[webdev] Web Design Update: November 20, 2009

Fri Nov 20 06:17:59 CST 2009

+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE.
- Volume 8, Issue 21, November 20, 2009.

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

++ISSUE 21 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: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.
10: TYPOGRAPHY.
11: USABILITY.

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

[Contents ends.]

++ SECTION ONE: New references.

+01: ACCESSIBILITY.

Too Hard is the Worst Excuse
By Sarah E Bourne.
"Accessibility is no harder and no more expensive than any other part 
of web development. Everything is hard and expensive if you don't know 
how to do it, and it's not hard when you know how. So learn how to do 
it, just like you learn to do anything else on the web. There is no 
shortage of useful information on the web; for instance, here's a place 
to start: WaSP InterAct Curriculum: Accessibility."
http://sarahebourne.posterous.com/too-hard-is-the-worst-excuse

Maximum Accessibility
By Inclusive New Media Design (INMD).
"How much do you know about web accessibility for site visitors with 
intellectual disabilities?..."
http://www.inclusivenewmedia.org/blog/how-accessible-is-your-website/

Stanford Captioning System: A Workflow Model for Producing Captioned 
Media
By John Foliot and Sean Keegan.
"John Foliot approached the Office of Accessible Education with an idea 
to streamline the production of captioned videos at Stanford 
University..."
http://captioning.stanford.edu/presentations/ahg2009/web.php

Gov 2.0: Transparency Without Accessibility?
By Alice Lipowicz.
"Nearly 20 percent of Americans need sites such as Recovery.gov and 
Disability.gov to improve accessibility features..."
http://fcw.com/articles/2009/11/16/pol-accessibility.aspx

Live from NCTI 2009: Powering Students with Technology
By Suzanne Robitaille.
"...here are five trends that will unleash the power of assistive 
technology in the classroom: 1. Convergence...2. Customizability...3. 
Evidence-based Research.... Portability...5. Interoperability..."
http://tinyurl.com/y9cga9j

Expand the Awesome: Design for a Wider Audience
By Ann McMeekin.
"...Inclusive Design doesn't have to be ugly. It can be a thing of 
beauty that's a delight to use, whoever happens to be using it. It's 
easy to say, but I do think that Accessibility is kind of like an 
extreme form of Usability. If a product is easy to use by people with 
impairments, it is highly likely to be easier to use by people who 
don't have impairments..."
http://tinyurl.com/y9xr4ob

Do You Find Table Summaries Helpful?
By Roger Johansson.
"On the W3C HTML Working Group's mailing list there's been plenty of 
discussion about the future of the table element's summary attribute. 
Should it be allowed at all in HTML 5? Should it be allowed but only 
'semi-valid'? Should other ways of providing information about the 
structure of a data table be encouraged?..."
http://tinyurl.com/yh29gwv

+02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.

Vendor-Specific Extensions are Invalid CSS
By Roger Johansson.
Vendor-specific extensions, even if written according to the CSS 2.1 
grammar, use property names and values that are not defined in the CSS 
specification and are invalid.
http://tinyurl.com/yllblgh

HTML/CSS Frameworks: Useful, Universal, Usable, Unobtrusive
By Jens Meiert.
"A high quality HTML/CSS framework needs to have four attributes: 
useful, universal, usable, and unobtrusive...Now that we think about 
it, maybe the universal margin and padding reset - the one I had to 
tweet again for simplicity reasons - is the only HTML/CSS 'framework” 
that meets these requirements..."
http://meiert.com/en/blog/20091118/useful-universal-usable-unobtrusive/

+03: EVALUATION & TESTING.

Web Accessibility Surveys - Results are Frequently Disappointing
By David Sloan.
"A recent exchange on Twitter has motivated me to write about the 
contribution published surveys on web site accessibility make towards 
understanding and addressing the problems that hold back web 
accessibility. I've read, and continue to read, many, many papers 
presenting the results of surveys of web sites, and I think we need 
surveys to look beyond just the data and instead delve more deeply into 
why the results are as they are. We've gone way beyond the point where 
a paper simply reporting that a study of x web sites from y sector 
revealed 'disappointing' levels of accessibility provides anything more 
than a minor contribution. Surveys need to look at process not 
product..."
http://tinyurl.com/yzubhkb

+04: EVENTS.

linux.conf.au
January 18-23, 2010.
Wellington, New Zealand
http://www.lca2010.org.nz/

Future of Web Apps (FOWA) Miami 2010
Feburary 22-24, 2010.
Miami, Florida, U.S.A.
http://events.carsonified.com/fowa/2010/miami

South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive
March 12-16, 2010.
Austin, Texas, U.S.A.
http://2009.sxsw.com/interactive/

EDUCAUSE Midwest Regional Conference 2010
March 15-17, 2010.
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.
http://net.educause.edu/content.asp?SECTION_ID=453&bhcp=1

CSUN Technology and Persons with Disabilities Conference
March 22-27, 2010.
San Diego, California, U.S.A.
http://www.csunconference.org/cfp.cfm?EID=80000218

+05: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE.

The Information Architecture of Behavior Change Websites
By Brian G Danaher H. Garth McKay, and John R Seeley.
"The extraordinary growth in Internet use offers researchers important 
new opportunities to identify and test new ways to deliver effective 
behavior change programs. The information architecture - the structure 
of website information - is an important but often overlooked factor to 
consider when adapting behavioral strategies developed in office-based 
settings for Web delivery. Using examples and relevant perspectives 
from multiple disciplines, we describe a continuum of website IA 
designs ranging from a matrix design to the tunnel design."
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1550648/

+06: JAVASCRIPT.

Google Closure: How Not to Write JavaScript
By Kevin Yank.
"At the Edge of the Web conference in Perth last week I got to catch up 
with Dmitry Baranovskiy, the creator of the Raphael and gRaphael 
JavaScript libraries. Perhaps the most important thing these libraries 
do is make sophisticated vector graphics possible in Internet Explorer, 
where JavaScript performance is relatively poor. Dmitry, therefore, has 
little patience for poorly-written JavaScript like the code he found in 
Google's just-released Closure Library..."
http://tinyurl.com/ybsy2ho

+07: MISCELLANEOUS.

Tim Berners-Lee on Government Data
By Anne van Kesteren, Lachlan Hunt, and Marcos Caceres.
During TPAC, we sat down for a chat with the Director of the W3C, Sir 
Tim Berners-Lee. During the interview, Tim filled us in about his goals 
for this year with regards to getting the world's  governments to open 
up the people's data (yes 'raw data now!'). We grilled him about what 
that means: does it really mean 'raw' or is it really an RDF 
conspiracy? Tim has some great anecdotes about the uses of raw data and 
what we, as citizens, can achieve if we work together and get 
governments to give us raw data now! (don't be shy! shout it out! I 
sure as hell did).
http://standardssuck.org/tim-berners-lee-on-government-data

Print Design to Web Design: Comparative Analogies
By Chris Coyier.
"...thinking about some of the ways working in InDesign is similar to 
CSS, and some of the ways it's not. Let's have a look..."
http://css-tricks.com/print-design-to-web-design/

Jeffrey Zeldman Interview (podcast)
By Nancy Aldrich-Ruenzel.
"Author and co-founder of The Web Standards Project Jeffrey Zeldman 
talks to publisher Nancy Aldrich-Ruenzel about the 3rd Edition of his 
book Designing with Web Standards. He also reveals why writers 'can't 
edit themselves.'"
http://tinyurl.com/yexv9j2

Media Multitaskers Pay Mental Price, Stanford Study Shows
By Adam Gorlick and Jack Hubbard.
"Think you can talk on the phone, send an instant message and read your 
e-mail all at once? Stanford researchers say even trying may impair 
your cognitive control."
http://tinyurl.com/nbot3p

+08: NAVIGATION.

How to Create Clear Web Navigation Menus
By Gerry McGovern.
"To create clear menus you need to understand your customers' top tasks 
and use the words they would look for as they seek to complete these 
tasks."
http://tinyurl.com/y85vmju

+09: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.

HTML5 - What Will the Web Look Like Tomorrow?
By Sam Ruby.
Sam's presentation slides from The South Tyrol Free Software 
Conference. ""W3C adds Accessibility, Semantic Web, and a level of 
protection against patents...Concerns such as accessibility and 
security may affect the adoption rates of shims such as Google Chrome 
Frame..."
http://intertwingly.net/slides/2009/sfscon/

Implementation Progress on the HTML5 <ruby> Element
By Mike Smith.
"If you don't know what the HTML5 ruby element is, you might want to 
take a minute to first read the section about the ruby element in the 
HTML5 specification and/or the Wikipedia article on ruby characters. To 
quote from the HTML5 description of the ruby element..."
http://blog.whatwg.org/implementation-progress-on-the-html5-ruby-element

Designing with Web Standards - The Future of Web Standards
By Jeffrey Zeldman.
A free sample chapter of The third edition of "Designing With Web 
Standards" is available.
http://www.peachpit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1409807

Coding Clean and Semantic Templates
By Nick La.
"If you are the guy who uses <div> tag for everything, this post is for 
you. It focuses on how you can write clean HTML code by using semantic 
markups and minimize the use of <div> tag. Have you ever edited 
someone's templates, don't those messy tags drive you crazy? Not only 
writing clean templates can benefit yourself, but your team as well. It 
will save you time when you have to debug and edit (particularly the 
large projects)..."
http://tinyurl.com/yjrz68t

Video in HTML5: Still an Unresolved Issue
By Frederic Lardinois.
"Some modern browsers already offer partial support for HTML5, but 
there are still quite a few issues that need to be resolved before we 
will see the finalized version of the HTML5 specifications. One area 
where there is still a lot of discussion is support for video in 
HTML5..."
http://tinyurl.com/yjxsmpd

Speculative HTML5 Parsing Landed
By Henri Sivonen.
"As mentioned earlier, there is an ongoing project for replacing 
Gecko's old HTML parser with an HTML5 parser. Today, a significant 
milestone landed: off-the-main-thread speculative HTML5 parsing..."
http://hsivonen.iki.fi/speculative-html5-parsing/

+10: TYPOGRAPHY.

Real Web Type in Real Web Context
By Tim Brown.
"Web fonts are here. Now that browsers support real fonts in web pages 
and we can license complete typefaces for such use, it's time to think 
pragmatically about how to use real fonts in our web projects. Above 
all, we need to know how our type renders in screens, in web browsers. 
To that end, Tim Brown has created Web Font Specimen, a handy, free 
resource web designers and type designers can use to see how typefaces 
will look on the web."
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/real-web-type-in-real-web-context/

On Web Typography
By Jason Santa Maria.
Until now, chances are that if we dropped text onto a web page in a 
system font at a reasonable size, it was legible. But with many 
typefaces about to be freed for use on websites, choosing the right 
ones to complement a site's design will be far more challenging. Many 
faces to which we'll soon have access were never meant for screen use, 
either because they're aesthetically unsuitable or because they're just 
plain illegible. Jason Santa Maria, a force behind improved type on the 
web, presents qualities and methods to keep in mind as we venture into 
the
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/on-web-typography/

Typography on the Web: Questions for Jeffrey Zeldman-Part 1
By Ellen Lupton.
"Remember when the only typefaces you could use on a website were 
Georgia, Verdana, Helvetica, and a few others? We are now on the verge 
of a new age of typographic diversity. Jeffrey Zeldman, one the most 
outspoken and influential people in the web design community, agreed to 
answer some questions about the state of typography on the web..."
http://www.printmag.com/Article/Questions-for-Jeffrey-Zeldman-Part-1

Typography on the Web: Questions for Jeffrey Zeldman-Part 2
By Ellen Lupton.
"The basic conundrum for web typography revolves around the seemingly 
contradictory needs of users and designers. Users need the ability to 
re-size text on demand. Designers need the ability to create designs 
with predictable results in different browsers and different user 
scenarios. Can these competing imperatives be reconciled?..."
http://www.printmag.com/Article/Questions-for-Jeffrey-Zeldman-Part-2

+11: USABILITY.

First, Do No Harm
By Pabini Gabriel-Petit.
"...Whether you are designing interactions for desktop, Web, or mobile 
applications, there are some foundational design principles you should 
always follow..."
http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2009/11/first-do-no-harm.php

Cooking a Website
By Dmitry Fadeyev.
"...what I do find interesting is that I'm seeing several parallels 
between cooking and designing interfaces and websites..."
http://www.usabilitypost.com/2009/11/13/cooking-a-website/

A Unified Approach to Visual and Interaction Design
By Nate Fortin.
"...my observation has been that even when all of the right people are 
involved, more often than not, the various design disciplines opt to 
compartmentalize the problem. In other words, they divide the project 
into an interaction design problem, a visual design problem, and an 
industrial design problem. Each of these problems is then tackled 
separately, and the resulting individual design solutions get bolted 
together at the end. It's a Tower of Babel situation, where huge 
opportunities are lost because the team fails to work together to come 
up with an innovative product solution and to employ a single, unified 
design language."
http://www.cooper.com/journal/2008/11/a_unified_approach_to_design.html

6 Things Video Games Can Teach Us About Web Usability
By Mark Riggan.
"Those who think video games are not educational, this post is for you. 
Not only can video games be an enjoyable experience, they can teach us 
many things. Websites and video games often use similar concepts about 
usability in order to achieve an amazing end-product. I've come up with 
6 essential concepts that video games can teach web designers about 
usability."
http://tinyurl.com/ykdvg2p

Four Key Principles of Mobile User Experience Design
By Dakota Reese Brown.
"...1: There is an intimate relationship between a user and their 
mobile device...2: Screen size implies a user's state. The user's state 
infers their commitment to what is on the screen.3: Mobile interfaces 
are truncated. Other interfaces are not...4: Design for mobile 
platforms ? the real ones..."
http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/four-key-principles

Agile User Experience Projects
By Jakob Nielsen.
"Agile projects aren't yet fully user-driven, but new research shows 
that developers are actually more bullish on key user experience issues 
than UX people themselves..."
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/agile-user-experience.html

[Section one ends.]

++ SECTION TWO:

+12: 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.]