[webdev] Web Design Update: January 22, 2010

[Laura Carlson]

+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE.
- Volume 8, Issue 30, January 22, 2010.

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

++ISSUE 30 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: NAVIGATION.
08: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.
09: USABILITY.


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

[Contents ends.]


++ SECTION ONE: New references.

+01: ACCESSIBILITY.

Try Audio Describing a Painting
By Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB).
"Think of your favorite work of visual art. Now try describing the 
essence of it by writing it down or saying it out loud to yourself in 
about 200 words..."
http://tinyurl.com/yf2tl2o

A Call for Consistent Display of alt text Across Browsers
By Roger Johansson.
"A while ago I posted Safari, WebKit and alt text for missing images, in 
which I note that most WebKit-based browsers do not always display alt 
text when images are missing. In alt and title content display in 
popular browsers, Steve Faulkner presents his results from taking a 
closer look at this in the browsers that are currently most widely used..."
http://tinyurl.com/yfk5feo

Accessibility for Architects, Accessibility for Web Designers
By David Sloan.
"Often, when working to promote accessibility of the digital 
environment, we look to the physical environment for comparisons and 
analogies. A PhD study at the School of Architecture here in Dundee has 
made me realist just how many parallels there are in the challenge of 
raising the profile of accessibility both amongst architects and amongst 
web and software developers."
http://tinyurl.com/ykd653e

Definitions of 'Cognitive Disability'
By John Rochford.
"Goal - Find a recent, functional definition of 'cognitive disability' 
written by an appropriate U.S. federal government agency, and adopted by 
government agencies and education institutions throughout the country..."
http://tinyurl.com/ylqm45f

W3C Provides Guidance for Brow Beating Inaccessible Websites
By Marisa Peacock.
"...The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) wants you to take action when 
you come across an inaccessible  website. They are encouraging users to 
tell organizations how important it is that their websites are 
accessible..."
http://tinyurl.com/ya74k84

Are All Video Captions Equally Accessible?
By Glenda Watson Hyatt.
"While writing my latest post for dotgov.com on captioning videos (to be 
published shortly), I had the opportunity to learn a bit more about 
captioning YouTube videos. I began wondering if how I caption videos is 
the most accessible way of doing it. Allow me to explain..."
http://tinyurl.com/ybul4jx

Alt Attributes
By Ian Pouncey.
"Alt attributes are used to provide alternate text for non-textural HTML 
elements, most commonly on img elements. Generally their use is quite 
straight forward, but it is important that the attribute value you use 
is appropriate to the situation. In this post I'm going to talk about a 
few different use cases..."
http://ianpouncey.com/weblog/2010/01/alt-attributes/


+02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.

Braille Cascading Style Sheets, A Preliminary Requirement Analysis	
By W3C Protocols and Formats Working Group.
"This document, which is presently in draft form, discusses various 
issues that are relevant to the design of a Braille CSS specification..."
http://www.w3.org/WAI/PF/braillecss.html

Tactile Should Be a Separate Media Type Than Braille
By Gregory Rosmaita.
"This wiki page is partial fulfillment of HTML Accessibility Task Force 
ACTION-7, entitled: "propose braille media type (as opposed to simply 
tactile) or sub-type after consulting with Braille-in-DAISY and others..."
http://www.w3.org/WAI/PF/HTML/wiki/Tactile_versus_braille

Background Desires
By Chris Coyier.
"The background property is a major player in what makes the awesome CSS 
designs of today possible. There are just a few properties that make it 
up: background-color, background-image, background-position, 
background-repeat, and background-attachment. Very simple, very 
powerful. I have a couple of other ideas that seem to make sense to me: 
background-opacity and background-anchor..."
http://css-tricks.com/background-desires/

Tools for Concatenating and Minifying CSS and JavaScript Files in 
Different Development Environments
By Robert Nyman.
"...Based on my own experience and research, and the replies when I 
asked around what others use, I have listed suggested solutions below..."
http://tinyurl.com/ycu2upq


+03: DREAMWEAVER.

Dreamweaver Tip for Screen Shot Creation
By Estelle Weyl.
"I write a lot of tutorials. Really, really basic tutorials.  While I 
generally program in BBedit, Eclipse, vi, gEdit, NoteTab, or whatever 
makes sense at the moment, I write most of my tutorials and blog posts 
in Dreamweaver.  While this blog doesn't contain many screen shots, my 
basic tutorials are filled with them.  I made a new discovery today that 
is going to make my tutorial writing so much easier. This may be old 
news for avid Dreamweaver users, but it's new to me, so I thought I 
would share..."
http://tinyurl.com/ygevvkt


+04: EVALUATION & TESTING.

Unmoderated, Remote Usability Testing: Good or Evil?
By Kyle Soucy.
"...Recently, there has been a surge in the number of tools that are 
available for conducting unmoderated, remote usability testing—and this 
surge is changing the usability industry..."
http://tinyurl.com/y9r3was

10 Ways To Get User Feedback
By Susan Weinschenk.
"Recently I was talking to someone who is relatively new to the field of 
usability and user experience. He has developed a web application and 
wanted some ideas for getting feedback from users. He commented that he 
was planning on sending out a survey to users to see what they think 
about the web application. That was his plan for user testing. I'm so 
entrenched in the concept of usability and user testing that I have to 
stop sometimes and remember that not everyone else is..."
http://tinyurl.com/ydf2lxq

A Brief History of Eye-Tracking
By David Leggett.
"Eye tracking may be a trendy topic in this day and age, but its roots 
go way back."
http://www.uxbooth.com/blog/a-brief-history-of-eye-tracking/


+05: EVENTS.

ACCESS-ABILITY Conference: Graphic Design for a More Accessible World
January 28, 2010.
Toronto, Canada.
http://www.rgdontario.com/viewEvent.asp?ID=530

CSS3 Wizardry
January 29, 2010.
Brighton, United Kingdom.
http://workshopsfortheweb.com/css3wizardry/

Copywriting
March 5, 2010.
Brighton, United Kingdom.
http://workshopsfortheweb.com/copywriting/

Web APP Masters Tour
March 23-24, 2010.
San Diego, California, U.S.A.
http://www.uie.com/events/web_app_masters/

HTML5 for Web Designers
April 16, 2010.
Brighton, United Kingdom.
http://workshopsfortheweb.com/html5/


+06: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE.

Paper Prototyping for Engineers
By uxmatters.com reader.
"I am a classically trained engineer and am now getting ready to use 
paper prototyping for the first time. My company usually focuses on the 
technical parts of our products and thinks of usability only toward the 
end of a project time line, if at all. Paper prototyping can us give an 
inexpensive way to improve our products and, hopefully, will instill a 
sense of the importance of involving user experience early on future 
projects. The product we’re currently developing is for users who are 
highly trained, technically oriented employees in the network-support 
domain. Do you have any tips for me?..."
http://tinyurl.com/y9r3was


+09: NAVIGATION.

Free First Chapter of Peter Morville's New Book "Search Patterns"
By Patrick J. Lynch.
"Peter Morville has released a free copy of the first chapter of his new 
book Search Patterns, due from O'Reilly in mid-February. Peter's 
seminars on search patterns are excellent, and I'm really looking 
forward to getting the new book." (PDF)
http://tinyurl.com/yhm9ekr


+08: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.

HTML5 Accessibility Bugs
By W3C HTML Accessibility Task Force.
Bug Collection, Status and Resolutions
http://www.w3.org/WAI/PF/HTML/wiki/Bugs

Escalating a Bug to an Issue
By W3C HTML Accessibility Task Force.
"According to the HTML Working Group Decision Policy, bugs that are not 
satisfactory resolved can be escalated to the HTML WG Issue Tracker. 
Tracker Issues 'record that an editor's resolution was not satisfactory, 
and so the full Working Group must address the issue.'"
http://www.w3.org/WAI/PF/HTML/wiki/Bugs/Escalating_a_Bug_to_an_Issue

Accessibility Issues in the HTML5 Tracker
By W3C HTML Accessibility Task Force.
Listings by status (open, raised, closed, all plus actions). Some 
process info too.
http://www.w3.org/WAI/PF/HTML/wiki/Issues

HTML5 Accessibility Change Proposal Status
By W3C HTML Accessibility Task Force.
"The following table tracks the status of HTML5 accessibility change 
proposals for HTML5 Accessibility Issues..."
http://www.w3.org/WAI/PF/HTML/wiki/Accessibility_Change_Proposal_Status

HTML5 is a (Beautiful) Mess
By Kevin Yank.
"Kevin Yank (@sentience) is joined by Opera Software's Bruce Lawson 
(@brucel), SitePoint author Ian Lloyd (@lloydi), and Kyle Weems 
(@cssquirrel), creator of the CSSquirrel web comic, to discuss the 
latest uproar from within the W3C HTML5 Working Group. Is progress 
towards the HTML5 standard at risk of derailing, or is this just par for 
the course in the wild, wild world of standards development?"
http://tinyurl.com/y9dxduk

Illustrator to HTML5's Canvas
By Dave Shea.
"I've spent a bit of time playing around with HTML5's canvas element 
lately. It's a fun new toy and has a lot of potential to be useful. But 
the biggest headache I'm finding so far is the lack of authoring tools..."
http://mezzoblue.com/archives/2010/01/14/illustrator_/

Mu (current) opinions on HTML5
By Dori Smith.
"De facto standards are standards...Dejure standards are wishes"
http://www.backupbrain.com/2010_01_10_archive.html#a005230

The Battlefield of HTML5
By Faruk Ates.
It was a cold and quiet night..."
http://farukat.es/journal/2010/01/374-battlefield-html5

Semantic Web Activity News
By W3C.
"The Semantic Web provides a common framework that allows data to be 
shared and reused across application, enterprise, and community 
boundaries. It is a collaborative effort led by W3C with participation 
from a large number of researchers and industrial partners. It is based 
on the Resource Description Framework (RDF)..."
http://www.w3.org/blog/SW/2010/01/13/w3c_semantic_web_standards_wiki

Is It Irresponsible to Advocate Using HTML5 Before it is Ready?
By Vlad Alexander.
"A number of renowned HTML5 supporters are advocating the use of HTML5 
to the general public while the spec is still in development, unproven, 
and subject to change. Is this in the best interest of Web site creators 
or simply irresponsible behavior?"
http://rebuildingtheweb.com/en/irresponsible-to-advocate-html5/


+09: USABILITY.

7 Steps to Avoiding User Adoption Problems with Site Redesigns
By Frank Spillers.
"When you redesign a new site, how do you know users are going to like 
it? How can you ensure that you know how the redesign will sit with 
existing as well as new users?..."
http://tinyurl.com/kujwy5

How Relying on 'User Education' is a Failed Strategy
By Frank Spillers.
"Maybe you have heard the saying 'we'll take care of that in user 
training'. The notion that problems users have can be resolved by user 
training is severely flawed. Yet entire departments rally around this 
belief and worse many companies seem to wrap product management around 
it..."
http://tinyurl.com/ctokf5

The Simple Shall Inherit the World Wide Web
By Ben Hunt.
"..our web pages should be no more complex than they need to be to 
fulfill their various objectives..."
http://tinyurl.com/yg8ffym

Label Alignment in Long Forms
By Paul Wallas.
"I am producing a very long data-entry form that is at least 3000 pixels 
in height. It does not require users to complete all fields. However, it 
is likely that users would complete all fields. I cannot choose to place 
the labels above the input fields, because this would double the height 
of each field. Therefore, I need to use a layout with labels on the 
left. However, if I chose to make the labels right aligned, it would be 
very hard to scan down the form—both because of the size of the form and 
the number of fields it has. As a result, I am choosing a left-aligned 
approach. Do you think this is appropriate, or do you believe, 
regardless of the form size and number of fields, that I should align 
the labels on the right if they are to the left of the input fields"
http://tinyurl.com/yjmwvmf

Phone Numbers in Electronic Forms
By Formulate Information Design.
"This is the third and final research post in our current series on 
phone numbers in electronic forms."
http://formulate.com.au/research/phone-numbers-electronic-forms/


[Section one ends.]


++ SECTION TWO:

+10: 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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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 
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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.]