[webdev] Web Design Update: October 24, 2013

Laura Carlson lcarlson at d.umn.edu
Thu Oct 24 06:32:25 CDT 2013


+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE.
- Volume 12, Issue 18, October 24, 2013.

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

++ISSUE 18 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: EVALUATION & TESTING.
04: EVENTS.
05: HTML5.
06: JAVASCRIPT.
07: MISCELLANEOUS.
08: NAVIGATION.
09: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.
10: USABILITY.


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

[Contents ends.]


++ SECTION ONE: New references.

+01: ACCESSIBILITY.

One Million Steps - Boosting Access Awareness, One Website at a Time
By Robin Christopherson.
"Recent research shows that the great majority of websites are still
failing consistently to comply with even the lowest priority
checkpoints of the accessibility guidelines set out by the
international web standards body the World Wide Web Consortium.
Despite a plethora of initiatives to raise awareness of this issue,
from Citizens Online's 'Fix the Web' campaign to Global Accessibility
Awareness Day, the situation does not seem to be improving at a
significant rate..."
http://www.headstar.com/eablive/?p=948

Using JAWS to Evaluate Web Accessibility
By WebAIM.
"This article is designed to help users who are new to JAWS learn the
basic controls for testing web content, and to serve as a reference
for the occasional JAWS user. While reading this article, keep a few
things in mind..."
http://webaim.org/articles/jaws/

Using VoiceOver to Evaluate Web Accessibility
By WebAIM.
"VoiceOve is a screen reader program that comes on new Mac computers,
iPhones, iPads, and iPod touches. This article is designed to help
users who are new to VoiceOver learn the basic controls for testing
web content, and to serve as a reference for the occasional VoiceOver
user...."
http://webaim.org/articles/voiceover/

Using NVDA to Evaluate Web Accessibility
By WebAIM.
"This article is designed to help users who are new to NonVisual
Desktop Access (NVDA) learn the basic controls for testing web
content, and to serve as a reference for the occasional NVDA user.
NonVisual Desktop Access (NVDA) is a free and open source screen
reader for the Microsoft Windows operating system. It supports over 20
languages and can run on any computer entirely from a USB drive with
no installation."
http://webaim.org/articles/nvda/


+02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.

Challenging CSS Best Practices
By Thierry Koblentz.
"When it comes to CSS, I believe that the sacred principle of
'separation of concerns' (SoC) has lead us to accept bloat,
obsolescence, redundancy, poor caching and more. Now, I'm convinced
that the only way to improve how we author style sheets is by moving
away from this principle..."
http://coding.smashingmagazine.com/2013/10/21/challenging-css-best-practices-atomic-approach/

Cargo Cult CSS
By Ben Darlow.
"It is generally accepted that having a methodology for writing and
managing CSS is preferable to having none at all. In spite of this,
some of the practices developers have adopted are having a detrimental
effect on the semantic quality and longterm maintainability of what we
build. I'm going to talk about some of the problems with techniques
being advocated by CSS 'framework methodologies' and how we, as web
developers, can better solve these problems."
http://www.kapowaz.net/articles/cargo-cult-css

Classy Values
By Jeremy Keith.
"Two articles were published today that take diametrically opposed
viewpoints on how developers should be using CSS"
http://adactio.com/journal/6537/

CSS Specificity
By cssspecificity.
"The origin and sorting order of CSS helps browsers to determine which
rules win out over others..."
http://www.cssspecificity.com

More About Scaling in iOS
By Peter-Paul Koch.
"Turns out Tuesday's post was not so much wrong as incomplete. I was
tripped up by what's probably the most complicated feature (or bug) in
the meta viewport space, and my conclusions weren't entirely
correct..."
http://www.quirksmode.org/blog/archives/2013/10/more_about_scal.html

Preliminary Meta Viewport Research
By Peter-Paul Koch.
"Just now I released my preliminary meta viewport research that
studies the various permutations of the <meta name="viewport"> tag."
http://www.quirksmode.org/blog/archives/2013/10/preliminary_met.html

The Knowledge Hub for Responsive Design
By ugurus.
"Responsive Design is a leap forward in the web industry to create a
consistent experience on all viewports from mobile to desktop."
http://www.ugurus.com/responsive-design


+03: EVALUATION & TESTING.

Surviving the Top Ten Challenges of Software Testing - Challenge #5:
Making Time for Testing
By William Perry and Randall Rice.
"Somewhere between the agony of rushed deadlines and the luxury of all
the time in the world has got to be a reasonable approach to testing.
This chapter is about making the most of the time you have available."
http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=2124991


+04: EVENTS.

JavaScript for Beginners
4 weeks starting November 11, 2013.
Online
http://www.w3devcampus.com/javascript-for-beginners-w3c-course/

Accessible E-Learning
December 16, 2013.
Online Symposium
http://www.w3.org/WAI/RD/2013/e-learning/

South By Southwest Interactive
March 7-6, 2014.
Austin, Texas, U.S.A.
http://sxsw.com/interactive

SITE
March 17-21, 2014.
Jacksonville, Florida, U.S.A.
http://site.aace.org/conf/

International Technology and Persons with Disabilities Conference
March 17-22, 2014.
San Diego, California, U.S.A.
http://www.csun.edu/cod/conference/

University of Illinois Web Conference 2014
April 28-29, 2014.
Champaign, Illinois, U.S.A.
http://publish.illinois.edu/uofiwebcon/

Web Conference at Penn State
June 9-10, 2014.
Penn State, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.
http://webconference.psu.edu/


+05: HTML5.

Responsive Images - Ain't We There Yet?
By Marcos Caceres.
Marcos's fronteers 2013 presentation slides
https://speakerdeck.com/marcoscaceres/responsive-images-aint-we-there-yet

srcN - Alternative to picture and srcset
By Marcos Caceres.
"Tab Atkins has put forward and alternative proposal to both srcset
and picture:"
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-respimg/2013Sep/0064.html

Proposal for RespImg Syntax
By Tab Atkins.
"This document describes a proposed syntax for "responsive images",
which allows a user agent to choose an appropriate version of an image
from several candidates."
http://tabatkins.github.io/specs/respimg/Overview.html


+06: JAVASCRIPT.

How Many People are Missing Out on JavaScript Enhancement?
By Pete Herlihy.
"...This isn't about whether we should offer a good service to
non-JavaScript people, progressive enhancement, done well, ensures we
always will. But it's interesting to know that 1 in 93 people  will
experience the design without JavaScript enhancement – especially when
it comes to prioritising how much of our time to spend on that
design..."
http://digital.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/2013/10/21/how-many-people-are-missing-out-on-javascript-enhancement/

ARIA Examples
By Heydon Pickering.
"Some practical ARIA examples to enhance your application accessibility..."
http://heydonworks.com/practical_aria_examples/

Why There are Only Two Ways to Make ARIA Widgets Programmatically
Focusable for Screen Reader Users
By Bryan Garaventa.
"This post is one in a series of posts on accessible rich internet
applications (ARIA) and the specification by the same name.  One
challenge with composite widgets (widgets that are made up of other
widgets) is properly exposing programmatic focus to assistive
technology.  The widget with programmatic focus is the widget where
commands are sent by assistive technology such as screen readers and
speech recognition software.  It is also the magnified area where
screen magnification software displays for users with low vision. Two
solutions will be discussed and an explanation of the necessity of
these approaches are provided with sample code..."
https://www.ssbbartgroup.com/blog/2013/10/22/why-there-are-only-two-ways-to-make-aria-widgets-programmatically-focusable-for-screen-reader-users/

+07: MISCELLANEOUS.

How Healthcare.gov Went Wrong
By Department of Better Technology.
"Here at DOBT we talk a lot about How To Fix Procurement, but you
don't hear a lot about why things go wrong. The Healthcare.gov Fiasco
is instructive in that it highlights every piece of our procurement
process that's broken. How, with a half-trillion dollar a year spend,
could something like this botch even happen? Here's how..."
http://blog.dobt.co/post/63655420372/how-healthcare-gov-went-wrong


+08: NAVIGATION.

Bypassing Blocks of Content - Accessibility for Designers [checklist]
By Accessiq.
"Best practice for bypassing blocks..."
http://www.accessiq.org/create/content/bypassing-blocks-of-content-accessibility-for-designers-checklist


+09: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.

Design Bomb in W3C's Garden
By Alastair Campbell.
"A post came up in my feed called the BOMB in the GARDEN by Matthew
Butterick. It is from a talk he did in April 2013, but I just saw it
after an update more recently. I found it… frustrating. Phrases went
through my head like 'flawed assumptions'. But I left it a couple of
days and I suspect the frustration comes from a different perspective
and different assumptions. I try to show those below..."
http://alastairc.ac/2013/10/design-bomb-in-w3cs-garden/

The Bridge of Khazad-DRM
By Brendan Eich.
"People are rightly concerned about what is going on in the W3C with
DRM, as couched in the Encrypted Media Extensions (EME) proposal.
Please read Henri Sivonen's explanation of EME if you haven't yet..."
https://brendaneich.com/2013/10/the-bridge-of-khazad-drm/


+10: USABILITY.

Modernist Design - Beyond Flat and Simple
By Jerome Ryckborst.
"The big players are changing the way user interfaces look and feel by
applying modernist design to make the truly digital. At the same time,
software is changing because the way people use it, where they use it,
and with whom they use it is changing. As development teams continue
to provide possibilities, they need to work with interface designers,
usability analysts, and members of their target audience—the users or
customers. Together, we can ensure the new interactions and simplified
interfaces we design and build will tell people how the interface
works and both help and remind people to find the functions and
content they need. It's not about making things flat and removing
clutter; it's about getting the user interface right while applying
modernist principles so people can use the product fully."
http://fivesketches.com/2013/10/modernist-design-beyond-flat-and-simple/


[Section one ends.]


++ SECTION TWO:

+11: 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

Dreamweaver Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/dreamweaver.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

Flash Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/flash.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.


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As a navigation aid for screen readers we do our best to conform to
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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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