+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE.
- Volume 9, Issue 30, January 21, 2011.

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

++ISSUE 30 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: EVALUATION & TESTING.
04: JAVASCRIPT.
05: PHP.
06: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.
07: TYPOGRAPHY.
08: USABILITY.

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

[Contents ends.]


++ SECTION ONE: New references.

+01: ACCESSIBILITY.

25 Ways To Make Your Website Accessible
By Dennis Lembree.
"Web accessibility is a vast topic and has become a field unto itself. But don't let that scare you. Accessibility is not terribly difficult to implement. It won't hinder aesthetics or impede interaction as some believe. It's just a smart way to design and develop. Let's examine 25 important techniques for creating an accessible website."
http://www.webhostingsearch.com/articles/25-ways-to-make-your-site-more-accessible.php

PDF Test Results by Assistive Technology
By Gian Wild.
"...Several issues occurred across assistive technologies (as well as with Read Out Loud and the keyboard only feature), which leads me to believe that there are still a few bugs in the Adobe interface..."
http://www.gianwild.com/2010/12/31/pdf-test-results-by-assistive-technology/

Response to the Department of Justice ANPRM
By James Thatcher.
"The Department of Justice has asked for comments on their proposal to apply the ADA to the web (Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability; Accessibility of Web Information and Services of State and Local Government Entities and Public Accommodations). The following is the comment I plan to submit relating to the first three questions. I welcome thoughts or comments about this. Please use my comment form for that purpose. Thanks..."
http://www.jimthatcher.com/anprm.htm

Testing for Accessibility
By Apple.
"Whether you're designing a new application or access enabling an existing one, you should plan to test the accessibility of your product. Testing for accessibility is a bit different than standard user-interface testing and Apple provides a couple of tools that make the process easier."
http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/Accessibility/Conceptual/AccessibilityMacOSX/OSXAXTesting/OSXAXTestingApps.html

Will You Read 45 Pages on Writing Alternate Text?
By Vlad Alexander.
"The HTML Working Group at W3C is working on a document that is an extension to the HTML5 specification on how to write alternate text. The document is meant to be read by non-technical content authors, and will also become the basis for future derivative works such as articles, tutorials, and references. This document takes the simple concept of alternate text and morphs it into a 45-page monster tome that is full of conditional rules. Will this effort make the Web more accessible, or will it have the opposite effect and create the perception that Web accessibility is overly complex?..."
http://rebuildingtheweb.com/en/45-pages-on-writing-alt/


+02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.

Media Queries, Viewport Width, Scrollbars, and WebKit Browsers
By Roger Johansson.
When fine-tuning some media queries I noticed that layout changes seemed to happen at different window widths in Safari than in Firefox or Opera. When making the browser window narrower, media queries that specify a max-width kicked in a bit earlier in Safari..."
http://www.456bereastreet.com/archive/201101/media_queries_viewport_width_scrollbars_and_webkit_browsers/

What's the Difference Between :before and ::before?
By Louis Lazaris.
"When using or researching CSS pseudo-elements, you may have come across different syntax for the :before and :after pseudo-elements, specifically in the form of a preceding double colon, instead of the traditional single colon. This seems a little confusing at first, but there's actually a pretty simple explanation. I had assumed that there would be some difference in the way each functioned, but that's not the case, as the short and long answers below make clear..."
http://www.impressivewebs.com/before-after-css3/

Introduction to CSS Escape Sequences
By Mert TOL.
"...Regardless of where they appear, string values in CSS behave in a similar way. The most important thing to remember about them is that they are not HTML. This means, for instance, that inserting literal angle brackets without escaping them as HTML entity references (< and >) is perfectly legal. In other words, the rule..."
http://www.merttol.com/articles/web/code/introduction-to-css-escape-sequences.html

Internet Explorer User Agent Style Sheets
By Jonathan Neal.
"The UA Style Sheet is a simple set of css styles that each web browser uses before any other css styles are applied. This chart lists and compares the different default style sheets used to render HTML in the four major versions of Internet Explorer; IE6, IE7, IE8, and IE9 Platform Preview. You can download each of these UA stylesheets by using the links at the top of this chart..."
http://www.iecss.com/


+03: EVALUATION & TESTING.

Parallel & Iterative Design + Competitive Testing = High Usability
By Jakob Nielsen.
"Three methods for increasing UX quality by exploring and testing diverse design ideas work even better when you use them together."
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/design-diversity-process.html

Pragmatic Personas
By Jeff Patton.
"Knowing who will use your software is important to the software development process. Having the end user in mind helps you develop features that fit the user's needs. And, figuring out your end user, as Jeff Patton reveals, is indeed easy. In this column, Jeff details stereotypes to avoid, questions to ask, and how to implement this pragmatic persona in your development process.	"
http://www.stickyminds.com/sitewide.asp?Function=edetail&ObjectType=COL&ObjectId=15793


+04: JAVASCRIPT.

WAI-ARIA 1.0 Candidate Recommendation in Implementation and Testing
By Shawn Henry.
"W3C WAI is excited to announce the publication of WAI-ARIA 1.0 as a W3C Candidate Recommendation on 18 January. WAI-ARIA is the Accessible Rich Internet Applications technical specification for making dynamic, interactive web content accessible to people with disabilities..."
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-wai-ig/2011JanMar/0003.html

What the Heck is Shadow DOM?
By Dimitri Glazkov.
"...If you build Web sites, you probably use Javascript libraries. If so, you are probably grateful to the nameless heroes who make these libraries not suck. One common problem these brave soldiers of the Web have to face is encapsulation. You know, one of them turtles on which the Object-Oriented Programming foundation sits, upon which stands most of the modern software engineering. How do you create that boundary between the code that you wrote and the code that will consume it?..."
http://glazkov.com/2011/01/14/what-the-heck-is-shadow-dom/


+05: PHP.

10 Things You Can Do to Become a Better PHP Developer
By Raphael Caixeta.
"In this article, I'll share with you ten things I wish I was told when I was just getting started with PHP development, and I'm hoping you'll be able to learn a thing or two if you're just taking your first steps into this awesome web development language..."
http://sixrevisions.com/web-development/10-things-you-can-do-to-become-a-better-php-developer/


+06: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.

The Web is Changing: HTML5 and Native Media Support
By David Leggett.
"If you're a web designer, you've almost certainly heard of HTML5 by now. The next big step in the HTML standard, HTML5 has been in the works since 2004, and brings a lot of changes to the web. Today, I'd simply like to aquaint you with some new media features in HTML5 in the hopes that you'll begin implementing these features into your own design now..."
http://www.uxbooth.com/blog/the-web-is-changing-html5-and-native-media-support/

Don't Forget About HTML5's Little Guys
By Louis Lazaris.
"...HTML5 now includes a number of new elements that probably aren't getting a whole lot of attention, so I thought I'd summarize three of these lesser-used elements here. I'll also mention a few ways these might be used in your projects, so you can see their value a little more clearly..."
http://blogs.sitepoint.com/2011/01/18/dont-forget-about-html5s-little-guys/

Methods of Communication
By Remy Sharp.
"...This post will be an overview of the technologies available, how well they're currently supported, and, where possible, live demos. I'm going to touch on the following technologies..."
http://html5doctor.com/methods-of-communication/

An HTML5 Logo
By Ian Jacobs.
"W3C unveiled a logo for HTML5 today..."
http://www.w3.org/QA/2011/01/an_html5_logo.html

Badge of Shame
By Jeremy Keith.
"...I take issue with the scope of what this logo is supposed to represent..."
http://adactio.com/journal/4289/

HTML5 Logo: Be Proud, But Don't Muddy the Waters!
By The Web Standards Project.
"We are writing to address a major concern we at WaSP (and in the web professional community in general) have with the newly-unveiled HTML5 brand. While we are excited that the W3C is doing so much to promote new technologies being developed, we are incredibly concerned that using 'HTML5' as the umbrella for these technologies does more harm than good..."
http://www.webstandards.org/2011/01/18/regarding-the-html5-logo/

The HTML5 Logo Conversation
By Ian Jacobs.
"...The most unified criticism has centered around the FAQ's original statement that the logo means 'a broad set of open web technologies', which some believe "muddies the waters" of the open web platform. Since the main logo was intended to represent HTML5, the cornerstone of modern Web applications, I have updated the FAQ to state this more clearly. I trust that the updated language better aligns with community expectations...."
http://www.w3.org/QA/2011/01/the_html5_logo_conversation.html

HTML Editor Dumps 'HTML5' Even As W3C Touts It
By Stephen Shankland.
"Concluding HTML version numbers are a relic of a bygone age, Ian Hickson adopts a "living document" approach. But the W3C standards group isn't...."
http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-20029043-264.html


+07: TYPOGRAPHY.

The Science of Word Recognition
By Kevin Larson.
"...The goal of this paper is to review the history of why psychologists moved from a word shape model of word recognition to a letter recognition model, and to help others to come to the same conclusion..."
http://www.microsoft.com/typography/ctfonts/wordrecognition.aspx


+08: USABILITY.

Designing for the Mobile Web: Special Considerations
By Shanshan Ma.
"...In addition to the four problems Nielsen wrote about, I'll cover design for complex contexts of use in my discussion of constraints on mobile Web sites. In practice, being aware of these constraints lets us approach these problems with caution and come up with better design solutions for mobile devices. Based on my analysis of more than 20 mobile Web sites, I'll point out some ways of working within these constraints..."
http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2011/01/designing-for-the-mobile-web-special-considerations.php

People See Cues About How To Use An Object
By Susan Weinschenk.
"...If an item is missing cues, or gives you incorrect cues, you get annoyed and frustrated. If the cues inherent in the object itself aren't enough to convey its use, then we resort to putting labels on to fix the cue mismatch, as in the door handle above..."
http://www.whatmakesthemclick.net/2011/01/19/100-things-you-should-know-about-people-53-people-see-cues-about-how-to-use-an-object/

Does Prior Experience Affect Perceptions of Usability?
By Jeff Sauro.
"Are attitudes about usability constant? If we think something is unusable today, will we think it's unusable tomorrow, next week or next year? How much does our prior experience affect how usable we think a websites or software is? To find out, I looked to a large database of System Usability Scale (SUS) data that I maintain, which contains information on prior exposure.  There is data from 62 different websites and 16 consumer software products across almost 2000 users."
http://www.measuringusability.com/blog/prior-exposure.php


[Section one ends.]


++ SECTION TWO:

+09: 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.


+ SUBSCRIPTION INFO.

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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.]