+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE. - Volume 6, Issue 09, August 23, 2007. An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design and development. ++ISSUE 09 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: EVALUATION & TESTING. 04: EVENTS. 05: JAVASCRIPT. 06: MISCELLANEOUS. 07: PHP. 08: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS. 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. Reading and Presenting with PowerPoint If You are a Screen Reader User By Henny Swan. "We talk a lot about making PDF's accessible and how we should present them on the web but rarely do we touch on making PowerPoint accessible. As with PDF the bottom line is that if the content of the PowerPoint can not be made accessible then an accessible alternative should be given..." http://tinyurl.com/2esv74 +02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. Running on :empty By Eric Meyer. "While kicking around some ideas at the CSS workshop I led in London, I ran into some interesting problems with :empty. If you're not up on what that one does, it's a way of selecting elements that have no children, including text..." http://meyerweb.com/eric/thoughts/2007/08/17/running-on-empty/ Tripoli "Tripoli is a generic CSS standard for HTML rendering. By resetting and rebuilding browser standards, Tripoli forms a stable, cross-browser rendering foundation for your web projects. I call it 'the mother of all CSS resets'..." http://monc.se/tripoli/ +03: EVALUATION & TESTING. Effectively Testing Your Website in Multiple Browsers By Vandelay. "As a website designer you have the ability to create an attractive and functional design. Unfortunately, you do not have the ability to control which internet browsers will be using to view your site. Because each browser behaves differently you will need to test your projects in multiple browsers..." http://tinyurl.com/3b6xnb Remote Usability Testing By Free Usability Advice. "What Are the Pros and Cons of Remote Usability Testing?..." http://freeusabilityadvice.com/archive/44/remote-usability-testing Which Design? An Introduction to Split A/B Testing By Lisa Halabi. "Following on from any website usability study a number of usability problems are usually found. There can often be debate within any organization as to the best solution for each problem, with no one really knowing the optimal solution. Rather than letting the person that shouts the loudest get his or her own way, a better solution can be to test two solutions in a live environment. Whichever performs the best is clearly the superior solution. Welcome to split A/B testing!..." http://www.usabilitynews.com/news/article4100.asp +04: EVENTS. Rich Web Experience September 6-8, 2007. San Jose, California, U.S.A. http://www.therichwebexperience.com/conference/san_jose/2007/09/ South By South West March 7-11, 2008. Austin, Texas, U.S.A. http://2008.sxsw.com/interactive/ 2008 SXSW Interactive Panel Picker "What panel ideas do you think are the best fit for the 2008 SXSW Interactive Festival? Use the search options to find proposals that interest you. Click on the specific panel title for more info and to comment." http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/ +05: JAVASCRIPT. JavaScript Interaction Must be Input Device Independent By Roger Johansson. "Time for a bit of what in my opinion is Accessibility 101: input device independency. For some reason it is common to see otherwise nice uses of JavaScript made inaccessible by developers forgetting that not everybody uses a mouse (or some other pointing device)..." http://tinyurl.com/3ahsws More on JavaScript and XML By David Flanagan. "In this conclusion to a three-part series you'll learn about serializing XML expanding HTML templates with XML data and more..." http://www.devarticles.com/c/a/JavaScript/More-on-JavaScript-and-XML/ Bring Your Forms to Life With JavaScript By Kris Hadlock. "In this article you'll learn how to prevent errors in your forms. This method validates the form and provides immediate feedback to the user. If the form has been correctly filled out, the submit button is enabled, if not, the button remains grayed out..." http://www.webreference.com/programming/javascript/jsforms/ +06: MISCELLANEOUS. Deliverables That Work: Design Description Documents By Robert Hoekman Jr. "You know those things you're supposed to deliver to a client during a big project - use cases, wireframes, etc.? Robert Hoekman Jr. does and he shares the tool he uses to package them all..." http://tinyurl.com/2xh4o7 +07: PHP. Beginner's Object Oriented PHP Tutorial - Part 1 By Stefan Mischook. "This tutorial is designed to teach total beginners object oriented PHP..." http://www.killerphp.com/tutorials/object-oriented-php/ +08: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS. What Crisis? By Jeffery Zeldman. "...Maybe the W3C is the problem, or maybe the problem is that there is standards-related activity going on outside the W3C. Depending on who you talk to, each of the preceding clauses defines the crisis. Certainly the W3C is political. Certainly some, perhaps more than some, of its committees bog down in in-fighting. In pursuit of a theory, or from lack of fresh air, committee members too often forget the user..." http://zeldman.com/2007/08/15/what-crisis The IPhone Is Internet Explorer 4 All Over Again By Scott Gilbertson. "...The iPhone has created a division in the mobile-optimized web which is eerily similar to the days of IE 4 when many sites simply didn't work in Netscape..." http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/2007/08/the-iphone-is-i.html The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly - iPhone Edition By Aaron Gustafson. "Since its release nearly two months ago, the iPhone has proven to be a rather disruptive device, not only in the mobile market, but on the web as well. With designers and developers scrambling to get a foothold in this new market, issues have surfaced and (in many cases) tempers have flared..." http://tinyurl.com/29u922 +09: TYPOGRAPHY. Identify That Font By Johno. "Ever seen a font you like but couldn't identify it? I once knew an Art Director who seemed to be able to identify just about any font I showed him. However, in recent years, even he responds with a 'I don't have a clue'. So where to turn? Well, rather than publishing my Art Director friend's email address here, I'll introduce a few resources to get you started. Although none of the following resources is infallible, they will definitely give you a head start..." http://ilovetypography.com/2007/08/19/identify-that-font/ +10: USABILITY. Banner Blindness, Old and New Findings By Jakob Nielsen. "Users rarely look at display advertisements on websites. Of the four design elements that do attract a few ad fixations, one is unethical and reduces the value of advertising networks." http://www.useit.com/alertbox/banner-blindness.html +11: XML. XForms for HTML Authors, Part 1 By Steven Pemberton. "XForms is the new markup language for forms on the Web. This document is a quick introduction to XForms for HTML Forms authors. It shows you how to convert existing forms to their XForms equivalent. It assumes knowledge of HTML Forms, so is not a beginner's tutorial. Although there is mention of additional facilities of XForms beyond those possible in HTML Forms (marked with an asterisk on the headings), it is not a full tutorial on all features of XForms. Part 2 deals with additional features that are not available in HTML Forms." http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/Forms/2003/xforms-for-html-authors.html XForms for HTML Authors, Part 2 By Steven Pemberton. "This is the second part of XForms for HTML Authors. Part 1 introduced mostly features that have some equivalent with features from HTML. This part introduces completely new concepts that have no HTML equivalent." http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/Forms/2006/xforms-for-html-authors-part2.html [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. 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.]