+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE. - Volume 10, Issue 18, October 26, 2012. An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design and development. ++ISSUE 18 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: COLOR. 04: EVENTS. 05: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE. 06: JAVASCRIPT. 07: MISCELLANEOUS. 08: PHP. 09: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS. 10: USABILITY. SECTION TWO: 11: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site? [Contents ends.] ++ SECTION ONE: New references. +01: ACCESSIBILITY. Accessibility - What is it Good For? By Marco Zehe. "...We need to leave our comfortable niche and turn the accessibility extra way into the standards way. Make people use headings, correct form element labeling, and other stuff just because it is the right thing to do that benefits everyone, not because 'it's an accessibility requirement'. Accessibility needs to finally shake off the smell of being an unloved burden to meet some government criteria..." http://www.marcozehe.de/2012/10/22/accessibility-what-is-it-good-for/ Assessing your Institution's Web Accessibility Efforts: Part 1 By Cyndi Rowland. "...Because of lengthy timelines, it is vital that institutions include periodic assessments of their process. By process, we mean the efforts you make to achieve the goals and objectives, or milestones and activities, you have targeted as a way to improve accessibility. The assessment of your process should be done alongside assessments of the outcome, or product, of accessible web content (i.e., how many of our pages or courses are now accessible)..." http://ncdae.org/resources/tips/2012assessing.php Assessing Your Institution's Web Accessibility Efforts: Part 2 By Jon Whiting. http://ncdae.org/resources/tips/2012product.php 5 Tips to Improve the Web for Mobility/Dexterity Disabilities By Kathy Wahlbin. "Imagine ... you are right-handed and you just broke your right wrist. You're a programmer: how in the world will you get any work done?..." http://www.interactiveaccessibility.com/blog/5-tips-improve-web-mobilitydexterity-disabilities Matt May Talks About How Accessibility Has Influenced Mobile Development and Design By Matt May. Adobe Accessibility Evangelist Matt May talks about how mobile developers are coming up against the same problems that accessibility designers have been addressing for almost 40 years. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkwoFH2rmo0 The Practical and Legal Reasons Behind Designing for Accessibility By Gregory P. Care, Dan Ross. "...Mobile apps and websites should be made accessible for the same reasons that they are popular: accessibility enhances the reach of your business or organization..." http://uxmag.com/articles/the-practical-and-legal-reasons-behind-designing-for-accessibility Guidelines for Audio Description on Videos By accessiq. "Audio description allows people who are blind or vision impaired to have access to your videos. It is a descriptive narration of all the visual elements of a video. Audio description is written and recorded so that it falls in the gaps between dialogue (and other important audio elements)..." http://www.accessiq.org/content/guidelines-for-audio-description-on-videos New Plug-In: WP Accessibility By Joe Dolson. "I released a brand-new WordPress plug-in today, targeted specifically at improving accessibility issues. There's only so much you can do via a plug-in when it comes to site accessibility - most of what grants accessibility for a WordPress site is in the theme. However, that doesn't mean that you can't do anything..." http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2012/10/new-plug-in-wp-accessibility/ My Response to WAI's Website Accessibility Conformance Evaluation Methodology 1.0 Working Draft By Brian Kelly. "I have concerns that the WAI's Website Accessibility Conformance Evaluation Methodology 1.0 working draft [9] could be counter-productive if it is used by policy-makers to mandate conformance with WCAG, rather than treating WCAG as a valuable set of guidelines whose use should be considered in context..." http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/2012/10/19/my-response-to-wais-website-accessibility-conformance-evaluation-methodology-1-0-working-draft/ +02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. The Future of CSS Layout Presentation at Future of Web Design Conference By Zoe Mickley Gillenwater. Today I spoke at Future of Web Design in New York on The Future of CSS Layout. For a decade we've been using floats for creating CSS layouts, and while they're still the best choice for creating most multi-column designs, we've all been frustrated by their quirks and limitations. So in this presentation, I talked about some of the new and exciting CSS layout techniques that are either working right now, right around the corner, or a little ways down the road. I talked about how to use not only inline-block and table-cell display, but also how to use the Flexible Box Layout module in practical ways as a progressive enhancement technique for the layouts you're crafting today... http://zomigi.com/blog/future-css-layout-fowd/ Clearing Floats - Why is it Necessary Even in Modern Browsers? By Louis Lazaris. "The other day, someone asked me the following question: 'If I understand it right clear float is automatic in most modern browsers right?'..." http://www.impressivewebs.com/clearing-floats-why-necessary/ CSS Box Sizing By Jake Bresnehan. "Having a little knowledge of how the box-sizing property works and when you can utilise it is a neat trick to have up your sleeve. The reason for using the box-sizing property in your CSS is to alter the default CSS box model. Modifying the box model gives you the option of whether or not an element's width and height include padding and border or not..." http://web-design-weekly.com/2012/10/18/css-box-sizing/ The Curious Case of min-resolution: 0 By Peter-Paul Koch. "During my media query test I found out that min-resolution: 0[unit] does not work in any browser for any unit. I find this weird..." http://www.quirksmode.org/blog/archives/2012/10/the_curious_cas.html Mobile Viewport Update By Peter-Paul Koch. "In the past week I've done the viewport tests on the latest crop of devices, and things are definitely looking better. The visual viewport dimensions are now well-supported, and a consensus on position: fixed is in the making." http://www.quirksmode.org/blog/archives/2012/10/mobile_viewport.html Use CSS Media Queries to Create Responsive Websites By Jeff Bail. "Static websites with fixed widths are quickly being replaced by responsive, fluid designs that scale up and down depending on screen size. With a responsive design you can present a usable interface no matter what device or screen is accessing the website. A responsive design also "future proofs" the website by responding to varying screen sizes, which are changing rapidly as new smart phones and tablets hit the market. The primary means of achieving a responsive design is with CSS media queries. In this article, learn to use media queries for desktop websites, mobile phones, and tablets. http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/web/library/wa-cssqueries/index.html +03: COLOR. No Such Thing as Color (Video) By Laura Evans. "'No Such Thing As Color' is a nine-minute documentary that shows us what the world looks like through the eyes of Evans Forde, a color blind musician with insightful opinions about the importance of color in our lives. " http://www.nosuchthingascolor.com/ Short Film: Color Blindness Explained for Children By Daniel Fluck. "Quite a while ago Laura Evans created a nine minute documentary short film on the topic What is it Like to be Color Blind? The film gives everyone some insights on color blindness, including an interview with a colorblind person..." http://www.colblindor.com/2012/10/18/short-film-color-blindness-explained-for-children/ +04: EVENTS. OZeWAI 2012 November 28-30, 2012. Melbourne, Australia. http://ozewai.org/ International Conference On Intelligent User Interfaces March 19-22, 2013 Santa Monica, California, U.S.A. http://iuiconf.org/ Confab London March 25-27, 2013. London, England, United Kingdom http://confabevents.com/events/london-2013 SITE March 25-29, 2013. New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.A. http://site.aace.org/conf/ An Event Apart Seattle April 1-3, 2013. Seattle, Washington, U.S.A. http://www.aneventapart.com/2013/seattle/ +05: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE. Responsive Design With Paper By Alexander Baxevanis. "A few months ago, I spoke at City University London about Wireframing for Responsive Web Design where I proposed that paper could be a useful tool for responsive design. Since then, I haven't had many chances to try the technique I proposed hands-on, but a suitable opportunity came up recently when we decided to look into making our own Webcredible site more responsive..." http://www.webcredible.co.uk/blog/responsive-design-with-paper +06: JAVASCRIPT. WAI-ARIA Techniques with Code Examples (and User Agent Notes) By 3needs. "This page links to draft WCAG WAI-ARIA techniques in the W3C wiki with code examples (linked from the wiki page and from here). The results of screen reader tests are recorded in the User Agent Notes on the respective W3C wiki page..." http://3needs.org/en/testing/sr-aria.html Introduction to WAI-ARIA By Kathy Wahlbin. Kathry Wahlbin's presentation Boston Accessibility Group meeting materals. http://www.interactiveaccessibility.com/blog/introduction-wai-aria Does JavaScript Need Classes? By Nicholas C. Zakas. "Like it or not, ECMAScript 6 is going to have classes[1]. The concept of classes in JavaScript has always been polarizing. There are some who love the classless nature of JavaScript specifically because it is different than other languages. On the other hand, there are those who hate the classless nature of JavaScript because it's different than other languages..." http://www.nczonline.net/blog/2012/10/16/does-javascript-need-classes/ +07: MISCELLANEOUS. Adaptive vs. Responsive, What's the Difference? By Viljami Salminen. "There seems to be some confusion about these terms and what they mean, so here's my thoughts on the subject and few links to back them up. I'm usually not very keen when it comes to debating over what something is called, but this time I wanted to make it clear, as I hear this question quite often..." http://viljamis.com/blog/2012/adaptive-vs-responsive-whats-the-difference.php Setup to Build Responsive Websites By Eric Wendelin. "Not long ago, the biggest challenge for a web engineer was making sites that worked well in several different browsers. While that is still the case, our challenge is shifting to supporting the growing number of devices. I have come across a few tools and paradigms that helped me make this shift. Some ideas cannot be easily expressed in words; truly the best teacher is experience. Make a committment to yourself to grind your mental axe on this skill." http://davidwalsh.name/responsive-css Component-Based HTML - A Glimpse of The Future By Niels Matthijs. "...The more monkey work we can reduce or even make redundant, the more time we can spend focusing on overall quality. And the way I see it, we're definitely going to need that time in the near future." http://www.onderhond.com/blog/component-based-html-future +08: PHP. Basic Object-Oriented Programming in PHP By Larry Ullman. "Larry Ullman explains not only the syntax of OOP in PHP 5 and later, but the key underlying OOP theories as well." http://www.peachpit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1949760 +09: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS. The Truth About HTML5 By Luke Stevens. "Part polemic, part instruction manual, The Truth About HTML5 has ignited an interesting debate. Here we present an exclusive excerpt on the problems around structuring in HTML5. This is an edited excerpt from Chapter 3 of The Truth About HTML5 by Luke Stevens." www.netmagazine.com/features/truth-about-structuring-html5-page Don't Turn Your Back on HTML5 By Christian Heilmann. "Despite recent stumbles, HTML5 remains a technology of great promise, with a slew of tools to smooth the development path..." http://www.infoworld.com/t/html5/dont-turn-your-back-html5-205174 Constraint Validation: Native Client Side Validation for Web Forms By T.J. VanToll. "...HTML5's constraint validation APIs make adding client side validation to forms quick while providing a JavaScript API and CSS hooks for customization..." http://www.html5rocks.com/en/tutorials/forms/constraintvalidation/ +10: USABILITY. A Loose Heuristic for Mobile Design By Brad Orego. "Back in July, in the picturesque city of Madison, WI, a group of enthusiastic and dedicated UX professionals got together for a conference known as UXMad. One of the speakers, Hampton Catlin, gave a talk outlining the '6 Rules of Mobile Design.' IĠd like to share his original six with you, along with some modifications of my own, as a Loose Heuristic for Mobile Design..." http://www.uxbooth.com/articles/a-loose-heuristic-for-mobile-design/ Hey Jack - You're Wrong About 'Customers' Versus 'Users' By Jesse James Garrett. "...your focus on 'users' over 'customers' is not your weakness. It's your strength. Don't leave it behind..." http://adaptivepath.com/ideas/hey-jack-youre-wrong-about-customers-versus-users User Experience v. Customer Experience By 360 connext. "Customer experience is always a little tricky to explain. It's just so darn big. What doesn't it cover (not much) and who is responsible (good question). Often, customer experience is translated into user experience - the front-end digital experience of users." http://360connext.com/user-experience-v-customer-experience/ Mobile Email Newsletters By Jakob Nielsen. "Mobile use strengthens email marketing's benefits by offering ubiquitous newsletter access, but it also introduces new usability limitations for template design." http://www.useit.com/alertbox/mobile-email-newsletters.html [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.]