+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE. - Volume 10, Issue 15, October 6, 2011. An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design and development. ++ISSUE 15 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: NAVIGATION. 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. Accessibility Updates for Docs, Sites and Calendar (Video) By Google. "Webinar recorded September 21, 2011. A demo and discussion of recently enhanced accessibility features in Google Apps for businesses, governments and schools." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cc7EHIc2TUE Dyslexia Style Guide By bdadyslexia. "This Guide is in three parts: Dyslexia Friendly Text; Accessible Formats; Website design" http://www.bdadyslexia.org.uk/about-dyslexia/further-information/dyslexia-style-guide.html Brief History of Browser Accessibility Support By Steve Faulkner. "The development of a 'Brief history of browser accessibility support' was prompted by Googles' Evolution of the Web interactive infographic. I was dazzled by its coolness, but noticed that amongst all the web technologies ARIA 1.0 was not to be found. ARIA is included in the makeup of the open web stack..." http://www.paciellogroup.com/blog/2011/10/brief-history-of-browser-accessibility-support/ Response to: Deprecate Longdesc Change Proposal By John Foliot. "...The Accessibility Task Force endorsed retention of @longdesc proposal preserves what support we have in the 3 key areas of Discoverability & User choice, Preservation of HTML Semantics and Richness, and (the limited but existing) User-Agent Support. Jonas' Change Proposal does not address these concerns, while at the same time undoing any gains already made with existing authoring tools, authoring-base and user agents." http://www.w3.org/wiki/A11yTF/longdescresponse +02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. CSS Spec Terms, for Future Reference By Tab Atkins. "I accidentally use some CSS terms interchangeably sometimes. I try to maintain discipline here, but not everyone even knows what the correct terms are, so they can't make themselves do it right..." http://www.xanthir.com/blog/b4E50 CSS Selectors: Should You Optimize Them To Perform Better? By Steven Bradley. "For the last few weeks I've been looking at different css selector patterns. One thing I haven't mention is the efficiency of the selectors, something Chad commented about on the very first post in the series..." http://www.vanseodesign.com/css/css-selector-performance/ Position Text Labels on Forms Using CSS By Cameron Adams. "In this post, I'll explain three common approaches to positioning text labels on web forms using CSS: 1. top-positioned text labels; 2. left-aligned text labels, 3. right-aligned text labels" http://designfestival.com/position-text-labels-on-forms-using%C2%A0css/ +03: EVALUATION & TESTING. How to Study Mobile Behaviour - An Ethnographic Perspective By Webcredible. "...A study of mobile behaviour is best carried out as close to the mobile context as possible. By using a mixture of observation, recording and interviewing techniques, we were able to paint a complete picture of how smartphones are used in relation to shopping. Although each technique on its own has a few drawbacks, combining them all together allows us to triangulate and validate results...." http://www.webcredible.co.uk/user-friendly-resources/web-usability/mobile-behaviour.shtml The Essential Elements of a Successful Website By Jeff Sauro. "...I examined the customer experience research in the Marketing and Usability literature and found some consistent themes. A successful website needs to be usable, credible and visually appealing. This will generate positive word of mouth, repeat visitors and ultimately a more successful website. The trick is effectively measuring these concepts..." http://www.measuringusability.com/suprq.php +04: JAVASCRIPT. JavaScript Design Patterns Deconstructed By James Edwards. "All sophisticated design patterns throw up the same fundamental question - is there a concrete advantage to using it in the first place? Without understanding the benefits, it could be very easy to think that it's just a pointlessly verbose and over-engineered solution, or that it's only following some kind of fashion. But there are real and important benefits to using this kind of pattern, and it isn't an attempt to make JavaScript 'more like' any other language, or to mimic classical inheritance.' http://designfestival.com/javascript-design%C2%A0patterns-deconstructed/ +05: NAVIGATION. Why In-Page Navigation Links Matter More Than Menus By uxmovement. "Before you spend hours debating with your colleagues and clients on how your menus should look, there's something you should know. Users spend more time with in-page navigation links than they do with menus. In fact, some users don't even look at menus. What users look at is page content. And that's where they often go to navigate..." http://uxmovement.com/navigation/why-in-page-navigation-links-matter-more-than-menus +06: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS. How to Choose Between Canvas and SVG By Patrick Dengler. "Canvas and SVG are two exciting graphics features introduced in Internet Explorer 9 and are hardware accelerated. These technologies can be used to address a range of graphic scenarios on the modern Web. With a lot of excitement around Canvas, there has been a tendency to ignore SVG, which, in many cases, is the better choice. Here I offer some thoughts on when to choose Canvas, SVG, or a combination of the two..." http://www.sitepoint.com/how-to-choose-between-canvas-and-svg/ +07: USABILITY. The Mouse Dies. Touch and Gesture Take Center Stage. By Jonathan Reichental. "The shift toward more natural interfaces requires new thinking and skills..." http://radar.oreilly.com/2011/09/touch-gesture-mouse-interface.html Responsive Web Design is Boring! By Jonathan Longnecker. "Jonathan Longnecker, co-founder of web and graphic design agency FortySeven Media, argues that most responsive sites are boring and comes up with a few starting points to help us create designs that break the mould..." http://www.netmagazine.com/node/1435 Designing to Overcome Behaviour Barriers By Caroline Jones. "...I frequently see examples of well-designed tools, services, systems, and processes that fail to achieve 'lift-off' because people are creatures of habit and their behaviour barriers have not been taken into consideration...." http://www.optimalusability.com/2011/09/designing-to-overcome-behaviour-barriers/ [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. + 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.]