+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE. - Volume 2, Issue 6, August 2, 2003. An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design and development. ++ISSUE 6 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: BOOKS. 03: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. 04: EVALUATION & TESTING. 05: EVENTS. 06: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE. 07: JAVASCRIPT. 08: MISCELLANEOUS. 09: PHP. 10: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS. 11: TOOLS. 12: TYPOGRAPHY. 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. Accessibility Unplugged By Bud Kraus "Taking A Bigger Perspective Why Accessible Web Design Is So Important And Some Practical Ways To Achieve It." http://trynet.com/talks/rit.html Doing forms justice By Dan Loda "Accessible forms with CSS, accesskey (the property everyone forgot), and label (the element everyone forgot)." http://www.webweaver.org/dan/css/cssforms.html How Accessible Are Australian University Web Sites? By Dey Alexander "This paper reports on a recent study of the accessibility of Australian university web sites...The results: 98 percent of sites failed to comply..." http://ausweb.scu.edu.au/aw03/papers/alexander3/paper.html +02: BOOKS. Graham, I. A Patten Language for Web Usability, Addison-Wesley, 2003. Van Duyne, D. K., Landay, J. A. and Hong, J. I, The design of sites: Patterns, principles, and processes for crafting customer-centered Web experience, Addison-Wesley, 2003. +03: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. The Box Model Problem By Holly Bergevin "When breaking out of using tables and moving toward using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) positioning for laying out elements on a page, it is important to become familiar with the W3C Box Model. At first, the box model may be confusing, but it is a necessary concept to grasp. Unfortunately, simply understanding the W3C box model is not the only thing you need to make your web pages look similar in different browsers. Come along as we explore the Box Model, the browsers that get it wrong, and what to do about them." http://tinyurl.com/hs2r Zeroing page margins By Adrian Senior "In this tutorial we will investigate how we can use dual style sheets to set our page margins to zero in the most common browsers we will come up against in today's online world. We will also take our CSS code and optimize it for performance and make it bandwidth friendly..." http://tinyurl.com/hs2p MSN-TV and CSS By Developer.msntvÊ "Our TV browser supports most of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) level 1, as well as some of the positioning properties defined in CSS level 2." http://developer.msntv.com/Develop/CSS.asp SpShSh By Eric A. Meyer "...there's an aural-CSS supporter besides Emacspeak out there. It's called Fonix SpeakThis, and while its aural CSS support is pretty limited, it does exist..." http://www.meyerweb.com/eric/thoughts/2003c.html#t20030723 +04: EVALUATION & TESTING. Usability Testing Best Practices: An Interview with Rolf Molich By Christine Perfetti "Since entering the field in 1983, Rolf has produced some of the most impressive and forward-thinking research on effective discount usability techniques. Two of Rolf's more renowned contributions include the co-invention of the Heuristic Inspection process with Jakob Nielsen and the more recent CUE (Comparative Usability Evaluation) studies." http://www.uiconf.com/8/articles/molich_interview.html Web Traffic Analytics and User Experience By Fran Diamond "By looking at the data on what users do on the site, however, you can enhance your effectiveness as a specialist in the user. You already have information and knowledge gained through observation and direct questioning of individual users. Now, you can add to that insights gained from the broad swath of information pulled during their actions on the site. These numbers represent the real-world behavior and interests of the user...." http://tinyurl.com/ii55 +05: EVENTS. HCI 2003 Designing for Society September 8-12th, 2003 Bath, United Kingdom http://www.hci2003.org +06: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE. Prototyping With Style By Jeff Lash Prototyping is one of the most common tasks of information architects, who are called on to produce everything from low-fidelity wireframes to clickable fully-functioning prototypes. The technology question is bandied about by all related fields whose practitioners are trying to keep current with the industry, to learn new skills to help them do their job better, or just to keep up with the Joneses." http://tinyurl.com/i3bq +07: JAVASCRIPT. Keep JavaScript Simple By Peter-Paul Koch "...So I disagree with all purposes of JavaScript libraries. I want a clear view of the browsers my script runs in, of their problems and quirks. My view should not be obstructed by a programming layer that is far too large and complex for the simple effects I need, that hides crucial lines of code deep inside a convoluted clutter of obscure objects, and is a monument to the absurd notion that JavaScript really ought to be Java. My advice to library writers is: Don't bother. Keep it simple." http://tinyurl.com/i3bn +08: MISCELLANEOUS. Keep Office Politics Out of Your Design By Indi Young "Everyone has an opinion about design. If your debate is based only on opinions, the person with the most power always wins. Almost always. The team that has rational support for its conclusion can trump power and opinion. User research can give you concrete proof that one direction is better than another." http://www.adaptivepath.com/publications/essays/archives/000251.php +09: PHP. TAR File Management With PHP Archive_Tar Ê By The Disenchanted Developer "Need to create or manipulate a TAR file through your Web browser? Take a look at the PEAR Archive_Tar class, which exposes a simple, yet extremely powerful, API to perform manipulation of TAR and TGZ archives through a PHP script. Possible applications include a TAR file viewer and a Web-based backup utility." http://www.devshed.com/Server_Side/PHP/TAR_File/page1.html Sending File Attachments From PHP By John Coggeshall "With MIME, not only could I send attachments with my e-mails, but with a little extra work I could even send enriched e-mails..." http://www.coggeshall.org/publications/articles/file_attachments.php Separating Content from Code By John Coggeshall "One of the more important aspects of managing a web site is the separation of the content of the web site from the scripts which make it dynamic. In the e-business world, this is known as separating the presentation logic from the application logic. In today's column I'll be examining this issue and discussing a few of the more popular solutions to it." http://www.coggeshall.org/publications/articles/php_templating.php Securing Forms with Random Noisy Images By Mehmet Avsar "This tutorial is intended for those who want to ensure that the data retrieved by a form processor PHP is sent by the expected form, not another application or by hand." http://www.zend.com/zend/tut/tutorial-mehmet1.php +10: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS. Will Microsoft's browser engine backfire? By Munir Kotadia "People will think, 'are the applications I'm writing for the browser browser-agnostic, or are they IE applications--which make them Windows applications?' If I want an application to run on a Linux desktop or Macintosh desktop, maybe the way to do that is to ensure it runs on Mozilla, Safari and the other main browsers..." http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104_2-1022119.html The Door Is Ajar By Tim Bray "Do you think Longhorn's browsing capability is going to be 'just a browser,' a relatively transparent portal to the Net, a neutral text/pictures/hyperlinks conduit?" http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2003/07/17/BrowserDream Website Checklist By Stephen Poley "Here is a checklist of things to run though before going public with your web-site. Most of them are things which seem to have been overlooked by large numbers of web developers." http://www.xs4all.nl/~sbpoley/webmatters/checklist.html +11: TOOLS. RSS Code Generator By Webdevtips http://www.webdevtips.com/webdevtips/codegen/rss.shtml RSS Validator By userland.com http://aggregator.userland.com/validator Color Schemer By Colorschemer.com This online tool generates matching color schemes. http://www.colorschemer.com/online.html +12: TYPOGRAPHY. vs. CSS Why You Should Switch to Cascading Style Sheets By Jennifer Kyrnin "If you've read many other Web pages, you may have read that the tag has been deprecated. This means that the tag is no longer a part of the HTML specification." http://webdesign.about.com/library/weekly/aa051801a.htm It's time to reclaim Times New Roman on the Web By Dave Shea "Used in new and inspiring ways, Times can be beautiful and fresh, and a brand new old tool in our pathetically limited web type case." http://www.mezzoblue.com/cgi-bin/mt/mezzo/archives/000194.asp The Wrong Size Fonts Or why not to over-ride the reader's font size By Stephen Poley "So what does an author have to do to get it right? Absolutely nothing! Just avoid specifying a font in CSS for or

, avoid using the element in HTML, and all will be fine. And then headings etc can, if desired, be specified in CSS in terms of the default font size..." http://www.xs4all.nl/~sbpoley/webmatters/fontsize.html +13: USABILITY. Gateway Pages Prevent PDF Shock By Jakob Nielsen "Spare your users the misery of being dumped into PDF files without warning. Create special gateway pages that summarize the contents of big documents and guide users gently into the PDF morass." http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20030728.html Seven deadly sins of web writing By Gerry McGovern "What's the single most important thing that could improve the Web? It's not broadband. It's better writing. The general quality of writing on the Web is poor. The way you write has a major impact on what people think of you. Avoid these common mistakes and you will achieve more with your website." http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/nt/2003/nt_2003_07_28_sins.htm Report Review: Nielsen/Norman Group's Usability Return on Investment By Peter Merholz and Scott Hirsch "In the business world, user experience endeavors are typically seen as a cost-a line item expense to be minimized to the greatest extent possible while still remaining competitive. User experience practitioners are, in part, to blame for this. We've been so focused on developing methods, processes, and solutions that we haven't bothered to help businesses measure, and thereby understand, our financial worth..." http://tinyurl.com/ifxo The Slings of Boxes and Arrows: Persecuting Jakob By Peter Merholz "One of the best things I've ever (co-)written is now up at Boxes and Arrows...We aimed for a New Yorker-style review -- to use the subject as a jumping off point for discussing the underlying issues. So, while about half the review is an evisceration of the reports remarkably flawed methodology and lack of usefulness, the other half suggests steps that user experience professionals can take to begin to appropriately value their contribution." http://www.peterme.com/archives/000121.html +14: XML. What is XHTML? XHTML is HTML 4.0 Written in XML Format By Jennifer Kyrnin "On January 26, 2000, the W3C announced that HTML 4 has been reformulated into XHTML 1.0. XHTML is HTML 4 written as an XML application." http://webdesign.about.com/library/weekly/aa013100a.htm RSS 2.0 Specification Published by Berkman Center Under Creative Commons License. By XML Coverpages "The RSS Version 2.0 specification developed by Userland has been transferred to the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School. It has been republished under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike license which permits others to distribute derivative works under a license identical to the one that governs the licensor's work. RSS and other emerging XML formats for news syndication are becoming increasingly popular." http://xml.coverpages.org/ni2003-07-22-a.html RSS 2.0 By Technology at Harvard Law http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Elsevier proposes PRISM module for RSS 1.0 By xmlhack "PRISM, Publishing Requirements for Industry Standard Metadata, defines a vocabulary for syndicating, aggregating, post-processing and multi-purposing magazine, news, catalog, book, and mainstream journal content." http://xmlhack.com/read.php?item=2025 [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. WEB DESIGN UPDATE is available by subscription only. For information on how to subscribe and unsubscribe please visit: http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/webdevlist + TEXT EMAIL NEWSLETTER (TEN) STANDARD. As a navigation aid for screen readers we do our best to conform to the accessible Text Email Newsletter (TEN) Standard. Please let me know if there is anything else we can do to make navigation easier. For TEN Standard information please visit: http://www.headstar.com/ten + SIGNATURE. Laura L. Carlson Information Technology Systems and Services University of Minnesota Duluth Duluth, MN 55812-3009 mailto:lcarlson@d.umn.edu [Issue ends.]