+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE. - Volume 2, Issue 24, December 6, 2003. An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design and development. ++ISSUE 24 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: ASSOCIATIONS. 03: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. 04: EVENTS. 05: JAVASCRIPT. 06: PHP. 07: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS. 08: TOOLS. 09: TYPOGRAPHY. 10: USABILITY. 11: XML. SECTION TWO: 12: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site? [Contents ends.] ++ SECTION ONE: New references. +01: ACCESSIBILITY. Writing good ALT text By Simon Willison "One of the first things anyone learns about accessible web design is the importance of the alt attribute on images. If you are using XHTML, image tags without alt attributes won't even validate, so ensuring this information is provided becomes even more important. Writing alt text is easy, but writing it well enough for it to be a help rather than a hindrance can take some thought..." http://www.gawds.org/show.php?contentid=28 +02: ASSOCIATIONS. Guild of Accessible Web Designers "GAWDS.org is an association of organizations and accessible web designers and developers - and it is designed to both promote and protect standards - not technical standards - but accessible web design standards. It is formed to provide mutual support and to provide a competitive edge through association; as a 'Guild member' you might have more chance of your proposal for a particular bit of work being successful. This is turn will push up the value of accessible web design among design organizations..." http://www.gawds.org/ +03: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. Flash of Unstyled Content (FOUC) By bluerobot "Some pages that use the CSS @import rule experience a curious display quirk in the Windows version of MS Internet Explorer: a momentary flash of unstyled page content..." http://www.bluerobot.com/web/css/fouc.asp Methodology Dave Shea: email exchange "Really, in the end, CSS is the last step in the chain, and the least important. BUT. You have to consider it as early as the structuring." http://www.mezzoblue.com/archives/2003/11/14/methodology/index.php CSS Best Practices By Dave Shea "I've been thinking about how to put this together for a while, so I think I'll open it up to everyone for contributions, then build an actual resource out of it somehow." http://www.mezzoblue.com/archives/2003/11/17/css_best_pra/index.php CSS Crib Sheet By Dave Shea "...practical advice, something for reference when a designer gets stuck while using CSS specifically." http://www.mezzoblue.com/css/cribsheet/ Cascading Style Cheatsheet By Brett Merkey http://home.tampabay.rr.com/bmerkey/cheatsheet.htm +04: EVENTS. PHP and Web Standards (PaWS) Conference February 20-24, 2004 Manchester, England http://www.pawscon.com/ +05: JAVASCRIPT. JavaScript Core Objects Part 1 By Ellie Quigley This book excerpt is from Ellie Quigley's 'JavaScript by Example'. http://www.webreference.com/programming/java_core/index.html +06: PHP. Form and Spelling Validation By Matt Wade "Most dynamic web sites rely heavily on forms. From user authentication to entry of news items, we use forms to accept user input. There are many different ways we can validate data..." http://codewalkers.com/tutorials/47/1.html +07: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS. Bad Tags By htmldog "This page looks at some of the HTML tags of fairytale worlds and prehistoric times. Bad, nasty, downright ugly little things that belong to outdated HTML standards, random proprietary nonsense that only half-work in one sub-version of one browser or tags that have simply been superseded by newer tags." http://www.htmldog.com/guides/htmlintermediate/badtags/ The Diemen repository of interaction design patterns By interaction designers at Lost Boys "Patterns help us solve design problems - problems that occur time and time again, and are being solved time and time again by designers. Patterns describe practical solutions to these problems and how to apply them in different situations." http://www.visiblearea.com/cgi-bin/twiki/view/Patterns +08: TOOLS. CLiFf Says By WATS.ca and HiSoftware This is a beta version of a new service, CLiFf Says, that will "provide testing of Web sites for compliance with Government of Canada (GoC) Common Look and Feel (CLF) Standards, including accessibility requirements as designated in the W3C web content accessibility guidelines (WCAG Ð Priority 1 & 2)". http://www.hisoftware.com/cliffsays/ Kcapture Through the eyes of Konqueror By Eadz Consulting "Enter a URL to get a Konqueror web browser screen capture (Mozilla coming soon)" http://kcapture.eadz.co.nz/ +09: TYPOGRAPHY. Font Size: No Happy Medium By Dave Shea "If there's one thing nobody can agree on, it's how to treat your text size. Pixels aren't scalable within the most common browser on the market, and if you do everything you can to support relative units, you will still get people complaining that you are using text that's too small, or too big, or too low in contrast, or too high in contrast..." http://tinyurl.com/wx17 +10: USABILITY. The difference between usable and useful By James Robertson "...it must be recognized that a site can be perfectly designed, but still useless. Fundamentally, a site is not effective if it doesn't provide the information and tools that users need, regardless of how well structured and implemented it is. To ensure a site is useful, time must be spent identifying user needs, and there are a range of practical techniques for doing so..." http://tinyurl.com/xzwx Are Usability Experts Any Use? By Sean Carton Sean Carton says great web sites balance design and functionality to engage both sides of the brain. http://www.clickz.com/tech/lead_edge/article.php/3113731 +11: XML. What Is RSS, and Why Should You Care? Amy Gahran A good read for those who want to know what all the fuss is about. http://www.marketingprofs.com/3/gahran1.asp [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 only. 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) 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.]