article will show you how."
http://www.webreference.com/programming/javascript/mk/
Ajax/DHTML Library Scorecard: How Cross Platform Are They?
By Leland Scott.
This article reviews and categorizes DHTML/AJAX/JS libraries and grades
how cross-browser they are.
http://www.musingsfrommars.org/2006/03/ajax-dhtml-library-scorecard.html
Getting Started with Ajax
By Aaron Gustafson.
"In this excerpt from O'Reilly's Web Design in a Nutshell, 3rd Edition,
ALA's production editor would like to take you aside for a little chat
about the birds and the bees. Or maybe about Ajax."
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/gettingstartedwithajax
JavaScript Arrays: Combining and Splitting
By Jagadish Chaterjee.
"This series of articles mainly concentrates on working with JavaScript
arrays. This is the second article in the series and mainly
concentrates on working with arrays effectively..."
http://tinyurl.com/rnro3
+07: MISCELLANEOUS.
Interview with Web Design God, Steve Krug
By Anne Holland and Scott McDaniel.
"In honor of the newly released 2nd edition of his 100,000 copy
bestseller, 'Don't Make Me Think,' Steve graciously allowed
MarketingSherpa's Publisher Anne Holland and Internet Director Scott
McDaniel to grill him for an hour on what works (and what doesn't.)
Here's an audio MP3 for you to listen to plus a typed transcript if you
prefer reading..."
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/sample.cfm?contentID=3165
Tearing Down the Factory
By Matt May.
"...no one stakeholder should ever have a veto -- not a creative, not a
coder, not an IA, not QA, not marketing, not an executive. Nobody. No
project can be successful without communication and respect on all
sides...the factory model is not viable. It has to be something more
organic, something more specific to the team. We have learned a lot
about each other by working together, and found that each of us has
some skills that complement another partner. Which is why you might see
the creative director handling the IA, the director of strategy banging
out CSS, or yours truly talking to a marketing team about the paradox
of choice. Each of us has a unique combination of knowledge and
experience, and we need to be able to use all of it."
http://blueflavor.com/ed/process/tearing_down_the_factory.php
Leadership Tips for Intranet Teams
By James Robertson.
"This article outlines a range of practical tips that can be applied to
help intranet teams operate more effectively in this leadership role.
These are all small (but important) steps that can be taken immediately
by any intranet team."
http://www.steptwo.com.au/papers/kmc_leadershiptips/index.html
Intranet Authoring: a Hobby?
By James Robertson.
"The goal of many intranets is to deliver high quality, up-to-date,
accurate and useful information to staff. In practice, however, this
can be challenging to achieve. Much is expected of intranet authors,
and they are vital to delivering an intranet that is useful (and used).
Yet, in many cases, intranet authoring is treated as a hobby within
organisations. This briefing looks at the role of intranet authors, and
challenges organisations to either take intranet authoring seriously,
or to let go of unrealistic expectations regarding content quality and
timeliness."
http://www.steptwo.com.au/papers/cmb_authoringhobby/index.html
+08: NAVIGATION.
Ambient Findability
By Bruce Stewart.
"Findability is the quality of being locatable or navigable, and
'ambient' means surrounding, encircling, and enveloping."
http://tinyurl.com/sys87
+09: PHP.
Improve Your Dev Skills With an Intimate Knowledge of PHP's Date and
Time Functions
By Mellonfire.
"Whether they're being used to display the current server time or
record the exact instance of a database entry, PHP's date and time
functions are a critical part of any Web developer's toolkit. Any tool,
however, is only as good as the craftsman wielding it; and that's where
this document comes in..."
http://builder.com.com/5100-6371_14-6044704.html
+10: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.
Web Standards and the Educations
By Faruk Ates.
"In a very crude way, you could say that there are three types of
people on the Web: there are those who just use it in their daily life
without it having any particular meaning to them; there are those who
love the Web and have learned all about one or more of its infinitely
many aspects. The third group consists of people who have completed an
education of one kind or another which helps them have a profession on
the Web. These people can be designers, online marketeers, back-end
programmers, you name it. They can be anything that involves the Web in
some way, but as far as profession is concerned, this third group
overlaps entirely with the second. Nevertheless, there are vital
differences between the two, differences that play out against our
educated group. Why is this?..."
http://kurafire.net/articles/web-standards-and-educations
Web Standards Quiz - Test Your Knowledge of CSS, XHTML, AJAX...
By khmerang.
"...The quiz is multiple choice test, with only one correct answer per
question. The questions are of varied difficulty, but to get all
correct you really need to know your stuff..."
http://www.khmerang.com/webstandardsquiz/
Microsoft IE7 Progress: Sneak Preview of MIX06 Release
By Molly E. Holzschlag.
"I'm sitting here with Malarkey and Markus Mielke in Mandelieu, a
beautiful town in the south of France. We're here attending the W3C
Technical Plenary and Markus has been kind enough to give us a sneak
preview of the IE7 release that's expected for the MIX06 event."
http://tinyurl.com/nup9h
Breaking the Web Wide Open!
By Marc Canter.
"Even the web giants like AOL, Google, MSN, and Yahoo need to observe
these open standards, or they'll risk becoming the 'walled gardens' of
the new web and be coolio no more."
http://www.alwayson-network.com/comments.php?id=12412_0_1_0_C
How to Create a Standardized Web Site Development Workflow
By Smiley Cat.
"As far as possible, we try to use a standard process for our web
projects. Although it can seem like overkill for smaller projects, one
thing I've discovered is that when it comes to building web sites for
large organizations, there really are no shortcuts..."
http://www.smileycat.com/miaow/archives/000222.html
+11: TOOLS.
E-Speaking
This free speech recognition application for Windows XP, 2000, Me, NT
4.0 does not interact with the JAWS screen-reader, locking out
screen-reading hotkeys. However, E-Speaking may be an option for
individuals with carpel-tunnel, RSI, or temporary medical conditions.
http://www.e-speaking.com/
+12: USABILITY.
Two-Column Forms are Best Avoided
By Caroline Jarrett.
"...Don't do two-column forms...users will frequently fail to notice
the second column altogether with consequential confusion and
annoyance..."
http://www.usabilitynews.com/news/article2992.asp
Web Forms: Death By a Thousand Textboxes
By Jeff Atwood.
"Why do HTML forms have to be death by a thousand tiny textboxes?..."
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000532.html
Usability in One Easy Step (First Draft)
By Joel Spolsky.
"...The point is, does the UI respond to the user in the way in which
the user expected it to respond? If it didn't, the user is going to
feel like they can't control the interface, and they're going to be
unsuccessful. That's all there is to it. Something is usable if it
behaves exactly as expected..."
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/design/1stDraft/03.html
Flywheels, Kinetic Energy, and Friction
By Nick Usborne.
"You want your users to do something-buy things, beg you to work for
them, learn how they too can achieve inner peace. So how do you get
them to do what you want? Try getting out of the way."
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/flywheelsandfriction
How Product Teams Benefit from Usability
By John Rhodes.
"Product teams can leverage usability in three simple ways. First,
usability can disambiguate requirements. Second, it can push a product
closer to perfection with a small investment. Finally, usability helps
product teams inform the organization about potential and expected
support issues..."
http://tinyurl.com/h2pgk
The True Cost of Content
By Gerry McGovern.
"Most content will never show a return on investment. The Web is
overflowing with low-quality content. Sooner or later, senior
management is going to pay serious attention to all this waste. An
organization that had a 4,000 page public website decided to do a major
audit of content quality. As a result, it got rid of 1,000 pages. It
didn't get one single enquiry for the deleted pages. A 100,000 page
intranet deleted 60,000 pages. There was not one single enquiry for the
deleted pages."
http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/nt/2006/nt-2006-03-06-content-cost.htm
Usability and Games: 17 Excellent References
By John Rhodes.
"All resources in this list are freely available..."
http://tinyurl.com/k5223
[Section one ends.]
++ SECTION TWO:
+13: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site?
Accessibility Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/accessibility
Association Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/associations
Book Listings.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/books
Cascading Style Sheets Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/css
Color Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/color
Dreamweaver Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/dreamweaver
Evaluation & Testing Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/testing
Event Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/events
Flash Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/flash
Information Architecture Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/architecture
JavaScript Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/javascript
Miscellaneous Web Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/misc
Navigation Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/navigation
PHP Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/php
Sites & Blogs Listing.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/sites
Standards, Guidelines & Pattern Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/standards
Tool Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/tools
Typography Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/type
Usability Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/usability
XML Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/xml
[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/goto/webdevlist
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 at d.umn.edu
[Issue ends.]
+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE.
- Volume 4, Issue 38, March 12, 2006.
An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design
and development.
++ISSUE 38 CONTENTS.
SECTION ONE: New references.
What's new at the Web Design Reference site?
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/webdesign/
New links in these categories:
01: ACCESSIBILITY.
02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.
03: EVALUATION & TESTING.
04: EVENTS.
05: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE.
06: JAVASCRIPT.
07: MISCELLANEOUS.
08: NAVIGATION.
09: PHP.
10: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.
11: TOOLS.
12: USABILITY.
SECTION TWO:
13: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site?
[Contents ends.]
++ SECTION ONE: New references.
+01: ACCESSIBILITY.
Accessibility First! A New Approach to Web Design
By Brian Rosmaita.
"This paper proposes an accessibility first pedagogy for web design, in
which the course is organized around the requirement of implementing
web pages accessible to visually impaired computer users. This approach
and its advantages are discussed in detail."
http://tinyurl.com/pcsx7
Evaluating Website Accessibility Part 1, Background and Preparation
By Roger Johansson.
"In more and more countries across the world it is becoming required
for government and other public service websites to be based on
standards and follow accessibility guidelines. That in turn is making
it necessary for the people involved in building and maintaining these
sites to be able to build accessible websites and evaluate website
accessibility...This three-part article series is intended to make it
easier for non-experts to perform a basic accessibility check. I hope
it will be helpful enough to make at least a few websites more
accessible..."
http://tinyurl.com/gn6fc
Introduction to Web Accessibility
By Patrick Kennedy.
"One of the hot topics of recent years has been web accessibility. And
for good reason. The industry is finally accepting responsibility for
providing access to information for anyone using a website, or indeed
an intranet. Despite this trend, a great deal of confusion and
misunderstanding continues to surround the subject, and this may be
stopping many from taking the necessary action. This paper is not a
step by step guide to making an accessible website, but rather a quick
overview to point readers in the right direction..."
http://www.steptwo.com.au/papers/cmb_introtoaccessibility/index.html
CATS (Creating Accessible Teaching and Support)
"The CATS Project has established a framework for good practice that
provides information and resources to assist universities to create
equitable access for students with disability and to comply with the
Disability Discrimination Act and the Disability Standards for
Education..."
http://www.adcet.edu.au/cats/default.aspx
Google's Doors Still Shut to Blind
By Susan Kuchinskas.
"Accessibility advocates have accused Google and Yahoo of shutting out
the blind. The door is still closed..."
http://asia.internet.com/news/article.php/3586166
Sign-Language Takes to the Web
By Phil Muncaster.
"Malcolm Wright explains how systems are developing to help firms reach
more people."
http://www.whatpc.co.uk/itweek/analysis/2151441/sign-language-takes-web
Podcasting and Accessibility
WebAim list Thread.
http://webaim.org/discussion/mail_thread.php?thread=2703
+02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.
Layout Gala
By Alessandro Fulciniti.
"In November 2005 I presented on pro.html.it a three-part article on
creating CSS layouts using techniques like negative margins, any order
columns and in some case opposite floats. The main goal of the article
was getting the maximum number of layouts based on the same markup,
each with valid CSS and HTML, without hacks nor workaround and a good
cross-browser compatibility. The result is a set of 40 layouts that
we've thought worth sharing: on each of them you'll find also a
download link (if you want, you can download the entire collection, 40
HTML pages in a single zip file). Further details can be found below
the gallery..."
http://blog.html.it/layoutgala/
Three Steps to a Two Column CSS Layout
By Virginia DeBolt.
"I certainly did not originate this method of creating a two column
layout, but I will summarize it for you. Step one: create a wrapper or
container div and give it a CSS rule: position:relative..."
http://www.webteacher.ws/2006/03/tip-three-steps-to-two-column-css.html
CSS Link Styles
By Chris Jason.
One of the easiest, yet most interactive, elements you can add to your
Web site is dynamic link text-links that change their appearance once
the user puts their cursor over them.
http://www.christopherjason.com/articles/css-link-styles/
+03: EVALUATION & TESTING.
Outliers and Luck in User Performance
By Jakob Nielsen.
"Six percent of task attempts are extremely slow and constitute
outliers in measured user performance. These sad incidents are caused
by bad luck that designers can -- and should -- eradicate."
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/outlier_performance.html
Interview-Based Tasks - Learning from Leonardo DiCaprio
By Jared M. Spool.
"What they didn't know -- what they learned later -- is they had done
everything right, almost. They'd recruited the right users, facilitated
the test properly, and analyzed the results effectively. There was only
one problem: the tasks didn't match what real users do with the site.
That one problem was the source of their current pain."
http://www.uie.com/articles/interview_based_tasks/
Determining Usability from Analytics
By Jared Spool.
"Can you assess the usability of a site or page by looking at the
reports from you analytics tool? Jared thinks not..."
http://tinyurl.com/fe8u5
+04: EVENTS.
UPA 2006: Usability Through Storytelling
June 12-16, 2006.
Broomfield, Colorado U.S.A.
http://www.upassoc.org/conferences_and_events/upa_conference/2006/
+05: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE.
Just Build It: HTML Prototyping and Agile Development
By Garrett Dimon.
"Chances are, you use some sort of prototyping to illustrate Web
interfaces for clients and stakeholders, and rely on those prototypes
for approval. Whether you're using visual design comps, wireframes,
site maps, process flows, page description diagrams (PDDs), or a
combination of these, your goal is always the same. You want to
mitigate the cost of making changes..."
http://tinyurl.com/j2k6p
+06: JAVASCRIPT.
A (Re)-Introduction to JavaScript
By Simon Willison.
"I gave a three hour JavaScript tutorial at ETech this morning, aimed
at people with previous programming experience who hadn't yet dived
deep in to JavaScript as a programming language...I'm posting the
slides here..."
http://simon.incutio.com/slides/2006/etech/javascript/js-tutorial.001.html
Script Smarter: Quality JavaScript from Scratch
By James Edwards and Cameron Adams.
"If you've avoided JavaScript, or only knew it in its previous 'toy
language' incarnations, now's the time to step up and get to know the
newer, smarter JavaScript. This hands-on tour will get you started with
JavaScript before illuminating the ways in which the DOM can be
utilized via JavaScript, the practicalities of pop-up windows, and how
JavaScript can work within a web page to produce slick DHTML effects."
http://www.sitepoint.com/article/javascript-from-scratch
How to Auto Include a Javascript File
By Mark Kahn.
"Many developers have a large library of JavaScript code at their
fingertips that they developed, their collegues developed, or that
they've pieced together. If you've ever wanted to easily find any
JavaScript file this article will show you how."
http://www.webreference.com/programming/javascript/mk/
Ajax/DHTML Library Scorecard: How Cross Platform Are They?
By Leland Scott.
This article reviews and categorizes DHTML/AJAX/JS libraries and grades
how cross-browser they are.
http://www.musingsfrommars.org/2006/03/ajax-dhtml-library-scorecard.html
Getting Started with Ajax
By Aaron Gustafson.
"In this excerpt from O'Reilly's Web Design in a Nutshell, 3rd Edition,
ALA's production editor would like to take you aside for a little chat
about the birds and the bees. Or maybe about Ajax."
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/gettingstartedwithajax
JavaScript Arrays: Combining and Splitting
By Jagadish Chaterjee.
"This series of articles mainly concentrates on working with JavaScript
arrays. This is the second article in the series and mainly
concentrates on working with arrays effectively..."
http://tinyurl.com/rnro3
+07: MISCELLANEOUS.
Interview with Web Design God, Steve Krug
By Anne Holland and Scott McDaniel.
"n honor of the newly released 2nd edition of his 100,000 copy
bestseller, 'Don't Make Me Think,' Steve graciously allowed
MarketingSherpa's Publisher Anne Holland and Internet Director Scott
McDaniel to grill him for an hour on what works (and what doesn't.)
Here's an audio MP3 for you to listen to plus atyped transcript if you
prefer reading: "
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/sample.cfm?contentID=3165
Tearing Down the Factory
By Matt May.
"...no one stakeholder should ever have a veto -- not a creative, not a
coder, not an IA, not QA, not marketing, not an executive. Nobody. No
project can be successful without communication and respect on all
sides...the factory model is not viable. It has to be something more
organic, something more specific to the team. We have learned a lot
about each other by working together, and found that each of us has
some skills that complement another partner. Which is why you might see
the creative director handling the IA, the director of strategy banging
out CSS, or yours truly talking to a marketing team about the paradox
of choice. Each of us has a unique combination of knowledge and
experience, and we need to be able to use all of it."
http://blueflavor.com/ed/process/tearing_down_the_factory.php
Leadership Tips for Intranet Teams
By James Robertson.
"This article outlines a range of practical tips that can be applied to
help intranet teams operate more effectively in this leadership role.
These are all small (but important) steps that can be taken immediately
by any intranet team."
http://www.steptwo.com.au/papers/kmc_leadershiptips/index.html
Intranet Authoring: a Hobby?
By James Robertson.
"The goal of many intranets is to deliver high quality, up-to-date,
accurate and useful information to staff. In practice, however, this
can be challenging to achieve. Much is expected of intranet authors,
and they are vital to delivering an intranet that is useful (and used).
Yet, in many cases, intranet authoring is treated as a hobby within
organisations. This briefing looks at the role of intranet authors, and
challenges organisations to either take intranet authoring seriously,
or to let go of unrealistic expectations regarding content quality and
timeliness."
http://www.steptwo.com.au/papers/cmb_authoringhobby/index.html
+08: NAVIGATION.
Ambient Findability
By Bruce Stewart.
"Findability is the quality of being locatable or navigable, and
'ambient' means surrounding, encircling, and enveloping."
http://tinyurl.com/sys87
+09: PHP.
Improve Your Dev Skills With an Intimate Knowledge of PHP's Date and
Time Functions
By Mellonfire.
"Whether they're being used to display the current server time or
record the exact instance of a database entry, PHP's date and time
functions are a critical part of any Web developer's toolkit. Any tool,
however, is only as good as the craftsman wielding it; and that's where
this document comes in..."
http://builder.com.com/5100-6371_14-6044704.html
+10: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.
Web Standards and the Educations
By Faruk Ates.
"In a very crude way, you could say that there are three types of
people on the Web: there are those who just use it in their daily life
without it having any particular meaning to them; there are those who
love the Web and have learned all about one or more of its infinitely
many aspects. The third group consists of people who have completed an
education of one kind or another which helps them have a profession on
the Web. These people can be designers, online marketeers, back-end
programmers, you name it. They can be anything that involves the Web in
some way, but as far as profession is concerned, this third group
overlaps entirely with the second. Nevertheless, there are vital
differences between the two, differences that play out against our
educated group. Why is this?..."
http://kurafire.net/articles/web-standards-and-educations
Web Standards Quiz - Test Your Knowledge of CSS, XHTML, AJAX...
By khmerang.
"...The quiz is multiple choice test, with only one correct answer per
question. The questions are of varied difficulty, but to get all
correct you really need to know your stuff..."
http://www.khmerang.com/webstandardsquiz/
Microsoft IE7 Progress: Sneak Preview of MIX06 Release
By Molly E. Holzschlag.
"I'm sitting here with Malarkey and Markus Mielke in Mandelieu, a
beautiful town in the south of France. We're here attending the W3C
Technical Plenary and Markus has been kind enough to give us a sneak
preview of the IE7 release that's expected for the MIX06 event."
http://tinyurl.com/nup9h
Breaking the Web Wide Open!
By Marc Canter.
"Even the web giants like AOL, Google, MSN, and Yahoo need to observe
these open standards, or they'll risk becoming the 'walled gardens' of
the new web and be coolio no more."
http://www.alwayson-network.com/comments.php?id=12412_0_1_0_C
How to Create a Standardized Web Site Development Workflow
By Smiley Cat.
"As far as possible, we try to use a standard process for our web
projects. Although it can seem like overkill for smaller projects, one
thing I've discovered is that when it comes to building web sites for
large organizations, there really are no shortcuts..."
http://www.smileycat.com/miaow/archives/000222.html
+11: TOOLS.
E-Speaking
This free speech recognition application for Windows XP, 2000, Me, NT
4.0 does not interact with the JAWS screen-reader, locking out
screen-reading hotkeys. However, E-Speaking may be an option for
individuals with carpel-tunnel, RSI, or temporary medical conditions.
http://www.e-speaking.com/
+12: USABILITY.
Two-Column Forms are Best Avoided
By Caroline Jarrett.
"...Don't do two-column forms...users will frequently fail to notice
the second column altogether with consequential confusion and
annoyance..."
http://www.usabilitynews.com/news/article2992.asp
Web Forms: Death By a Thousand Textboxes
By Jeff Atwood.
"Why do HTML forms have to be death by a thousand tiny textboxes?..."
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000532.html
Usability in One Easy Step (First Draft)
By Joel Spolsky.
"...The point is, does the UI respond to the user in the way in which
the user expected it to respond? If it didn't, the user is going to
feel like they can't control the interface, and they're going to be
unsuccessful. That's all there is to it. Something is usable if it
behaves exactly as expected..."
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/design/1stDraft/03.html
Flywheels, Kinetic Energy, and Friction
By Nick Usborne.
"You want your users to do something-buy things, beg you to work for
them, learn how they too can achieve inner peace. So how do you get
them to do what you want? Try getting out of the way."
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/flywheelsandfriction
How Product Teams Benefit from Usability
By John Rhodes.
"Product teams can leverage usability in three simple ways. First,
usability can disambiguate requirements. Second, it can push a product
closer to perfection with a small investment. Finally, usability helps
product teams inform the organization about potential and expected
support issues..."
http://tinyurl.com/h2pgk
The True Cost of Content
By Gerry McGovern.
"Most content will never show a return on investment. The Web is
overflowing with low-quality content. Sooner or later, senior
management is going to pay serious attention to all this waste. An
organization that had a 4,000 page public website decided to do a major
audit of content quality. As a result, it got rid of 1,000 pages. It
didn't get one single enquiry for the deleted pages. A 100,000 page
intranet deleted 60,000 pages. There was not one single enquiry for the
deleted pages."
http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/nt/2006/nt-2006-03-06-content-cost.htm
Usability and Games: 17 Excellent References
By John Rhodes.
"All resources in this list are freely available..."
http://tinyurl.com/k5223
[Section one ends.]
++ SECTION TWO:
+13: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site?
Accessibility Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/accessibility
Association Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/associations
Book Listings.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/books
Cascading Style Sheets Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/css
Color Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/color
Dreamweaver Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/dreamweaver
Evaluation & Testing Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/testing
Event Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/events
Flash Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/flash
Information Architecture Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/architecture
JavaScript Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/javascript
Miscellaneous Web Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/misc
Navigation Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/navigation
PHP Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/php
Sites & Blogs Listing.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/sites
Standards, Guidelines & Pattern Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/standards
Tool Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/tools
Typography Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/type
Usability Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/usability
XML Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/xml
[Section two ends.]
++END NOTES.
+ SUBSCRIPTION INFO.
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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:
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+ 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 at d.umn.edu
[Issue ends.]
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