+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE. - Volume 4, Issue 51, June 9, 2006. An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design and development. ++ISSUE 51 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: NAVIGATION. 10: PHP. 11: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS. 12: TOOLS. 13: USABILITY. SECTION TWO: 14: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site? [Contents ends.] ++ SECTION ONE: New references. +01: ACCESSIBILITY. WCAG 2.0 By Lachlan Hunt. "In a recent controversial article on A List Apart, Joe Clark proclaimed To Hell with WCAG 2. On the surface, it seems like Joe made a strong case against the WCAG 2.0 draft in an attempt to rally support for his movement against the WCAG Working Group. Although he did raise many issues, in several cases he failed explain exactly what the problem is. I'm fully aware of the fact that not everyone who reads Joe's article will wade through several hundred pages from the 3 WCAG specifications, and who could blame you? I read them, but the specs are certainly long, tedious and, in many cases, extremely difficult to comprehend." http://lachy.id.au/log/2006/06/wcag2 Levels of Accessibility Knowledge By Joe Clark. I admit in advance that I am about to flirt with an Internet meme, the 'Internet meme' (often mispronounced as though it were French and used a circumflex). But if dashing Swede Rohgayr Johansson can delineate levels of HTML knowledge and a somewhat-less-dashing Swede can delineate levels of CSS knowledge, perhaps it is time for? Levels of Accessibility Knowledge." http://blog.fawny.org/2006/06/02/niveaux/ Accessible Matrix Forms WebAIM Thread. "I was wondering what people's thoughts are on making a 'matrix style' form accessible. Of particular interest, is how to create explicit labels for the controls on the form..." http://www.webaim.org/discussion/mail_thread.php?thread=2898 The Need for Accessibility By Dan Johnson. "For the World Wide Web, accessibility means that people with a variety of disabilities can perceive, comprehend, navigate, and interact with the Web, and that they can also contribute to the Web." http://www.webnauts.net/accessibility-need.html NCDAE Tips and Tools: Adobe Acrobat and PDF By National Center on Disability and Access to Education. "This document is intended as a discussion of the accessibility of Adobe Acrobat PDF..." http://ncdae.org/tools/factsheets/pdf.cfm Disabled Football Fans on Losing Side, Whatever England's Fate By AbilityNet. "Technology and disability charity, AbilityNet, has discovered that crucial World Cup websites are inaccessible to many thousands of disabled fans - a lapse which is not only disappointing to many, but leaves both organisations in danger of falling foul of the law." http://www.abilitynet.org.uk/content/oneoffs/e-nation11.htm Codes on Sites 'Captcha' Anger of Web Users By David Kesmodel. "Dave Simmer is a computer-savvy graphic designer. Yet when he surfs the Internet, he often gets stumped by the distorted jumbles of letters and numbers that some Web sites ask users to retype to gain access..." http://tinyurl.com/j35yz +02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. CSS is Worthless By Mike Stenhouse. "CSS does not make a site accessible. CSS does not make your site rank higher in search engines. Good CSS does not make you an elite web programmer. I don't code CSS. CSS is misunderstood...This is the biggest misunderstanding that I come across when trying to teach someone CSS: They've heard that CSS is the thing; it's the way web pages should be done these days. It lets you do away with spacer gifs, achieve pixel perfect precision and carries accessibility and SEO benefits to boot. They want to learn CSS. I have a really hard time hammering home that CSS is only the icing and the real benefit comes from how they do the rest of their coding... And I suspect that an awful lot of people who say they can 'do' CSS have the same problem...at the beginning of this article I said that I don't code CSS. That's not entirely true but let me finish that sentence. I don't code CSS, I code semantic HTML. I happen to use CSS to restyle that HTML, to make it look the way I want, but that's an aside. I only use CSS because I use semantic HTML. I use HTML tags for their appropriateness for the information they contain (instead of for how they look) so I have to redefine how they behave...HTML can make a site accessible. HTML can make your site rank higher in search engines. Good HTML can make you an elite web programmer. HTML is misunderstood." http://www.contentwithstyle.co.uk/Articles/106/css-is-worthless/ Understanding Specificity By Adrian Senior. "Learn about a type of weighting that affects how browsers display your CSS rules." http://www.adobe.com/devnet/dreamweaver/articles/css_specificity.html All About CSS Drop Shadows - Part One By John Gallant, Holly Bergevin. "Do you like drop shadows on your page elements, but haven't a clue how to get them on your pages? Maybe you do know a bit about creating drop shadows, but a refresher on the modern methods would be welcome? Do you want to learn the very latest cutting edge tricks? If you are any of these, don't go away because we now begin a series on drop shadows for HTML elements. At the start we'll keep it simple, and as we progress in the series the methods will become more advanced and effective. At the end you will be treated to a brand new method so advanced that it must wait for IE7 to arrive before you can use it properly." http://www.communitymx.com/content/article.cfm?cid=0536D +03: COLOR. CSS Maintenance Tip: Use a Color Glossary By Garrett Dimon. Not only does this makes it easier to quickly find the color you're looking for, but it inevitably helps out the poor soul that has to update your code in the future. http://tinyurl.com/j6df9 +04: EVALUATION & TESTING. Quantitatively Test the Effectiveness of Your Home Page By Iain Barker. "This article explains a quick and effective technique for assessing whether your home page is an effective gateway to site content." http://www.steptwo.com.au/papers/cmb_testhomepage/index.html +05: EVENTS. Make the Jump to Ajax and DOM Scripting Jeremy Keith July 6, 2006. New York, New York U.S.A. http://www.carsonworkshops.com/dev/keith/06JULY2006.html An Event Apart July 10-11, 2006. New York, New York U.S.A. http://aneventapart.com/events/2006/nyc/ Building Enterprise Web Apps on a Budget - How We Built Flickr July 19, 2006. Toronto, Canada http://www.carsonworkshops.com/dev/henderson/19JULY2006.html A-Z: How to Build a Web App July 19, 2006. London, United Kingdom http://www.carsonworkshops.com/web_apps/19JUL2006.html IDEA 2006 Information: Design, Experience, Access October 23-24, 2006. Seattle, Washington U.S.A. http://iainstitute.org/events/archives/000473.php Zend/PHP Conference 2006 October 29 - November 2, 2006. San Jose, California U.S.A. http://zendcon06.kbconferences.com/ CSS for Developers Molly E. Holzschlag and Andy Clarke October 1, 2006. London, United Kingdom http://www.carsonworkshops.com/design-dev/holzschlag_clarke/19OCT2006.html +06: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE. Structure Yields Usability By John Rhodes. "You can improve usability by organizing. A messy web site can be improved pretty easily by creating an organization where one doesn't exist. If there is some organization, improve it. This might be a call for information architecture but I think that I'm getting at something more raw. I'm talking about getting your web site in order. That might mean adding or subtracting content. It might just mean new labels. It might mean a more consistent use of fonts. It might mean rounded edges, better colors, and simple content." http://www.webword.com/2006/06/04/structure-yields-usability/ Design Before You Build with Wire Frames By Tony Patton. "Tony Patton explains why using wire frames to properly design a Web application before development work begins will please clients, project managers, and Web developers." http://builder.com.com/5100-6371_14-6079826.html +07: JAVASCRIPT. Use AJAX Scripting Responsibly By Roger Johansson. "The key is to use scripting to add value for those who can take advantage of it without causing problems for those who, for whatever reason, cannot. I like the term 'Progressive Enhancement' since it describes a mindset and a way of using technology that will help you create usable and accessible websites and web applications. Build the basics first and make sure everything (within reason) works without JavaScript, and then use event handlers to inject usability enhancing functionality." http://tinyurl.com/rh3q5 Responsible Asynchronous Scripting By Shaun Inman. "AJAX and its kin are empowering developers, but with great power comes great responsibility." http://tinyurl.com/h5zqk IBM Endorses Dojo and Lends Accessibility Support By James Craig. "On Monday, IBM officially announced its support for the Dojo Toolkit JavaScript framework. This announcement comes soon after the creation of the Dojo Accessibility email list, and like its other open source donations, IBM's support for Dojo includes a major emphasis on accessibility for people with disabilities..." http://tinyurl.com/zd6cd Front-End Architecture: AJAX and DOM Scripting By Garret Dimon. "The tipping point that really got me wondering about front-end architecture is AJAX. It's unique in that it really crosses the chasm between user experience and the deeper technical bits. On one hand, AJAX is important because it enables us to create exponentially richer user experiences. On the other hand however, its implementation can leave much to be desired if handled incorrectly, and to make matters worse, because of the way it straddles the line between the front and back-end, it's difficult to determine how it fits in with everything." http://tinyurl.com/pgel2 JavaScriptâ'Associative Arrays'â Considered Harmful By Andrew Dupont. "I hesitate to add to the proliferation of 'considered harmful' essays, but this is an important point, and it needs a URL, if only to cut down on the amount of typing I have to do..." http://tinyurl.com/qpp9h JavaScript 2 and the Future of the Web By Brendan Eich. These are Brendan's Xtech 2006 presentation slides. http://developer.mozilla.org/presentations/xtech2006/javascript/ JavaScript and Namespaces By Dan Webb. "Over at his site the right honorable Dustin Diaz speaks on YUI's design and in particular talks about the long package names used in it. It was Dustin's code example that made me think..." http://www.vivabit.com/bollocks/2006/05/22/javascript-and-namespaces +08: MISCELLANEOUS. Interview with Microsoft Ethnographer Tracey Lovejoy By Kelly Goto. "Lately, it seems the terms anthropology and ethnography are the new buzzwords for innovation in the technology industry. How has this type of research helped global organizations such as Intel, Microsoft, Apple and Adobe create better products and services? In this interview, we ask Ethnographer Tracey Lovejoy to detail some of the ways her team's research practice has directly integrated into the design and development cycles at Microsoft. In this interview, Tracey reveals how designers, developers, technologists and strategists in the technology field and beyond can most effectively utilize ethnographic-based research in their daily practices." http://www.gotomedia.com/gotoreport/april2006/lovejoy.html +09: NAVIGATION. Search Engine Optimization with Google Sitemaps By Matthew Coers. "If you've been looking for a way to optimize your Web site, check out Google Sitemaps. Among other things, you can tell Google how important a given page is relative to others and you can learn what Google thinks of your Web site!" http://www.webreference.com/programming/sitemaps/ +10: PHP. Developing PHP the Ajax Way, Part 1: Getting Started By Sean Kelly. "Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (Ajax), is arguably the most popular new Web technology. In this two-part 'Developing PHP the Ajax way' series, you will create a simple photo album as an online Web application, entirely in PHP and the Simple Ajax Toolkit (Sajax). You'll begin by writing a simple photo album using the standard method of PHP development and later apply Sajax to make it an active Web application." http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/opensource/library/os-php-rad1/ CSS Colors: Take Control Using PHP By Patrick Fitzgerald. "While many web sites use powerful programming environments to create HTML, these same tools are usually ignored when it comes to creating Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). This article describes how to take control of your colors in CSS using PHP." http://www.barelyfitz.com/projects/csscolor/ Getting Real With Databases in PHP By Tyler Hall. "It's no secret that I don't like Ruby on Rails. My friends know it. My co-workers definitely know it. And I guess now you do, too. Ruby itself is a fine language, and there are lots of great web apps running on Rails, but the framework just doesn't fit with my development style. I like to keep things simple. I'm too much of a control-freak to sell my soul to a particular framework. That said, many of the ideas behind Ruby on Rails are spot on. I particularly like how well it abstracts database queries into separate objects for each table. That's very cool and can save having to write a lot of repetitive code. But having to run a Rails script to generate new files is a little too cumbersome for me. Like I said, I prefer to keep things simple. Can we do the same thing with PHP? Using just one file? Yes. So, I present to you, my analogous solution in PHP. It's not perfect. It may not be right for you, but I like it and use it in most of my projects." http://tinyurl.com/oofon +11: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS. Invalid HTML Interfering with Accessibility By Alastair Campbell. "Every now and then you come across an example of code that slaps you around the face and demonstrates that you really do have to make sure you use valid code..." http://alastairc.ac/2006/06/invalid-html-interfering-with-accessibility/ Is Standards Compliant HTML Really Necessary? By Adam Osborne. "...Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox 2, both upcoming browsers, are trying to become the most standards compliant browsers around and display pages the way their DOCTYPES say they should. This means that you can't predict how your incompliant HTML is going to work in these browsers. The best way to plan for this is to make your sites compliant, then you will be reducing the chances of having to make any future changes to your site. Another reason that I say yes to standards compliance is for user testing purposes. How can you test a site that is rife with HTML errors? Finding an erroneous unclosed HTML element that is breaking your entire layout in a page full of errors is a horrendous task. Making standards compliant HTML is a simple process that will eventually save you a lot of time and energy. I take pride in producing standards compliant HTML. I know that when I've finished working on a project and I hand it over to another developer to maintain or implement that they have beautiful, fully compliant HTML. I expect the same if I ever have to maintain someone else's HTML. And finally, compliant HTML makes it so much easier to make your site accessible, it's virtually impossible to make an accessible site without conforming to standards." http://staff.interesource.com/priority4/jun06/standards.htm +12: TOOLS. The Scrutinizer By Rosano Coutinho. "...The Scrutinizer is a service that allows you to analyze, assess and validate any link using various tools and testers on the web...Rather than creating direct links to various validators and link analyzers, one link can be used to submit to all of them. It simplifies the task of figuring out which application needs what type of URL (Domains only/HTTP/No HTTP) and also saves time and space by freeing up the code from unnecessary URLs..." http://www.scrutinizer.phileplanet.com/ swipr "...a toolset that allows information architects to create an integrated and interactive deliverable from standard Visio files." http://www.swipr.com/ +13: USABILITY. Dimensions of Usability: Defining the Conversation, Driving the Process By Whitney Quensenbery. "Have you ever wondered if your colleagues or clients really understand usability? Too often, standards or guidelines substitute for really engaging our business, technical and design colleagues in a discussion of what usability means. By looking at usability from five dimensions, we can create a consensus around usability goals and use that definition to provide the basis for planning user centered design activities." http://tinyurl.com/qqf4b Task Marketing Brings You Web Success By Gerry McGovern. "The best websites know that customers are ready for action. They help customers complete common tasks quickly and easily." http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/nt/2006/nt-2006-06-05-task-marketing.htm Seven Reasons Why Applications Fail By Joshua Porter. "I'm not one to believe that we're in a Bubble 2.0 or anything like that, but here are a few ideas about why some of the web apps out there fail." http://bokardo.com/archives/7-reasons-why-web-apps-fail/ User Experience and Cognitive Pleasures (There's Easy, and Then There's Experience) By Leisa Reichelt. "User experience and usability are two different things. And usability does not always imply a system or interface that does not require any learning, or any enquiry, or any challenge on the part of the user." http://tinyurl.com/mrb4z Google and Microsoft Understand the Power of the Default By Joshua Porter. "In response to a new feature in Microsoft's upcoming Internet Explorer 7 web browser, Google has issued a complaint with the Justice Department that the browser doesn't give users enough choice because it defaults to using the MSN web search. By filing this complaint, Google is acknowledging the Power of the Default. The Power of the Default is the observation that most users never change the default settings in software." http://tinyurl.com/e7cev Designing for the 'Average User' By Frank Spillers. "We all were average users at one point. We still are when it comes to working with a new program, product or website. The difference between us (IT professionals) and the average user is that we have learned sophisticated coping strategies for figuring out software and the web." http://tinyurl.com/jq3jb Internationalization Primer By Jonathan Snook. "Daunted by that multilingual site project around the corner? Designing and developing for multiple locales is a complex task. Get your head around the basics of internationalization in this primer." http://www.digital-web.com/articles/internationalization_primer/ [Section one ends.] ++ SECTION TWO: +14: 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.]