+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE. - Volume 10, Issue 02, July 8, 2011. An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design and development. ++ISSUE 02 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: EVENTS. 05: JAVASCRIPT. 06: MISCELLANEOUS. 07: PHP. 08: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS. 09: TOOLS. 10: TYPOGRAPHY. 11: USABILITY. SECTION TWO: 12: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site? [Contents ends.] ++ SECTION ONE: New references. +01: ACCESSIBILITY. HTML5 Accessibility Chops - Form Control Labeling By Steve Faulkner. "There are 2 methods of labelling a form control using the HTML label element. You can wrap the control inside the label element or you can include the for attribute on the label element, which has a value matching the id value of the control it is intended to label..." http://www.paciellogroup.com/blog/2011/07/html5-accessibility-chops-form-control-labeling/ Is ARIA for Content Doomed to Failure? By Vlad Alexander. "ARIA adds hidden information to HTML to make widgets accessible. Some believe that ARIA can also replace existing HTML accessibility features to make content accessible. Is it worth the effort to remove specialized built-in HTML accessibility features in favor of this generic add-on technology, or is ARIA for content doomed to failure?..." http://rebuildingtheweb.com/en/aria-for-content-doomed/ Court to Hear Argument in JetBlue Accessibility Case By The Law Office of Lainey Feingold. "JetBlue has asked Judge to throw the case out of court, arguing that California's disability civil rights laws do not apply to JetBlue's website or kiosks." http://lflegal.com/2011/06/jetblue-hearing/ +02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. CSS Background Images and Accessibility By SSB Bart Group. "In conclusion, the only method that is truly accessible and supported by nearly all browsers is to use inline images instead of background CSS images to display non-decorative content. If sprite maps are required then consider using inline positioned sprite maps." https://www.ssbbartgroup.com/blog/2011/06/14/css-background-images-and-accessibility/ CSS Support in HTML Emails By Campaign Monitor. Campaign Monitor hpdated its Guide to CSS Support in Email. http://www.campaignmonitor.com/css/ Microsoft Dropping Support for Conditional Comments By Jonathan Christopher. "There's a bunch of information about how IE10 will be handling HTML5, but the bit that sticks out to me is that IE will no longer support Conditional Comments as of version 10..." http://mondaybynoon.com/2011/07/07/microsoft-dropping-support-for-conditional-comments/ What Are You Telling Students About DOCTYPES? By Virginia DeBolt. "...In my mind, the seemingly more modern XHTML has two drawbacks. First, it's been abandoned by the W3C and won't been updated. Second, the syntax for HTML 4 Strict seems a much better choice when working in HTML 5 because there's no need to talk about XML and trailing slashes in empty elements and other things that don't apply to HTML5. And HTML 4 Strict syntax rules match up with what was recommended as a best practice for writing under the new anything-goes rules of HTML5..." http://www.webteacher.ws/2011/07/05/what-are-you-telling-students-about-doctypes/ Responsive Design. I Don't Think That Word Means What You Think It Means. By Jeffrey Zeldman. "...the purpose behind 'responsive design' - the concept of what it strives to achieve-should be separated from the specific techniques used to achieve it..." http://www.zeldman.com/2011/07/06/responsive-design-i-dont-think-that-word-means-what-you-think-it-means/ +03: EVALUATION & TESTING. Tree Testing - An Important Step Early in the Web Design Process By Martin Rosenmejer. "...Tree testing is a simple, cheap and very powerful tool for testing site structure. The method will improve the results of card sorting and benefit the later stages in the process. Some might think that this is just an additional step to the already long design process. But remember, the site structure of a website will always be tested at some point; via tree testing, in later usability testing or via its performance when the site is live (e.g. reflected in web analytics). Get it right early in the process and changes are cheaper and easier to implement." http://www.webcredible.co.uk/user-friendly-resources/web-usability/tree-testing.shtml Five Factors for Successful Persona Projects By Jared M. Spool. "...we sat down to research why persona projects fail so often. We investigated what strategies teams should employ to ensure successful projects. After talking with dozens of team, some whose projects succeeded and many whose projects failed, here's what we found out..." http://www.uie.com/articles/successful_persona_projects +04: EVENTS. eduWEB Conference August 1-3, 2011. San Antonio, Texas, U.S.A. http://www.eduwebconference.com/index.php/overview/ dConstruct 2011 September 2, 2011. Brighton, United Kingdom http://2011.dconstruct.org/ Boston Accessibility Unconference September 17, 2011. Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A. http://www.a11ybos.org/ HighEdWeb Ocrtober 23-26, 2011. Austin, Texas, U.S.A. http://2011.highedweb.org/ +05: JAVASCRIPT. JavaScript is Dead. Long Live JavaScript! By Peter Michaux. "For 16 years, JavaScript has been being the language of the web browser. This language has enabled the building of compelling web applications and contributed to the success of the web. Other scripting languages could have filled the role JavaScript does but JavaScript was in the right place at the right time. Microsoft added Basic to Internet Explorer a long time ago but JavaScript was the language in all the browsers and so it won. Since JavaScript has been cross-browser and at least good enough, the browser makers have not needed to add other language interpreters to the browsers themselves..." http://peter.michaux.ca/articles/javascript-is-dead-long-live-javascript +06: MISCELLANEOUS. A Modest Proposal By Nathan Peretic. "Proposals are difficult. They take too long. They're usually an exercise in unrequited love. Is it any surprise creative professionals cringe when it's time to put one together? Proposals are, however, often vital to being in business. Whether you're running a solo shop or keeping a team of 25 busy, they lead directly to that next paycheck, enable us to keep the gears of business turning, and, ultimately, to make wonderful stuff..." http://www.alistapart.com/articles/a-modest-proposal/ +07: PHP. Object-Oriented PHP - Autoloading, Serializing, and Querying Objects By Matt Doyle. "In this object-oriented PHP tutorial, you learn how to automatically load classes, convert objects to strings, and inspect objects, properties and methods." http://www.elated.com/articles/object-oriented-php-autoloading-serializing-and-querying-objects/ +08: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS. Real World Accessibility - HTML5, ARIA and the Modern Web By Derek Featherstone. "Web designers and developers need techniques that work now while keeping an eye on what lies ahead..." http://www.sitepoint.com/real-world-accessibility-html5-aria-and-the-modern-web/ The HTML Progress Element in Firefox By Mounir Lamouri. "...In this article, I'm going to do an overview of this new element. If you want an exhaustive documentation..." http://blog.oldworld.fr/index.php?post/2011/07/The-HTML5-progress-element-in-Firefox +09: TOOLS. Mobilizer "Preview mobile websites, design mockups, and local HTML on Mac or PC." Requires Adobe Air. http://www.springbox.com/mobilizer/ Longdesk 0.1, FireFox Extension By Anthony Ricaud. "A simple add-on that adds a link to the longdesc under images that provides one..." https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/longdesk/ +10: TYPOGRAPHY. Project Dyslexie By Christian Boer. "The font for people with dyslexia..." http://www.studiostudio.nl/en/project-dyslexie/ +11: USABILITY. Mobile-First Responsive Web Design By Brad Frost. "Mobile-First Responsive Web Design is a combination of philosophies/strategies, and ultimately boils down to a broader application of good ol' web best practices. As the digital landscape gets increasingly complex, we need to design experiences that work across the entire spectrum of digital devices. Sounds like fun, right?" http://bradfrostweb.com/blog/web/mobile-first-responsive-web-design/ Rethinking the Mobile Web By Bryan Rieger. "...we began to wonder if it was now time to rethink the way we've been designing mobile websites. Could there be a straight-forward approach, simply building upon existing knowledge, rather than requiring designers and developers to learn entirely new and unique methods of working--specifically for the mobile web?..." http://yiibu.com/articles/rethinking-the-mobile-web/ The Book of Speed By Stoyan Stefanov. "No one likes to wait and we all hate slow pages. These are obvious, easily observable facts that don't need any proof..." http://www.bookofspeed.com/ Use Strong Verbs - Not Just 'Is' and 'Was' By Rachel McAlpine. "...Strong verbs make things happen. By contrast, the various forms of the verb to be produce no action: they merely suggest a state of existence, or a condition. Being verbs are static..." http://contented.com/contented/2011/writing-tip-use-strong-verbs%E2%80%94not-just-is-and-was/ How Cognitive Fluency Affects Decision Making By Colleen Roller. "Cognitive fluency-or disfluency-plays a subtle, yet influential role in judgment and decision making. Research has shown that many aspects of design can impact fluency, or the feeling of mental effort-including the style and size of fonts, figure-to-ground contrast, wording and terminology, pronunciation, and others. In general, anything that affects the feeling of the ease or difficulty of mental processing can-and does-affect people's judgments and decisions." http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2011/07/how-cognitive-fluency-affects-decision-making.php [Section one ends.] ++ SECTION TWO: +12: 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. WEB DESIGN UPDATE is available by subscription. For information on how to subscribe and unsubscribe please visit: http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/webdev_listserv.html 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.]