+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE. - Volume 10, Issue 14, September 27, 2012. 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: DREAMWEAVER. 03: EVALUATION & TESTING. 04: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE. 05: JAVASCRIPT. 06: MISCELLANEOUS. 07: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS. 08: USABILITY. SECTION TWO: 09: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site? [Contents ends.] ++ SECTION ONE: New references. +01: ACCESSIBILITY. Accessibility Conformance Evaluation Methodology By W3C. "This document describes a methodology for evaluating the conformance of websites to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0. It provides guidance on defining the evaluation scope and parameters, exploring the website features and functionality, sampling representative web pages where it is not feasible to evaluate all web pages of a website, applying the WCAG 2.0 success criteria and conformance requirements in this setting, and documenting and reporting the evaluation findings. It complements the existing guidance for WCAG 2.0 but it does not define additional WCAG 2.0 requirements nor does it replace or supersede it in any way." http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG-EM/ What Can Web Accessibility Metrics Learn From Alt.Metrics? By Brian Kelly. "A W3C WAI Research Report on Web Accessibility Metrics, published on 30 August 2012, is currently open for review, with feedback requested by 30 September 2012..." http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/2012/09/25/what-can-web-accessibility-metrics-learn-from-alt-metrics/ Web Accessibility is a Mindset Not a Checklist By Amajjika Kumara. "Amajjika Kumara offers some web accessibility ideas and concepts to consider, taken firsthand from our own journey..." http://www.accessiq.org/news/commentary/2012/09/web-accessibility-is-a-mindset-not-a-checklist Book Review - Pro HTML5 Accessibility By Dennis Lembree. "Recently I finally made time to read the book Pro HTML5 Accessibility by Joshue O Connor (@joshueoconnor), released in late March 2012 by Apress. Let's take a look at each chapter." http://webaxe.blogspot.com/2012/09/book-review-pro-html5-accessibility.html Assistive Technology Overview By Univeristy of Minnesota Duluth. "Assistive technology (AT) is technology that may be used by people with a wide range of abilities and disabilities. It incorporates the principles of universal design in order that each user is able to interact with the technology in ways that work best for him or her..." http://blog.lib.umn.edu/itsshelp/news/2012/09/assistive-technology-overview.html Moodle Accessibility Test (Video) By Michicgan State University. "A recording of a field test of the MSU Moodle instance and accessibility. This video features Sean Leahy from Virtual University Design and Technology along with Al Puzzuoli from the Resource Center for Persons with Disabilities." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDGDnLh5QVA PowerPoint Reading Order By John Eric Brandt. "The correct way to check the reading order of the content of PowerPoint slides is found in the MS Office help pages..." http://jebswebs.net/blog/2012/09/powerpoint-reading-order/ +02: DREAMWEAVER. Dreamweaver CS6 Fluid Grid Layouts By Virginia DeBolt. "Even though I don't own Dreamweaver CS 6 yet, I've been studying up on how it uses fluid grids for page layout. I found an excellent tutorial explaining it and wanted to share it here. This is an Adobe/Lynda.com video. Watch all the way to the end, there are some interesting points there..." http://www.webteacher.ws/2012/09/25/dreamweaver-cs6-fluid-grid-layouts/ +03: EVALUATION & TESTING. Establishing An Open Device Lab // Mobile Testing By Viljami Salminen. "Managing a personal device lab can be quite hard with an ever expanding number of devices. It's not only expensive, but also bad for our environment. Think of a situation where every Web developer would purchase a large pile of gadgets and keep adding new ones as they are launched - this wouldn't make much sense. Thankfully, there are better ways to handle the problem..." http://mobile.smashingmagazine.com/2012/09/24/establishing-an-open-device-lab/ +04: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE. Designing for Mobile - Part 1: Information Architecture By Elaine McVicar. "Mobile devices are clearly here to stay, and along with them come a whole host of new constraints (and opportunities) for our designs. Let's take a look at how we might update our approach." http://www.uxbooth.com/blog/designing-for-mobile-part-1-information-architecture/ +05: JAVASCRIPT. Tell CSS that JavaScript is Available ASAP By Roger Johansson. "When you're styling parts of a web page that will look and work differently depending on whether JavaScript is available or not, it can be very useful to use JavaScript to change or add a class name to the html element. By doing this you can create CSS rules that will only be applied when JS is available and vice versa. The trick is to make sure the class names are switched as early as possible during page load..." http://www.456bereastreet.com/archive/201209/tell_css_that_javascript_is_available_asap/ +06: MISCELLANEOUS. Student Preferences for Mobile App Usage By Kyle Bowen and Matthew D. Pistilli. "Mobile learning is increasingly an integral part of higher education, and colleges and universities developing mobile learning apps generally face the decision to pursue either device-neutral web applications or 'native' apps built for a specific platform. In fall 2011, Purdue University surveyed students to try to understand their preferences for mobile apps. Specifically, the survey investigated student ownership of various devices, preferences for device usage for various activities, and perceptions of the value of different kinds of apps. The bulletin also includes a brief case study of Purdue's Studio projects, which developed new forms of mobile learning technologies." An EDUCAUSE username and password required to download document. http://www.educause.edu/library/resources/student-preferences-mobile-app-usage Mo' Pixels Mo' Problems By Dave Rupert. "Mobile devices are shipping with higher and higher PPI, and desktops and laptops are following the trend as well. There's no avoiding it: High-pixel-density, or 'Retina,' displays are now becoming mainstream-and, as you'd expect, our websites are beginning to look a little fuzzy in their backlit glory. But before we go off in the knee-jerk direction of supersizing all our sites, we must identify the problems ahead and figure out the most responsible way forward-keeping our users in mind first and foremost." http://www.alistapart.com/articles/mo-pixels-mo-problems/ The Web Aesthetic By Paul Robert Lloyd. "Today, when every device begs to be connected, it has become easier-almost necessary-to accept the adaptable nature of the web. Responsive web design is an emerging best practice, and our layouts are becoming more flexible. But often, innovation is focused on technical implementations while the visual aesthetic remains ignored. To put it another way, we're embracing 'responsive' but neglecting the second part: 'design.' Now is the time to seek out an aesthetic that is truer to the medium..." http://www.alistapart.com/articles/the-web-aesthetic/ Responsive Web Development with WordPress - A Case Study By Rachel McCollin. "Responsive web design is maturing. Many of us have moved on from thinking about media queries and responsive layout towards addressing the challenges of responsive images, navigation, UX and more. Content and planning are important too. Even if you're not adopting a Mobile First strategy, it's important to consider the mobile experience when planning any responsive site. This includes thinking about content, user experience, design, performance and more. Rudy Rigot's article on responsive projects examines more of these issues in detail..." http://dev.opera.com/articles/view/responsive-web-development-with-wordpress-case-study/ Browser Fragmentation and Quality Fails By Niels Matthijs. "The browser has been our main tool for consuming the web ever since the very beginning. It's still the most efficient tool to access massive amounts of data coming from various resources, but a couple of years ago browsers suddenly encountered some serious competition when apps started to emerge. Browser vendors and html enthusiasts countered with a knee-jerk reaction in order to compete with apps, the question remains whether that was the right way to go..." http://www.onderhond.com/blog/work/browser-fragmentation-and-quality-fails +07: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS. 7 HTML5 Features that You May Not Know About By Aaron Lumsden. "HTML5 has been a hot topic recently. Although its been around for a while now, I still find myself coming across features that I didn't know about. Here's a few that I thought I'd share with you..." http://www.aaronlumsden.com/articles/7-html5-features-that-you-may-not-know-about/ W3C Unveils Plan to Finish HTML5 in 2014 By Scott Gilbertson. "Like the Cylons, HTML5 was created by man. It rebelled. It evolved. It looks and feels like HTML. And now, it has a plan. Namely, to be done in 2014..." http://www.webmonkey.com/2012/09/w3c-unveils-plan-to-finish-html5-in-2014/ W3C Announce HTML5 2014 Delivery Plan By Craig Buckler. "If there's one thing which holds back HTML5 adoption, it's confusion regarding the state of the W3C specifications. Consider the latest document; it's a 'Working Draft' with big red 'work in progress' warnings. Many developers claim it's impossible to adhere with standards when the guidelines are in a state of flux. The W3C poured more fuel on the fire when they stated final HTML5 Recommendations would not arrive until 2022. For many, this meant sticking with HTML4 or XHTML1.0 for another decade..." http://www.sitepoint.com/w3c-html5-2014-plan/ +08: USABILITY. Homepage Design Changes By Jakob Nielsen. "Web design is stabilizing; the average homepage is only about 40% different than it was a year before. (Corresponding to 2.5 years between complete redesigns.)" http://www.useit.com/alertbox/homepage-design-change.html Why User-Centered Design is Not Enough By John Wood. "Many designers will, no doubt, object to this analysis. They will point out that UCD simply acknowledges the unique physical capabilities and needs of individual users, or types of user." http://www.core77.com/blog/articles/why_user-centered_design_is_not_enough_by_john_wood_23465.asp [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. 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.]