[webdev] Web Design Update: October 16, 2014

Laura Carlson lcarlson at d.umn.edu
Thu Oct 16 06:24:01 CDT 2014


+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE.
- Volume 13, Issue 16, October 16, 2014.

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

++ISSUE 16 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: JAVASCRIPT.
06: MISCELLANEOUS.
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.

A11y Needs You - User Survey to Improve WCAG 2.0 Supporting Documents
by Joshue O Connor.
"Are you a Web developer? Interested in web accessibility? Do you find
WCAG easy to use as a resource for creating accessible content? Are
the supporting documents and techniques useful to you?"
http://www.cfit.ie/news-and-commentary-archive/671-wcagusersurvey2014

Barriers? Ha! Web Design Expert Champions Accessibility
By Starshine Roshell.
"Derek Featherstone has spent his life leaping over barriers-and
helping others do the same..."
http://www.lynda.com/articles/ux-expert-web-accessibility/

Why Keyboard Usability Is More Important Than You Think
By David Sloan and Sarah Horton.
"This is the first of two articles in which we'll look at why and how
to provide an accessible, enjoyable experience for people who use the
keyboard to work with websites and applications. Here, we look at the
reasons why keyboard usability is such an important part of good user
experience design..."
http://www.usertesting.com/blog/2014/10/08/why-keyboard-usability-is-more-important-than-you-think/

Designing Better Keyboard Experiences
By David Sloan and Sarah Horton.
"In this article, we'll examine four key ways to improve online user
experiences for people who don't use a mouse. Let's look at each of
them in turn..."
http://www.usertesting.com/blog/2014/10/08/designing-better-keyboard-experiences/

Accessible HTML Video as a Background
By Emma Sax.
"...Using video as a background is on the increase so it's important
to know how to make it accessible for everyone..."
http://www.punkchip.com/accessible-html-video-as-a-background/

Rough Guide - Browsers, Operating Systems and Screen Reader Support - Updated
By Steve Faulkner.
"When testing aspects of support for new HTML5, WAI-ARIA features and
HTML features in general, I often test browsers that do not have
practical support for screen readers on a particular operating system.
I find they have support for feature X, but lack support for feature Y
that is required to enable practical support to web content for screen
reader users. While it is useful to test and find successful
implementations of discrete features, it needs to be viewed in the
broader context of which browsers can be considered usable with
popular OS level screen readers..."
http://www.paciellogroup.com/blog/2014/10/rough-guide-browsers-operating-systems-and-screen-reader-support-updated/

WebAIM's 15th Birthday, WAVE Chrome Extension, and API Access
By Jared Smith.
"This month WebAIM celebrates its 15th birthday..."
http://webaim.org/blog/webaims-15th-bday/

Should TEACH Act Language Appear in the Higher Education Act? NCDAE
and WebAIM Weigh In.
By Cyndi Rowland.
"NCDAE and WebAIM joined together on this position statement..."
http://ncdae.org/blog/teach-act/


+02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.

CSS, DRY, and Code Optimization
By Jens Meiert.
"When I explained the problems with type sortingin CSS I realized that
the type sorter's motivation was a particular problem, not just mere
preference. It was something more fundamental, something that has
caused us web developers more headache. The underlying problem is that
people repeat themselves too often in CSS-or repeat the wrong code too
often, respectively..."
http://meiert.com/en/blog/20141009/css-dry-and-optimization/

Spacing Elements
By Simurai.
"So let's say we have a 'bar' with some items inside. Like a header or
footer. Let's also say we want those items to be spaced evenly,
meaning they have the same gap everywhere. Shouldn't be a big problem.
Let's take a look..."
http://simurai.com/blog/2014/05/25/spacing-elements/

Getting Started with Sass, Part 3
By Laura Kalbag.
"In this Part 3, I'm going to explore mixins and placeholders, and
demonstrate how to use frameworks to import useful mixins and make
development faster..."
http://webstandardssherpa.com/reviews/getting-started-with-sass-part-3

Top 5 Sass Mistakes
By Roy Tomeij.
"Frontend architect Roy Tomeij highlights the top Sass mistakes and
explains how to avoid them..."
http://www.creativebloq.com/netmag/top-5-sass-mistakes-101413088

4 Sass Features You May Not Have Tried
By M David Green.
"Once you've gone to the trouble of converting your workflow over to
Sass, it's easy to fall into familiar patterns. You may be so pleased
with the power of what Sass can do with a few simple techniques that
you never bother to explore some of the more advanced features. There
are many advantages to using a powerful pre-processor like Sass, and
it's worth exploring some of the less familiar ways to use it..."
http://www.sitepoint.com/sass-features-may-never-tried/

Managing Color Values with Sass
By James Steinbach.
"There are plenty of suggestions for managing color values with Sass.
You can generate palettes programatically, rely on Sass color
functions, name variables well, or even let math pick all your colors
for you..."
http://www.sitepoint.com/managing-color-values-with-sass/


+03: EVALUATION & TESTING.

When to Use Which User-Experience Research Methods
By Christian Rohrer.
"Modern day UX research methods answer a wide range of questions. To
know when to use which method, each of 20 methods is mapped across 3
dimensions and over time within a typical product-development
process."
http://www.nngroup.com/articles/which-ux-research-methods/

Why Marketing and UX Should Test Together
By Jacob.
"...Rather than proposing some radical concept or changing existing
practices, here are some reasons why the UX practitioner should
consider collaborating with the marketing department more closely so
that the company gains the maximum benefit from its research
activities and budget..."
http://www.loop11.com/why-marketing-and-ux-should-test-together/


+04: EVENTS.

UX Futures
November 5, 2014.
Online.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ux-futures-registration-12433112775

International Technology and Persons with Disabilities Conference
March 2-7, 2015.
San Diego, California, U.S.A.
http://www.csun.edu/cod/conference/

South By Southwest Interactive
March 13-17, 2015.
Austin, Texas, U.S.A.
http://sxsw.com/interactive

MinneWebCon 2015
April 13-14, 2015.
Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.A.
http://minnewebcon.org/

LeanUX
April 15-19, 2015.
New York, New York, U.S.A.
http://leanuxnyc.co/nyc/


+05: JAVASCRIPT.

aria-grabbed (State)
By Rakesh Paladugula.
"ARIA-grabbed state is defined to any element of the web page which
allows the user to drag it from one portion of the page to another.
Read ARIA-dropeffect article to understand how WAI ARIA can be used to
define if an element can be grabbed from one portion and drop at
another portion of the..."
http://www.maxability.co.in/2014/10/aria-grabbed-state/

Learning Much JavaScript From One Line of Code
By Javier Marquez.
"...Today I want to break in pieces a one-liner code that Addy Osmani
shared a few days ago that can be used to debug your CSS layers. Here
it is, in 3 lines to fit in the post..."
http://arqex.com/939/learning-much-javascript-one-line-code


+06: MISCELLANEOUS.

Here is the Biggest Challenge to Modi's Digital India Vision
By Saptarishi Dutta.
"...4 billion people in the world don't have access to Internet-India
accounts for 25% of them..."
http://qz.com/274880/here-is-the-biggest-challenge-to-modis-digital-india-vision/

It was Twenty Years Ago Today - An Interview with Hakon Wium Lie
By Bruce Lawson.
"Twenty years ago today, Opera's CTO Hakon Wium Lie published
Cascading HTML style sheets - a proposal..."
https://dev.opera.com/articles/css-twenty-years-hakon/


+07: NAVIGATION.

The Importance of Navigation Design Patterns: Chris Banks
By Chris Banks.
"In this article we discuss the importance of navigation design
patterns using examples from some of the hottest websites and web
apps..."
http://speckyboy.com/2014/10/09/navigation-design-patterns/

Wayfinding For The Mobile Web
By Dennis Kardys.
"When designing mobile first, navigation takes a back seat to content,
and ruthless editing paves the way for more focused experiences. The
pursuit of simplicity, combined with the tight spatial constraints of
mobile viewports, often leads us to strip away elements in an attempt
to minimize the interface. But the space-saving convenience we gain
through clever editing and a compact UI can come at the expense of the
very navigational aids our users rely on..."
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2014/10/13/wayfinding-for-the-mobile-web/


+08: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.

Application Foundations for the Open Web Platform
By Jeff Jaffe.
"Bringing HTML5 to the status of W3C Recommendation (in October 2014)
is a defining moment in the development of the Open Web Platform
(OWP), a set of technologies for developing distributed applications
with the greatest interoperability in history. This year is also the
25th anniversary of the Web and 20th anniversary of W3C, making this
an even more meaningful time to engage with the community about the
Next Big Thing for the Web Platform..."
http://www.w3.org/blog/2014/10/application-foundations-for-the-open-web-platform/


+09: USABILITY.

Design is Functional First
By Paul Boag.
"When most of us think about design we focus on aesthetics. But as any
designer will tell you, aesthetics shouldn't be your primary
concern..."
http://boagworld.com/design/design-is-functional-first/

What on Earth is 'Satisficing'?
By Jessica Enders.
The term 'satisficing' refers to the human tendency to expend only the
minimum amount of energy required to successfully complete a task.
It's an subconscious phenomenon: (most of the time) we don't sit down
to do something and think 'I'm going to spend the bare minimum on
this'.
http://www.sitepoint.com/satisficing-mean-web-forms/

The Key Difference Between Online and Print Publishing
By Gerry McGovern.
"Vigorously managing what is already published is the critical
difference between a professional online publishing culture and a
traditional offline print culture."
http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/new-thinking/key-difference-between-online-and-print-publishing


[Section one ends.]


++ SECTION TWO:

+10: 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

Drupal Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/drupal.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

HTML Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/html.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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+ 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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