+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE. - Volume 6, Issue 31, January 25, 2008. An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design and development. ++ISSUE 32 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: NAVIGATION. 08: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS. 09: TOOLS. 10: TYPOGRAPHY. 11: USABILITY. 12: XML. SECTION TWO: 13: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site? [Contents ends.] ++ SECTION ONE: New references. +01: ACCESSIBILITY. Social Networking Sites Lock Out Disabled Users By AbilityNet. "Social networking sites may be revolutionizing internet communication, and creating new and exciting opportunities in both leisure and business, but is this Brave New World as democratic and inclusive as it appears?..." http://www.abilitynet.org.uk/enation85 Empty Links and Screen Readers By Mike Davies. "...he most accessible link is one that contains link text. Different techniques of hiding links, from no link text, through to hiding by CSS can cause an accessibility barrier to screen reader users. Each screen reader presented its user with a different set of problems and barriers. What follows is a detail description of the test, tabulated results, summary of techniques that passed, failed or came close, and a list of web development recommendations..." http://yuiblog.com/blog/2008/01/23/empty-links/ Testing for Accessibility By Jim Thatcher. "CalWAC 2008 presentation materials" http://www.jimthatcher.com/testing0108/ Web Accessibility: The Flip Side of the Coin By Miraz Jordan. "In the free-flowing time-space continuum that is ordinary life we all benefit from accessible web sites. What's more, with features built in to the Mac Operating System, we can bend sites to our will. At warp factor 8 we can go for white text on a black background, zoom in, and even have the computer read a site aloud. Engage!" http://tinyurl.com/35fgby The New Accessigooglability By Mike Cherim. "If you told someone they could lose weight if they quit smoking, would they be in the wrong or, worse, be a bad person, to quit smoking for the sole purpose of losing weight? Let's examine: Losing excess weight is a good thing, and so is quitting smoking, right? So does their motivation leave something to be desired? I strongly suspect most of you wouldn't care one way or the other. The net result will be the same, the benefits will be realized regardless of their reasoning, and nobody will be hurt by their choice. It's seems that the motivation is actually sort of irrelevant. Now let's substitute weight loss with search engine optimization (SEO), and quitting smoking with web accessibility..." http://green-beast.com/blog/?p=224 +02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. CSS Gradient Text Effect By Nick La. "Do you want to create fancy headings without rendering each heading with Photoshop? Here is a simple CSS trick to show you how to create gradient text effect with a PNG image (pure CSS, no Javascript or Flash)." http://www.webdesignerwall.com/tutorials/css-gradient-text-effect/ 100% Height Layout Using CSS By Dave Woods. "...Within this tutorial, I'll explain how 100% height can be achieved cross browser, using CSS..." http://www.dave-woods.co.uk/?p=144 CSS Floats Without Text Wrap By Dave Woods. Understanding floats is extremely important when creating CSS layouts. One of the trickiest issues when dealing with floats is stopping text from wrapping underneath a floated element. "Within this short tutorial, I'll explain how this can easily be accomplished with no extra HTML markup required..." http://www.dave-woods.co.uk/?p=148 A CSS layout that does not rely on DIV, FLOAT, CLEAR nor structural HACK By Thierry Koblentz. "This article demonstrates an original solution that addresses semantics, construct, and design issues to deliver robust layouts." http://tjkdesign.com/articles/float-less_css_layouts.asp Let the CSS WG Know What You Need From CSS3 By David Storey. "Is there ever a time when you wish CSS allowed you to apply style in ways that either are not currently possible, or require hacks and extra markup to make it possible? Well now is the chance to let the working group know exactly what you want. Bruce Lawson is collecting your feedback on the WaSP site. Go there and leave a comment outlining what effects you'd like to achieve. You can also leave feedback on the CSS3 Soapbox..." http://www.css3.info/let-the-css-wg-know-what-you-need-from-css3/ Tell the CSS WG What You Want From CSS3 By Bruce Lawson. "With all the tizzy about the CSS Working Group not listening to what designers really need, no-one noticed that in December, an invited expert to the group asked for such a steer from web professionals..." http://tinyurl.com/26nko8 +03: EVALUATION & TESTING. Personas 99% Bad? By Peter Merholz. "Over the last few days, I've taken part in (and facilitated parts of) an intense workshop meant to define the user experience of a new product. In the room we had representatives from pretty much the entire team ? software engineers, hardware engineers, industrial designers, interaction designers, marketing, brand, and even the CEO..." http://www.peterme.com/?p=624 Personas and the Advantage of Designing for Yourself By Joshua Porter. "...Personas may or may not be necessary in your project. It depends on the group of people you're designing with. If you can't communicate what you need to without personas, then consider using them. If you can't get into the right mind set, consider using them. If you do end up creating a persona to get yourself into the right mind set or to communicate better with others, great! But that doesn't mean it's the right process for other designers and it doesn't mean that someone else's personas are right or wrong. Stop defending turf you don't need to! If other people do design without using personas, let them. Artifacts of the design process are insignificant compared with the design artifact itself." http://tinyurl.com/2edrp2 Personas as Tools By Joshua Porter. "Yesterday's piece on personas wasn't really about personas as much as it was about tools. Every tool you use has benefits and drawbacks and as a designer you need to choose the best tool for the job..." http://bokardo.com/archives/personas-as-tools/ How to Do Usability Testing Cheap and Fast By Meryl Evans. "...When doing on location testing, consider the following..." http://meryl.net/2008/01/23/how-to-do-usability-testing-cheap-and-fast/ +04: EVENTS. Ideas 4 January 30, 2008. Perth, Australia. http://www.webindustry.asn.au/ideas4/ A Practical Introduction to Website Accessibility February 20, 2008. London, United Kingdom. http://www.abilitynet.org.uk/webintroaccessibility Rich Media and Latest Trends in Accessibility February 27, 2008. London, United Kingdom. http://www.abilitynet.org.uk/webrichmedia Hidden Barriers Workshop - Web Access Centre February 27, 2008. London, United Kingdom. http://tinyurl.com/2fmy38 Transitioning from WCAG 1.0 to 2.0 Training Course - Web Access Centre February 27, 2008. London, United Kingdom. http://tinyurl.com/yv33sh Web Accessibility Training February 27, April 2, and April 30, 2008. London, United Kingdom. http://www.webcredible.co.uk/services/web-accessibility-training.shtml Intermediate CSS Training February 28, April 3, and May 1, 2008. London, United Kingdom. http://www.webcredible.co.uk/services/css-training-fund.shtml +05: JAVASCRIPT. Dangers of Remote Javascript By Nat Torkington. "As we move to a widget web, where the goodies on your site may not necessarily come from your site, it's worth sparing a thought for security. We at O'Reilly just got bit on perl.com, which redirected to a porn site courtesy a piece of remotely-included Javascript. One of our advertisers was using an ads system that required our pages to load Javascript from their site. It only took three things to turn perl.com into porn.com: (1) the advertiser's domain lapsed, (2) the porn company bought it, (3) they replaced the Javascript that we were loading with a small chunk that redirected to the porn site (note that nothing on or about perl.com changed). Our first concern was that we'd been hacked and "run this remote Javascript" inserted from our servers without our knowledge, but that hadn't happened-our change records and RT logs show we've had that Javascript and advertiser since May 2006..." http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2008/01/dangers_of_remo.html Using Multiple JavaScript Onload Functions By Lee Underwood. "When scripts are written they're used to accomplish a given task, such as creating a rotating picture gallery, or to validate a form. For each task, a separate script is necessary. Often, a script is called using an onload function." http://www.webreference.com/programming/javascript/onloads/ JavaScript Objects: More on String Methods By James Payne. "...In this episode we will continue our discussion of the Object String methods and how to use them..." http://tinyurl.com/29zwnv +06: MISCELLANEOUS. Browser Version Timeline By Eric Meyer. "Way back in March of 2007, I moderated a SXSW panel called 'A Decade of Style'. As part of the introductory material, I created a browser-history timeline in Keynote, spread across two slides. I'd always meant to throw it up on the web for general edification and reference purposes. So I finally have, in a slightly simplified visual format (the original had a parchment-like background and so on)..." http://meyerweb.com/eric/thoughts/2008/01/16/browser-version-timeline/ +07: NAVIGATION. Advancing Advanced Search By Stephen Turbek. "Advanced search is the ugly child of interface design -always included, but never loved. Websites have come to depend on their search engines as the volume of content has increased. Yet advanced search functionality has not significantly developed in years. Poor matches and overwhelming search results remain a problem for users. Perhaps the standard search pattern deserves a new look. A progressive disclosure approach can enable users to use precision advanced search techniques to refine their searches and pinpoint the desired results..." http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/advancing-advanced When Search Words are Misleading By Gerry McGovern. "The words people use when searching are not always a true reflection of what they're really looking for." http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/nt/2008/nt-2008-01-21-carewords.htm +08: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS. HTML 5 By Ian Hickson, editor. Public review and comments from outside the Working Group are needed, especially in regard to accessibility features. "...to make comments regarding this document, please send them to public-html-comments@w3.org...All feedback is welcome...The publication of this document by the W3C as a W3C Working Draft does not imply that all of the participants in the W3C HTML working group endorse the contents of the specification..." http://www.w3.org/TR/html5/ HTML 5 Comments archive: http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html-comments/ HTML 5 Differences from HTML 4 By Anne van Kesteren, editor. Again, the forum for comments is public-html-comments@w3.org. http://www.w3.org/TR/html5-diff/ Simple Things Make Firm Foundations By Tim Berners-Lee. "...Let us try, as we make new technology, or plan a path for old technology, always to keep things as clean as we can." http://www.w3.org/QA/2008/01/modularity.html Compatibility and IE8 By Chris Wilson. "In Dean's recent Internet Explorer 8 and Acid2: A Milestone post, he highlighted our responsibility to deliver both interoperability (web pages working well across different browsers) and backwards compatibility (web pages working well across different versions of IE). We need to do both, so that IE8 continues to work with the billions of pages on the web today that already work in IE6 and IE7 but also makes the development of the next billion pages (in an interoperable way) much easier. Continuing Dean's theme, I'd like to talk about some steps we are taking in IE8 to achieve these goals." http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2008/01/21/compatibility-and-ie8.aspx MANY MORE articles on the compatibility and IE8 topic: Beyond DOCTYPE: Web Standards, Forward Compatibility, and IE8 By Aaron Gustafson. http://www.alistapart.com/articles/beyonddoctype Bobbing Heads and the IE8 Meta Tag By Shelly Powers. http://tinyurl.com/2b8cms Broken By Jeremy Keith. http://adactio.com/journal/1402 Doctype Switch 2.0 By David Dorward. http://blog.dorward.me.uk/2008/01/23/doctype-switch-2.0.html End of line Internet Explorer By Mike Davies. http://www.isolani.co.uk/blog/standards/EndOfLineInternetExplorer From Switches to Targets: A Standardista's Journey By Eric Meyer. http://www.alistapart.com/articles/fromswitchestotargets IE8 and Opt-In Versioning Mechanism By Karl Dubost. http://www.w3.org/QA/2008/01/ie8-versioning-mechanism.html Has Internet Explorer Just Shot Itself in the Foot? By Andy Budd. http://www.andybudd.com/archives/2008/01/has_internet_ex/ IE8 and the Future of the Web By Rachel Andrew. http://tinyurl.com/2fnfm6 In Defense of Version Targeting By Jeffery Zeldman http://www.zeldman.com/2008/01/22/in-defense-of-version-targeting/ By Robert O'Callahan. http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/roc/archives/2008/01/post_2.html Meta Madness By John Resig. http://ejohn.org/blog/meta-madness/ Microsoft Koan By Mark Pilgrim. http://diveintomark.org/archives/2008/01/23/microsoft-koan Mistakes, Sadness, Regret By Ian Hickson. http://ln.hixie.ch/?start=1201080691&count=1 Not Your Father's Standards Switch By Jeffery Zeldman. http://www.zeldman.com/2008/01/22/not-your-fathers-standards-switch/ Standards Mode is the New Quirks Mode By Roger Johansson. http://tinyurl.com/37pmdd Sunsetting Quirks Mode By Sam Ruby. http://intertwingly.net/blog/2008/01/23/Sunsetting-Quirks-Mode The Importance of Being HTML5 By Jonathan Snook. http://snook.ca/archives/browsers/importance_of_being_html5/ The Internet Explorer Lock-In By Anne Van Kesteren. http://annevankesteren.nl/2008/01/ie-lock-in The Versioning Switch is Not a Browser Detect By Peter-Paul Koch. http://www.quirksmode.org/blog/archives/2008/01/the_versioning.html Version Targeting in IE 8, and an Alternative Path for Microsoft By Robert Nyman. http://tinyurl.com/25rwvz Version Two By Eric Meyer. http://meyerweb.com/eric/thoughts/2008/01/23/version-two/ Versioning, Compatibility and Standards By Maciej Stachowiak. http://webkit.org/blog/155/versioning-compatibility-and-standards/ +09: TOOLS. Introducing WAVE 4.0 By Jared Smith. " WebAIM is pleased to announce the release of WAVE 4.0. We invite you to test WAVE and provide feedback, recommendations, and bug reports on this beta version at this time..." http://webaim.org/blog/introducing-wave-4/ NVDA (Non Visual Desktop Access) - a free and open source screen reader for Windows By Steve Faulkner. "...If you do want to experiment with a screen reader, rather than paying out large amounts of cash, why not try one of the free screen readers that are available such as NVDA (Non Visual Desktop Access), a free and open source screen reader for Windows..." http://www.paciellogroup.com/blog/?p=23 +10: TYPOGRAPHY. Typography: Where Engineers and Designers Meet By Jeff Atwood. "Over the Christmas break, my wife and I visited New York City for the first time. One of the many highlights of our trip was the Museum of Modern Art, which is running a year-long special exhibit, 50 Years of Helvetica. It's a tiny exhibit tucked away in a corner of MoMA. Blink and you'll miss it amongst all the other wonderful art. But even a small exhibit provides ample physical evidence that Helvetica-- a humble font, nothing more than a collection of mathematical curves shaped into letterforms-- had a huge impact on the world..." http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001038.html +11: USABILITY. Strategic Usability: What Do People Want? By Peter J. Meyers. "Usability is not one tool or technique. I'm constantly frustrated by the attitude among some specialists that their particular area of expertise or favorite tool holds the one-and-only secret to the ultimate user experience..." http://www.usereffect.com/topic/strategic-usability-what-do-people-want What Makes a Good Form? By Formulate. "So you have a form, and you want to make it 'good'. Where do you start?..." http://formulate.com.au/articles/what-makes-a-good-form/ Usability ROI Declining, But Still Strong By Jakob Nielsen. "The average business metrics improvement after a usability redesign is now 83%. This is substantially less than 6 years ago, but ROI remains high because usability is still cheap relative to gains." http://www.useit.com/alertbox/roi.html Bad UI of the Week: Read This (OK/Cancel) By David Chisnall. "David Chisnall explores some of the problems with the ubiquitous dialog box, and how it is commonly abused by developers. Would you like to know more?" http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1146301 Bad Usability Calendar By Netlife Research. "It's here; a new edition of the (in)famous Bad Usability Calendar. The past three calendars have all been successful in distributing examples of bad design around the world. Check out the fresh examples of exaggerated use fancy Web 2.0 design, cover flow, personalization, pull-down menus and more..." http://www.badusability.com/ Hockey Sticks and User By Mike Hughes. "...If you are going to do less, you must make sure you are focusing on those things that add the most value. And that brings the hockey stick curve into play." http://uxmatters.com/MT/archives/000263.php +12: XML. Support for XHTML in 2008 By David Dorward. "XHTML has been one of my pet hates for a while, and I've ranted about it at length. This isn't going to be another one of my rants made up mostly of pointing to different specifications and complaining about the holes in them (although I'm tempted)." http://blog.dorward.me.uk/2008/01/23/xhtml-and-google.html SVG On Acid? By Doug Schepers. "ACID3, that is. Most of you will have heard of the ACID tests put together by the Web Standards Project in order to promote interoperability among browsers. Microsoft recently made a hit in the blogosphere by announcing that the next version of their browser, IE8, passed the ACID2 test, showing their commitment to Web standards. Ian Hickson, who wrote the second ACID test, is now working on ACID3. He recently started a contest to get contributions from the community on what features they want tested..." http://www.w3.org/QA/2008/01/svg_on_acid.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.]