+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE.
- Volume 9, Issue 27, December 31, 2010.

An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design and development. 

++ISSUE 27 CONTENTS.

SECTION ONE: New references.
What's new at the Web Design Reference site?
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/
New links in these categories:

01: ACCESSIBILITY.
02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.
03: COLOR.
04: MISCELLANEOUS.
05: PHP.
06: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.
07: USABILITY.

SECTION TWO: 
08: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site?

[Contents ends.]


++ SECTION ONE: New references.

+01: ACCESSIBILITY.

What are Your Resolutions for an Accessible 2011?
By Yahoo! Accessibility Lab.
"Are you ready for the new year? Many of us have already resolved to lose the 10 pounds that we resolved to drop in 2010. However, there are other resolutions you can make to provide a more accessible world to your family, friends, students, and the rest of the world. We've asked some friends for advice and here are some suggestions for making the world a bit better..."
http://yaccessibilityblog.com/wp/resolutions-accessible-2011.html

How to Make HTML5 Semantic Elements More Accessible
By Virginia DeBolt.
"The new semantic elements in HTML5 hold accessibility promise. It's merely potential for improvement at the current time, because the semantic elements introduced in HTML5 are not yet universally recognized by browsers and assistive technology devices. Here are some of the new elements..."
http://www.webteacher.ws/2010/12/29/how-to-make-html5-semantic-elements-more-accessible

Video Captioning Essentials
By mncdhh.org.
"Welcome to Video Captioning Essentials, a self-study course designed to help managers master the basic tools needed to deliver captioned web videos that are useful, cost-effective, and satisfy legal and regulatory requirements...."
http://www.mncdhh.org/captioningessentials/ 

Writing ALT Descriptions
By John Eric Brandt.
"Several months ago I was searching for resources on how to write a decent - 'good' - Alternative Description, also known as an 'ALT description'."
http://jebswebs.net/blog/2010/12/writing-alt-descriptions/

PDF Techniques Roadmap
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Working Group Wiki.
"This WIKI page is a helper page, to give the WCAG membership a view of the overall set of PDF techniques and how the techniques relate to the Success Criteria. The list is organized by criterion, with each criterion listing its title description, followed by one or more bullet points/notes." 
http://trace.wisc.edu/wcag_wiki/index.php?title=PDF_Techniques_Roadmap


+02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.

Testing Tricks: CSS Bookmarklets
By Jens O. Meiert.
"On complex development environments and CSS bookmarklets as a testing complement. Complement as in you've done everything you can but want to err on the safe side..."
http://meiert.com/en/blog/20101229/css-bookmarklets/

The Current CSS Gradients Mess...
By Daniel Glazman.
"Let's take a given square box. Height and width are the same. We want to apply a red-to-black background at let's say alpha degrees and through the center C (50%, 50%) of the box. The W3C gradients draft says we find the start and end points of the gradient that way.."
http://www.glazman.org/weblog/dotclear/index.php?post/2010/12/28/The-current-CSS-Gradients-mess


+03: COLOR.

Why You Should Never Pair Green and Red Together on the Web
By Anthony.
"Everyone would agree that green and red are colors that pair well together on Christmas. But on the web, pairing these coors together can present problems for your users. There are three reasons why you should avoid using green and red together on your website..."
http://uxmovement.com/color/never-pair-green-and-red-together-on-the-web


+04: MISCELLANEOUS.

A Guide to the Open Internet
By Michael Ciarlo.
"Network neutrality is the idea that your cellular, cable, or phone internet connection should treat all websites and services the same..."
http://theopeninter.net/

Web Axe 2010 Year in Review
By Dennis Lembree and Ross Johnson.
http://webaxe.blogspot.com/2010/12/podcast-87-web-axe-2010-year-in-review.html

An Interview with Jesse James Garrett
By Russ Unger.
"...I'm pretty excited that the new edition of Elements of User Experience is out-the first edition was one of the first books I really connected with, and it's great to see a refresh. What are some of the highlights in this version?...There is so much evident care and craft in the Rosenfeld Media books - I think they now occupy the place O'Reilly books held 15 years ago as definitive works..."
http://www.peachpit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1671026


+05: PHP.

Mistrust and Verify
By Kitt Hodsden.
"...When working on a web app with coworkers or fellow volunteers, few things are more important within the group than trust. Trust among developers enables them to work confidently, eases communication between team members, and empowers each of them to make good decisions. With the actual app, however, that trust should never come easily. With today's web apps, you can't trust anything. You can't trust input from the user, you can't trust your code, you can't trust your processes, and you can't trust your systems..."
http://phpadvent.org/2010/mistrust-and-verify-by-kitt-hodsden


+06: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.

Understanding HTML5 Validation
By Louis Lazaris.
"One of things that we need to get used to when making the switch from HTML4/XHTML to HTML5 is the way HTML5 validation works, because it's drastically different from what we've become accustomed to in previous iterations of web markup...The fact that the validators don't spit out any errors does not mean the code is good. Developers should still endeavor to adopt consistent coding methods to keep their code clean and organized..."
http://www.impressivewebs.com/understanding-html5-validation/


+07: USABILITY.

Kinect Gestural UI: First Impressions
By Jakob Nielsen.
"Inconsistent gestures, invisible commands, overlooked warnings, awkward dialog conformations. But fun to play."
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/kinect-gesture-ux.html

Recapping the HFI UI Design Message for 2010
By John Sorflaten.
"...True to our usability roots, we'll provide you this high-level information architecture to our 2010 year-end review: Goals, Strategy, Testing, and Organizational Development..."
http://www.humanfactors.com/downloads/dec10.asp#research

The Top 10 Useful Usability Articles for 2010
By W Craig Tomlin.
"...Who determined the top 10 list?  You and your fellow readers did! My methodology was simple, I evaluated Google Analytics to determine the most popular content for 2010 as measured by unique page views.  Turns out there were a few interesting surprises in the list..."
http://www.usefulusability.com/2010-top-10-useful-usability-articles/


[Section one ends.]


++ SECTION TWO:

+08: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site?

Accessibility Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/accessibility.html

Association Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/associations.html

Book Listings.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/books.html

Cascading Style Sheets Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/css.html

Color Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/color.html

Dreamweaver Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/dreamweaver.html

Evaluation & Testing Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/testing.html

Event Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/events.html

Flash Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/flash.html

Information Architecture Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/architecture.html

JavaScript Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/javascript.html

Miscellaneous Web Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/misc.html

Navigation Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/navigation.html

PHP Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/php.html

Sites & Blogs Listing.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/sites.html

Standards, Guidelines & Pattern Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/standards.html

Tool Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/tools.html

Typography Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/type.html

Usability Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/usability.html

XML Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/xml.html

[Section two ends.]


++END NOTES.


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+ 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.]