+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE. - Volume 10, Issue 14, September 29, 2011. An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design and development. ++ISSUE 14 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: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE. 06: JAVASCRIPT. 07: MISCELLANEOUS. 08: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS. 09: TOOLS. 10: USABILITY. SECTION TWO: 11: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site? [Contents ends.] ++ SECTION ONE: New references. +01: ACCESSIBILITY. Rocket Surgery and Accessibility User Testing By Jared Smith. "...When users with disabilities are involved in effective usability testing, such as the basic, low-cost approach Steve recommends, they will help address the overall accessibility and usability of a site, and will still be able to identify specific accessibility issues..." http://webaim.org/blog/accessibility-user-testing/ Accessibility Summit - Integrating Accessibility Across Devices By Deborah Edwards-Onoro. "The second annual Accessibility Summit online conference didn't disappoint, bringing together experts from around the world to share their latest research, tips and development. In her Integrating Accessibility Across Devices presentation, Henny Swan provided a lot of detailed information about mobile APIS, tools, testing and resources. Here are my notes and key takeaways from her talk..." http://deboraheo.posterous.com/accessibility-summit-integrating-accessibilit Testing Web Content for Screen Readers without a Screen Reader By Henny Swan. "We can't all get access to a screen reader better yet find the time to tame them so here is a quick tip on how to test how well your web content supports screen reader users. All you need is a browser, a plugin and 5 minutes." http://www.iheni.com/quick-tip-testing-web-content-for-screen-readers-without-a-screen-reader/ Site Owners Ignore Requests to 'Fix The Web' By Dan Jellinek. "Some 60% of website owners contacted about accessibility problems by the national 'FixTheWeb' project either ignore the contact or 'duck the issue', according to the project's director. And just 10% take action immediately to fix the problem..." http://www.headstar.com/eablive/?p=624 The National Dialogue on Improving Federal Websites By web-reform-dialogue. "What can we do to improve universal access to government content online, regardless of device, technology or disability? " http://web-reform-dialogue.ideascale.com/a/ideafactory.do?id=4097&mode=recent&discussionFilter=byids&discussionID=11755 Google Chrome Frame - Still an Accessibility Black Hole? By Steve Faulkner. "Back in 2009 I wrote Google Chrome Frame - accessibility black hole, now 2 years on what has changed?..." http://www.paciellogroup.com/blog/2011/09/google-chrome-frame-still-an-accessibility-black-hole/ +02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. Scalable and Modular Architecture for CSS By Jonathan Snook. "SMACSS (pronounced "smacks") is more style guide than rigid framework. There's no library within here for you to download or install. SMACSS is a way to examine your design process and as a way to fit those rigid frameworks into a flexible thought process. It's an attempt to document a consistent approach to site development when using CSS. And really, who isn't building a site with CSS these days?! Feel free to take this in its entirety or use only the parts that work best for you. Or don't use it at all. I understand that this won't be everybody's cup of tea. When it comes to web development, the answer to most questions is 'it depends'." http://smacss.com/book/ How To Use Structural Pseudo Classes and Pseudo Element Selectors By Steven Bradley. "The last couple of weeks we've been looking at different types of css selectors. First we looked at the simple and attribute selectors and then we looked at combinators and some pseudo class selectors..." http://www.vanseodesign.com/css/pseudo-elements-classes/ Help Lower the Cost of CSS Validation By Jens O. Meiert. "Validation is a baseline quality attribute. I have emphasized this in the past and recently shared a bit more about the reasons and how you can use validation on Google's Webmaster Central blog. There are several things you can validate, way beyond HTML and CSS..." http://meiert.com/en/blog/20110922/cost-of-css-validation/ The Long Way to a Reset Stylesheet By Christian Krammer. "The opinions on reset/normalize stylesheets are deeply divided..." http://www.css3files.com/2011/09/21/the-long-way-to-a-reset-stylesheet/ CSS Modules' Timelines By Eric A. Meyer. "For very little reason other than I was curious to see what resulted, I've compiled a list of various CSS modules' version histories, and then used CSS to turn it into a set of timelines. It's kind of a low-cost way to visualize the life cycle of and energy going into various CSS modules..." http://meyerweb.com/eric/thoughts/2011/09/27/css-modules-timelines/ +03: EVALUATION & TESTING. The Optimism Bias, or Don't Believe Satisfaction Surveys By Gerry McGovern. "We need to move to an evidence-based model of understanding people's needs based on what they actually do, not what they say they do..." http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/nt/2011/nt-2011-09-26-Optimism-bias.htm 5 Benefits of Remote Usability Testing By Jeff Sauro. "Remote usability testing has become increasingly popular among user researchers and grew by 19% since 2009. Even though I have easy access to a brick and mortal usability lab, I particularly like remote testing for at least 5 reasons..." http://www.measuringusability.com/blog/remote-testing.php +04: EVENTS. Mobilism 2012 May 10-11, 2012. Amsterdam, Netherlands http://mobilism.nl/2012 Inclusive Learning Technologies Conference 2012 May 22-25, 2012. Queensland, Australia http://www.spectronicsinoz.com/conference/2012/ An Event Apart Austin July 9-11, 2012. Austin, Texas, U.S.A. http://aneventapart.com/2012/austin/ +05: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE. Content Prototyping In Responsive Web Design By Ben Callahan. "A content prototype is an HTML-and-CSS-based fluid-grid prototype, consisting of layout and typography, that consists of the project's actual content. Its greatest usefulness may be in determining where to apply media queries to make the Web design responsive..." http://uxdesign.smashingmagazine.com/2011/09/26/content-prototyping-in-responsive-web-design/ Speed Up CSS Prototyping By Thierry Koblentz. This is a simple trick to overlay a grid or a mock-up over a page you're styling. It will also allow you to edit content directly in the browser to see how your layout behaves depending on various lines of text. http://www.css-101.org/articles/trick-for-rapid-prototyping/ +06: JAVASCRIPT. The Best Way to Learn JavaScript By Andrew Burgess. "Learning something new is scary. For me, the biggest issue with picking up a new skill is that I don't know what I don't know. Given that, it's often useful to find a plan for learning whatever you're interested in. That's what this post is: your blueprint, your roadmap, your plan of action for learning JavaScript! You don't have to worry about finding the best resources, sorting out the bad ones, and figuring out what to learn next. It's all here. Just follow it, step by step..." http://net.tutsplus.com/tutorials/javascript-ajax/the-best-way-to-learn-javascript/ Practices to Avoid By Microsoft. "This topic lists practices that you should avoid if you want to create an accessible Metro style app using JavaScript..." http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/hh452715 +07: MISCELLANEOUS. Future Friendly, or Forward to Yesterday? By Bruce Lawson. "...Once you remove the fluffiness from the manifesto, it boils down to a useful reminder to design with progressive enhancement; to use structured, semantic markup; to test across software and hardware platforms and to understand that things won't look the same everywhere. Future friendly or Forward to Yesterday? I know which I choose." http://www.brucelawson.co.uk/2011/future-friendly-or-forward-to-yesterday/ The Web is For the People By Robert Nyman. "The web is for the people, and I believe the web is the most important medium we have. Recently, there has been some discussion about the web vs. other platforms, so I'd like to present my thoughts..." http://robertnyman.com/2011/09/22/the-web-is-for-the-people/ +08: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS. Presentation - HTML5 and Accessibility Sitting in a Tree By Bruce Lawson. "Bruce went to down to London to present at the Accessibility London unconference. His theme was that, contrary to the belief of some accessibility consultants, HTML5 doesn't hate accessibility (or disabled people), but that it attempts to build accessibility in rather than bolt in on as an afterthought with extra special markup or WAI-ARIA." http://my.opera.com/ODIN/blog/2011/09/22/presentation-html5-and-accessibility-sitting-in-a-tree-4 3rd W3C Web and TV Workshop, Hollywood By Silvia Pfeiffer. "Curious about any new requirements that the TV community may have for HTML5 video, I attended the W3C Web and TV Workshop in Hollywood last week. It's already the third of its kind and was also the largest to date showing an increasing interest of the TV community to converge with the Web community..." http://blog.gingertech.net/2011/09/26/3rd-w3c-web-and-tv-workshop-hollywood/ +09: TOOLS. iPad2 Simulator By alexw. http://alexw.me/ipad2/#!safari HTML Escape Tool By htmlescape. "Use our online tool, for escaping all the special characters, which can create problems on a web page. The HTML Escape tool escapes all special html characters, and replaces them with the correct entities." http://www.htmlescape.net/htmlescape_tool.html +10: USABILITY. Mobile Usability Update By Jakob Nielsen. "The user experience of mobile websites and apps has improved since our last research, but we still have far to go. A dedicated mobile site is a must, and apps get even higher usability scores." http://www.useit.com/alertbox/mobile-usability.html Responsive IMGs - Part 1 By Jason Grigsby. "Responsive IMGs are images delivered using the HTML IMG tag that come from different sources depending the screen size. There are many different techniques for accomplishing Responsive IMGs..." http://www.cloudfour.com/responsive-imgs/ [Section one ends.] ++ SECTION TWO: +11: 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.]