[webdev] Web Design Update: October 10, 2008

Fri Oct 10 06:31:31 CDT 2008

+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE.
- Volume 7, Issue 15, October 10, 2008.

An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design 
and development.

++ISSUE 15 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: DREAMWEAVER.
04: EVALUATION & TESTING.
05: EVENTS.
06: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE.
07: JAVASCRIPT.
08: MISCELLANEOUS.
09: NAVIGATION.
10: PHP.
11: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.
12: TOOLS.
13: USABILITY.
14: XML.

SECTION TWO:
15: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site?

[Contents ends.]

++ SECTION ONE: New references.

+01: ACCESSIBILITY.

Web Accessibility QuickTips: WCAG 2.0 at a Glance
By W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI).
"This page provides a summary of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 
WCAG 2.0; however, it is paraphrased and it is not a definitive 
version. Please see the following key resources for learning and using 
WCAG 2.0..."
http://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG20/glance/

Get Started with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Version 2.0
By Henny Swan.
"The Web has evolved considerably since 1999 when the Web Content 
Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 1.0 was published. Today, we 
see increased functionality, interactivity and use of technologies such 
as multimedia, Flash, AJAX, and more. Combined these bring a richer 
experience to most Web users but due to their complexities have left 
many disabled users behind. The WCAG version builds on WCAG 1.0 to 
accommodate all of today's Web technologies and help bring an 
accessible rich experience to all Web users..."
http://a3.barrierbreak.com/web_getstarted.php

Acknowledging the Elephant in the Room - Moving Toward Media 
Accessibility
By Rahul Gonsalves.
"...the accessibility of online media-videos, audios and interactive 
presentations, which combine the two - has been carefully ignored and 
cannot be solved via technical means alone. No amount of tinkering with 
the source code is going to make them accessible to people who cannot 
see, hear or who are deaf-blind. The solution is obvious - captioning 
is needed for those who cannot hear while text descriptions which can 
be both accessed on a Braille device and converted to speech are 
required for the deaf-blind and the blind respectively..."
http://a3.barrierbreak.com/media_acknowledging.php

Working with Captions
By Mamta H. Tandel.
"Video plays an important role in the education, as it is increasingly 
utilized in Web-based learning applications. But, how many of these are 
accessible to people who are deaf or hard of hearing and senior 
citizens? Would people using mobile devices be able to access the audio 
content in a noisy environment? Is there a way to make prerecorded 
videos accessible to these people?..."
http://a3.barrierbreak.com/workingwithcaptions.php

Easy YouTube and Learning Disabilities
By Christian Heilmann.
"Those of you who attended Scripting Enabled in London will remember 
Antonia Hyde showing the video of Lizzie, a user with learning 
disabilities trying to watch her own video on YouTube and giving 
feedback on Easy YouTube. Antonia now uploaded the video for all of us 
to see..."
http://tinyurl.com/4us35v

+02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.

Aligning Inline Images with the Vertical-Align Property
By Russ Weakley.
"I recently received the following question: How do you vertically 
position a small image inside a paragraph of text?..."
http://www.maxdesign.com.au/2008/10/05/vertical-align/

Smarter CSS Using an Adjacent Selector
By Clive Walker.
"Wouldn't it be great if you could add styles to your web page by 
specifying a style for a particular element on the basis of its 
proximity to another element? Well, in fact, you can do this using the 
adjacent-sibling selector..."
http://tinyurl.com/4z734l

Yellow Fade with CSS and a Simple Image
By Emil Stenstrom.
"Via Think Vitamin I find a cool way to highlight the current element. 
Lots of people do this by calling some kind of javascript library, it's 
so common it's been dubbed the yellow fade technique. But javascript 
isn't really needed, you just need CSS and an image..."
http://friendlybit.com/css/yellow-fade-with-css-and-a-simple-image/

Floatitis Part 1 - An Introduction
By Niels Matthijs.
"Floats, the nightmare of everyone starting out with css. Sure they are 
helpful, but are they worth all the bugs and cursing and exceptions on 
exceptions on rules? The next couple of articles will take a closer 
look at floats, giving a small introduction on their nature and 
elaborating on methods to avoid using floats. This way you can 
hopefully ignore a whole lot of potential future bugs and browser 
fixes."
http://www.onderhond.com/blog/work/floatitis-pt1-introduction

eduStyle
By Stewart Foss.
"eduStyle is a web design gallery dedicated to higher education 
websites and powered by higher education web design professionals. 
Users submit, review, and comment on sites they like (or don't like)."
http://www.edustyle.net/about.php

+03: DREAMWEAVER.

The Related Files Bar in Dreamweaver CS4
By Virginia DeBolt.
"Adobe Dreamweaver CS4 introduced the related files bar. It appears at 
the top of each document window and lists all CSS and JavaScript files 
that are related to the web page. If you're using a server-side 
programming language like PHP, you also see included server-side files 
listed in the related files bar..."
http://tinyurl.com/3w4zwx

+04: EVALUATION & TESTING.

When to Use Which User Experience Research Methods
By Jakob Nielsen.
"Modern day user experience research methods can now answer a wide 
range of questions. Knowing when to use each method can be understood 
by mapping them in 3 key dimensions and across typical product 
development phases."
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/user-research-methods.html

You Won't See What You Don't Look At...
By Kath Straub.
"Using eyetracking to evaluate engagement and click likelihood"
http://www.humanfactors.com/downloads/sep08.asp

+05: EVENTS.

Understanding User Centered Design
October 16, 2008.
Bristol, United Kingdom.
http://www.pureusability.co.uk/ucdworkshop

A Practical Introduction to Website Accessibility
November 12, 2008.
London, United Kingdom.
http://www.abilitynet.org.uk/webintroaccessibility

W4A
April 20-21, 2009.
Madrid, Spain.
http://www.w4a.info/

CSUN
March 16-21, 2009.
Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.
http://www.csun.edu/cod/conf/

Web 2.0 Expo San Francisco
March 31-April 3, 2009
San Francisco, California, U.S.A.
http://en.oreilly.com/webexsf2009/public/content/home

An Event Apart 2009
May 4-5, 2009 in Seattle, Washington, U.S.A.
June 22-23, 2009 in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
December 7-8, 2009 in San Francisco, California U.S.A.
http://www.aneventapart.com/news/2008/10/an_event_apart_2009.php

+06: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE.

Extending Card-Sorting Techniques to Inform the Design of Web Site 
Hierarchies
By Michael Hawley.
"Card sorting is a useful technique for discovering user perspectives 
on site navigation. However, designers or user researchers who conduct 
card-sorting exercises should be aware of the method's challenges and 
assumptions. This column has presented a number of alternative methods 
that can extend and complement card sorting and thus provide the most 
comprehensive insights for designing an effective information 
hierarchy."
http://www.uxmatters.com/MT/archives/000332.php

+07: JAVASCRIPT.

Using JavaScript to Increase Accessibility
By Christian Heilmann.
"I've talked about Scripting Enabled recently at the @mediaAjax 
conference in London, here are slides and the audio recording of the 
talk..."
http://scriptingenabled.org/2008/10/scripting-enabled-using/

Understanding Progressive Enhancement
By Aaron Gustafson.
"Steven Champeon turned web development upside down, and created an 
instant best practice of standards-based design, when he introduced the 
notion of designing for content and experience instead of browsers. In 
part one of a series, ALA's Gustafson refreshes us on the principles of 
progressive enhancement. Upcoming installments will translate the 
philosophy into sophisticated, future-focused design and code."
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/understandingprogressiveenhancement

JavaScript Inheritance - How and Why
By Robert Nyman.
"Currently I'm working a fair bit with JavaScript and teaching 
different ways to use it, and what I want to talk to you about is if 
and how you use inheritance in JavaScript."
http://tinyurl.com/3kqqrj

Introducing onFocus and onBlur
By Todd Kloots.
"...we've rolled PPK's solution into two methods of the Event Utility: 
addFocusListener and addBlurListener (or onFocus and onBlur for 
short)..."
http://yuiblog.com/blog/2008/10/07/onfocus-onblur/

+08: MISCELLANEOUS.

Derek Featherstone - Accessibility is More Than Compliance (Interview)
By Kevin Yank.
"At the Web Directions South conference last week, SitePoint's Kevin 
Yank had the opportunity to speak with Derek Featherstone, a well-known 
web developer, author, and accessibility advocate..."
http://www.sitepoint.com/article/interview-derek-featherstone/

Douglas Crockford - JavaScript Doesn't Suck (Interview)
By Kevin Yank.
"JavaScript guru and Yahoo architect, Douglas Crockford was in Sydney 
town recently for the annual event that is Web Directions South. He 
kindly gave up some of his time to chat to SitePoint's Kevin Yank on 
the continuing evolution of JavaScript."
http://www.sitepoint.com/article/interview-doug-crockford/

Web Professional Education - Interview with Molly Holzschlag, Author, 
Web Professional and Speaker
By Bill Cullifer.
"...I asked Molly to share her viewpoints on what we need to do as a 
profession and as a professional organization to influence education in 
the Web profession and for students at the primary, secondary and the 
post secondary level..."
http://tinyurl.com/496bw7

+09: NAVIGATION.

Hidden Barriers - Multiple Links in Headings
By Bim Egan.
"Most of you won't believe what I'm about to describe, and would never 
use heading structure in this way. This post isn't for you, it's for 
the people who believe that it's OK to wrap several links inside a 
single heading tag, or in fact use one heading to enclose one or more 
other elements or types of content..."
http://tinyurl.com/4mgsbk

+10: PHP.

My PHP Best Practices
By Mike Bernat.
"...I've come up with a list of things that I feel are most important 
to me when it comes to coding..."
http://www.mikebernat.com/blog/My_PHP_Best_Practices

+11: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.

This Week in HTML 5 - Episode 8
By Mark Pilgrim.
"...It's time to catch up on the myriad of changes to the HTML 5 spec. 
The big news this week is the continued merging of Web Forms 2 into 
HTML 5..."
http://blog.whatwg.org/this-week-in-html-5-episode-8

Last Week in HTML5
By Jean-Baptiste Clamence.
"Documenting the sublime utterences of the WHAT working group."
http://lastweekinhtml5.blogspot.com/

HTML 5, Headings and Sections
By Matt Ryall.
"...Whereas HTML 4 had just six levels of headings for the entire 
document, the working draft for HTML 5 stipulates that each section has 
its own heading hierarchy. An h1 element that appears at the top level 
in a document is considered to 'rank higher than' an h1 element found 
in a section or article within the document..."
http://www.mattryall.net/blog/2008/10/html-5-headings-and-sections

Is it Time to Start Using HTML5?
By Cody Hatch.
"Is it time to start using HTML5? Someone has to start sometime but is 
now the time?..."
http://tinyurl.com/4v5xdg

IE8: The Bad (Update)
By Anne van Kesteren.
"In March I wrote a post titled IE8: The Bad, since then a new beta of 
Internet Explorer has been released. It still seems a bit dubious 
whether they are actually committing to standards. This could be a 
communication issue or actually intended. It is mostly unclear to me..."
http://annevankesteren.nl/2008/10/ie8-bad-update

+12: TOOLS.

Examining WAI-ARIA Live Regions
By Gez Lemon.
"TPG  are working with the Mozilla  foundation to develop accessibility 
testing tools. Specifically, we're developing WAI-ARIA tools, as well 
as improving accessibility of mainstream tools such as Firebug  and 
providing ARIA testing features in mainstream developer tools. As part 
of that work, this Firefox extension examines WAI-ARIA's Live Regions 
(this functionality will eventually be incorporated into a WAT for 
Firefox extension). The live regions extension  is currently available 
in a toolbar with the latest versions of the colour contrast analyser 
and table inspector extensions."
http://juicystudio.com/article/examining-wai-aria-live-regions.php

Examining WAI-ARIA Document Landmark Roles
By Gez Lemon.
"I have updated the accessibility extension  to investigate WAI-ARIA 
document landmark roles."
http://juicystudio.com/article/examining-wai-aria-document-andmark-roles.php

Examining WAI-ARIA Roles
By Gez Lemon.
"I have updated the accessibility extension to display all WAI-ARIA 
roles."
http://juicystudio.com/article/examining-wai-aria-roles.php

+13: USABILITY.

Block Reading - How We Read on the Web
By Gerry McGovern.
"We don't scan a web page. Instead, we scan a particular block or 
section of it..."
http://tinyurl.com/4mmnuk

Writing For People Who Do Not Read Easily - Workshop Review
By  Mike Unwalla.
"The workshop 'Writing for people who do not read easily'...took place 
on 2 September 2008 as part of 'HCI2008 Culture, Creativity, 
Interaction'...at Liverpool John Moores University. Mike Unwalla gives 
his perspectives of the discussions, which were about both reading on 
paper and reading on a computer screen. This article is not a complete 
review of the workshop..."
http://www.techscribe.co.uk/ta/read-easily-hci-2008.htm

Communicate Quick - First Impressions Through Visual Web Design
By Luke Wroblewski.
"While many people still associate visual design for the Web with 
'making things look pretty', investing in the presentation layer of Web 
sites can quickly yield more significant returns. When done right, the 
visual design of a Web page can communicate key concepts to Web users: 
what am I looking at, how do I use it, and why would I care to? Of 
these fundamental questions, one gets asked before the others and often 
determines if people give your Web site a chance to succeed or not."
http://www.uie.com/articles/communicate_quick/

+14: XML.

XHTML - Myths and Reality
By Tina Holmboe.
"It is difficult to find a web development language today which is as 
misunderstood as XHTML. In the following article we'll examine why, 
sort out a few concepts that frequently confuse authors, and offer 
practical suggestions on real-life XHTML usage..."
http://www.dev-archive.net/articles/xhtml.html

[Section one ends.]

++ SECTION TWO:

+15: 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 
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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.]