+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE. - Volume 3, Issue 45, April 13, 2005. An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design and development. ++ISSUE 45 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: COLOR. 04: EVALUATION & TESTING. 05: EVENTS. 06: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE. 07: JAVASCRIPT. 08: MISCELLANEOUS. 09: PHP. 10: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS. 11: TOOLS. 12: USABILITY. SECTION TWO: 13: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site? [Contents ends.] ++ SECTION ONE: New references. +01: ACCESSIBILITY. Accessibility Steps: How to Design an Accessible Site By Zanet "There are many ways to design a site. Even more ways to design an accessible one. Below is an article of how we would recommend going about it." http://www.zanet.co.uk/accessible/youraccessiblesite.htm One Site Fits All By Drew Robb "Companies, governments and educational institutions are continually moving more of their activities online as a way to improve service and productivity while cutting costs. But that approach works only if customers and employees can access the online data and services. Barriers to access can slash productivity and slam the door on potential customers." http://tinyurl.com/5fsp6 +02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. 7 Steps to Better Handheld Browsing By Simon Collison "Delivering web content to handheld media devices is becoming more and more important, as browser-enabled mobile phones become popular, and more of us want to stay updated whilst on the move..." http://tinyurl.com/62xlz Working with CSS Background Images - Part 1: An Overview By Adrian Senior "In this series of articles, I will review working with background images and cascading style sheets (CSS). Background images and their usage is a wide subject. In this series, I will start at the beginning. No prior knowledge is assumed and none will be needed. I'll start off this series by looking at some simple syntax. From there, you will see how you can use keywords to control your background images and the manner in which they are displayed." http://tinyurl.com/3n6rx Working with CSS Background Images - Part 2: Precisely Positioning Images By Adrian Senior "In part two, you learn how to place your background images with greater accuracy. You will also see how you can use multiple keywords in the value of the background-position property, and how the flexibility of the CSS syntax allows you to write the selectors in different ways." http://tinyurl.com/46muh CSS Troubleshooting By WordPress Codex http://codex.wordpress.org/CSS_Troubleshooting +03: COLOR. Use HTML Attributes, or CSS to Set Web Page Colors, But Don't Use Both. By Jim Byrne "Use HTML attributes, or CSS to set web page colors, but don't use both." http://www.mcu.org.uk/showlog.php?weblogid=44 +04: EVALUATION & TESTING. The world is ready for usability. Is usability ready for the world? By Kath Straub "Just as in interface design, consistency is critical to the success of usability as a field. If the task of usability testing is this inconsistent, what can that mean for user-centered analysis and design projects? Molich' and colleagues' findings suggest there is significant variability in execution and findings across the task of usability testing. These were (mostly) professional level groups. They proactively volunteered to be evaluated. One would only assume they set out to present their best work in this very public venue. The world may be ready for usability. Molich's study indicates that there is still a lot of art in the science of usability testing. But if usability is an art, can that art be made routine?" http://www.humanfactors.com/downloads/feb05.asp +05: EVENTS. International PHP Conference 2005 Spring Edition May 2-4, 2005 Amsterdam, The Netherlands http://www.phpconference.com/ +06: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE. IA Summit 2005 By iasummit.org IA Summit presentations. http://iasummit.org/2005/conferencedescrip.htm Page Description Diagrams By D. Keith Robinson "A quick overview of Page Description Diagrams and how I use them." http://tinyurl.com/6bhhs +07: JAVASCRIPT. Programming:JavaScript By Wiki Books "JavaScript is an object-oriented scripting language originally developed by Netscape Communications under the name 'Mocha' and then 'LiveScript' but then renamed to 'JavaScript' to associate itself with Sun Microsystems' Java language." http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Programming:JavaScript +08: MISCELLANEOUS. Getting Real: Pick two - Scope, Timeframe, or Budget By Jason Fried "...you need to tell your client to pick two. We've all heard 'Pick two: good, fast, or cheap.' Dealing with client projects is no different. Your client needs to pick two: fixed scope, fixed timeframe, or fixed budget. Having all three is a myth. Pick three and you'll end up with a lot of unsatisified people and subpar results." http://37signals.com/svn/archives2/2005/04/getting_real_pi.php +09: PHP. Practical PHP Programming By Paul Hudson "Welcome to the home of the online book, "Practical PHP Programming". The latest copy of the book will always be kept here." http://www.hudzilla.org/phpbook/index.php +10: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS. Because IE6 is the new Netscape 4.7x By Jeff Atwood "As I read through all the articles spawned by the IE7 announcement (press release), I finally realized something: IE6 is the new Netscape 4.7x." http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000242.html The Zen of Disinformation By Tommy Olsson "My copy of The Zen of CSS Design finally arrived a couple of days ago. Filled with anticipation, I assumed a horizontal position on my sofa and opened the book..." http://tinyurl.com/4xzdk +11: TOOLS. CSS Rounded Box Generator (Beta) By neuroticweb http://www.neuroticweb.com/recursos/css-rounded-box/ +12: USABILITY. Designing Intersection Flows By Henrik Olsen "When forms give users the option to continue in two or more alternative ways, such as registering as a new customer or signing in as a returning one, unfortunate users will take the wrong turn if it isn't unmistakably obvious which way they should go. In the Q2 2005 issue of GUUUI, we'll take a look at a few intersection flows that have caused users problems." http://www.guuui.com/issues/02_05.php Seeking Clarity on Consistency By Kath Straub "...The value of consistency isn't hard to see: Sites that are consistent are easier to learn. There is positive transfer from one area of the site to the others. To ensure this, interface design guidelines tend to preach consistency. The guidelines stress that the consistency of the visual presentation is a key to usability. Shneidermann's first Golden Rule for interface design is 'Strive for consistency'..." http://www.humanfactors.com/downloads/mar05.asp#kath If Your Home Page Could Only Talk By Kimberly Krause Berg "Dear web site visitor. I can't tell you how glad I am that you found my website. You have no idea the great lengths we've gone to get you here, let alone what we're about to do to keep you here...A word to those who use screen readers. We heard that getting to the top of search engines is a nightmare and were advised to put in hidden keywords in the text, behind images, and repeat our keywords in the content. I wouldn't advise turning on your screen reader, as it will say a lot of words over and over again and drive you crazy. We're sorry for the inconvenience and the loss of your sale. But, we were guaranteed the number one spot by that SEO Company, and by golly, you found us didn't you!" http://www.isedb.com/news/article/1134 Open Source Usability: The birth of a movement By Rashmi Sinha "The last few months have been an exciting time for open source usability. Here is a first hand story of what has been happening, some photographs and reflections." http://www.rashmisinha.com/archives/05_04/open-source.html [Section one ends.] ++ SECTION TWO: +13: 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. 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). As a navigation aid for screen readers we do our best to conform to the accessible Text Email Newsletter (TEN) guidelines. Please let me know if there is anything else we can do to make navigation easier. For TEN guideline information please visit: http://www.headstar.com/ten + 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@d.umn.edu [Issue ends.]