+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE.
- Volume 10, Issue 45, May 1, 2013.
An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design and development.
++ISSUE 45 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: EVENTS.
04: HTML5.
05: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE.
06: JAVASCRIPT.
07: MISCELLANEOUS.
08: PHP.
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.
Google Docs Accessibility with Shawn Lauriat
By Elle Waters.
"Derek: You've probably heard this before: 'Accessibility is easy'. And there are parts of accessibility that are easy. But at the same time, some people are tackling really tough problems, like Shawn Lauriat who works on Google Docs Accessibility..."
http://simplyaccessible.com/article/shawn-lauriat/
Low Vision Survey Results
By Jared Smith.
"Results of WebAIMs recent survey for those with low vision are now available at http://webaim.org/projects/lowvisionsurvey/. A few highlights are found below. The results of our motor disabilities survey will be available soon."
http://webaim.org/blog/low-vision-survey-results/
Accessible Forms 1 - Labels and Identification
By Roger Hudson.
"The first in this series of articles about improving the accessibility of web page forms..."
http://usability.com.au/2013/04/accessible-forms-1-labels-and-identification/
Using a Transparent Image as an Icon Fallback
By Roger Johansson.
Sometimes designs contain button styling that is difficult to create with CSS alone. The 'official' way of dealing with this is to either use an image button ( ) or put the image in a button element ( ).
http://www.456bereastreet.com/archive/201304/using_a_transparent_image_as_an_icon_fallback/
Accessible Audio Descriptions for HTML5 Video
By James Edwards.
"A client recently asked me to produce an accessible video player, and one of the features she was very keen to have is audio descriptions. Audio descriptions are intended for people who are blind or have impaired vision, providing additional spoken information to describe important visual details."
http://www.sitepoint.com/accessible-audio-descriptions-for-html5-video/
Requirements for Accessible PDF part 3 - Authoring Best Practices
By Deque Systems.
"While this post is not meant as tutorial on creating accessible content with Microsoft Word or OpenOffice, keeping the following pointers in mind will help build accessibility right in the source documents - this list covers a few of the most important things to keep in mind. And as we saw in the previous posts, building accessibility in our source document is usually better than bolting it on top of the document once it has been converted to PDF..."
http://www.deque.com/accessible-pdf-best-practices
Be Careful While Using HTML 5 Semantics and ARIA Roles
By Rakesh Paladugula.
"HTML 5 the next generation hyper text mark-up language for developing web pages and ARIA Accessible Rich Internet Applications for accessibility are the hot topics in the front-end community. In the process of making the mark-up more semantic and robust HTML 5 have come up with new tags such as , etc. On the other hand Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) of W3C has come up with new roles, states and properties to bridge the gap between the assistive technologies and authoring tools such as article(role), navigation (role)..."
http://www.maxability.co.in/2013/04/be-careful-html-5-with-aria/
Attorney Sues Department of Homeland Security
By Deque Systems.
"Citing Section 508 of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Michael Leiterman, a lawyer for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has filed a suit against his employer..."
http://www.deque.com/section-508-lawsuit
+02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.
CSS3 Transitions - Thank God We Have A Specification
By Rodney Rehm.
"This article is packed with a number of quirks and issues you should be aware of when working with CSS3 transitions..."
http://coding.smashingmagazine.com/2013/04/26/css3-transitions-thank-god-specification/
Should Users Have the Option to Switch Off Responsive Design?
By Craig Buckler.
"There are few reasons not to use a Responsive Web Design. Unless you have the time, budget and inclination to develop a separate mobile site or app, RWD techniques can assist your users on mobile and older devices. But what if a user doesn't want a mobile-optimized view of your site?..."
http://www.sitepoint.com/disable-responsive-design-option/
+03: EVENTS.
W3C Mobile Web Best Practices
May 13, 2013 start date.
Online
http://www.w3devcampus.com/mobile-web-and-application-best-practices-training/
+04: HTML5.
Stop Standardizing HTML
By Simon St. Laurent.
"When HTML first appeared, it offered a coherent if limited vocabulary for sharing content on the newly created World Wide Web. Today, after HTML has handed off most of its actual work to other specifications, it's time to stop worrying about this central core and let developers choose their own markup vocabularies and processing..."
http://programming.oreilly.com/2013/04/stop-standardizing-html.html
Don't Let the Myths Fool You - the W3C's plan for DRM in HTML5 is a Detrayal to All Web Users
By Kera.
"A handful of myths have become common defenses of the W3C's plan for "Encrypted Media Extensions" (EME)..."
http://freeculture.org/blog/2013/04/23/dont-let-the-myths-fool-you-the-w3cs-plan-for-drm-in-html5-is-a-betrayal-to-all-web-users/
DRM at the W3C? Not such a Bad Idea
By John Foliot.
"The Unpopular Position"
http://john.foliot.ca/drm-at-the-w3c/
+05: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE.
Responsive Layouts - How To Maintain Hierarchy Through Content Choreography
By Steven Bradley.
"One of the issues we need to be concerned with in responsive design is how to maintain hierarchy as elements on the screen are resized and reflowed. Trent Walton first called attention to the issue with his post 'Content Choreography,' which showed how visual hierarchy gets lost when columns are dropped below one another."
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2013/04/25/maintain-hierarchy-content-choreography/
+06: JAVASCRIPT.
Quirk 3 - Normal Equality
By Axel Rauschmayer.
"Let's start with a simple rule: the normal equality operators == and != are so problematic that you should always use strict equality (=== and !==). Some people say that there are exceptions to this rule, I disagree [2]. Keeping this rule in mind, we can now take a look at what is strange about == without burdening our minds unnecessarily..."
http://www.2ality.com/2013/04/quirk-equality.html
JavaScript Best Practices
By Tim Corey.
"The use of JavaScript has exploded over time. Now it is practically unheard of for a website not to utilize JavaScript to some extent..."
http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/580165/JavaScript-Best-Practices
Node at Work A Walkthrough
By Garann Means.
"In my first article, 'Even Better In-Browser Mockups with Node.js,' I explained why Node.js makes designing applications easier and more efficient, and how to get started. Now it's time to see your new design process in action..."
http://alistapart.com/article/node-at-work-a-walkthrough
Even Better In-Browser Mockups with Node.js
By Garann Means.
"Designing in the browser has all sorts of benefits, like producing more accurate, comprehensive results and removing the extra step of converting from image file to markup and CSS. But even sites designed in a browser still require pasting in content, faking interactions with the server, and creating placeholder JavaScript that isn't usable on the live site."
http://alistapart.com/article/even-better-in-browser-mockups-with-node.js
Best of Fluent 2012: Maintainable JavaScript
By Nicholas C. Zakas.
"Nicholas C. Zakas' talk at the Fluent 2012 conference is about best practices for keeping your JavaScript code maintainable."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-kav7Tf834
+07: MISCELLANEOUS.
The First Website
By Mark Boulton.
"Twenty years ago today, CERN published a statement that made the World Wide Web freely available. To mark this anniversary, CERN - together with Mark Boulton Design - are starting a project to restore the first website and the associated assets of the World Wide Web project..."
http://markboulton.co.uk/journal/firstwebsite
WWW Project Turns 20
By Adrian A. Roselli.
"Twenty years ago, on April 30 1993, CERN announced the World Wide Web project. While the web existed before then, this was the first time that HTML's specification was opened up to the general public, allowing anyone to learn how to mark up documents..."
http://blog.adrianroselli.com/2013/04/www-project-turns-20.html
An Interview with Karl Groves
By Elle Waters.
"As part of Knowbility's 2013 John Slatin AccessU, we are proud to present an interview with Karl Groves-one of my co-workers, and speaker at the upcoming AccessU. Karl works on our team as an Accessibility Consultant and is interviewed here by another co-worker, Derek Featherstone. They talk Vikings, testing, workshops and BBQ."
http://simplyaccessible.com/article/karl-groves
+09: PHP.
Better Understanding Random
By Mark Wilston.
"...In this article I'll give you an overview of what random values are used for and why they're important, as well as a peek under the hood of how they're generated..."
http://phpmaster.com/better-understanding-random/
+09: TOOLS.
GrayBit
"Relying on colors to determine page visibility and contrast can be misleading. Converting the colors to their grayscale equivalents is a more reliable method. By removing color's influence, you'll better find true visual contrast...GrayBit makes it possible...GrayBit was originally created by Mike Cherim and Jonathan Fenocchi. In April 2013, it was purchased by Joe Dolson, who now maintains, hosts, and is continuing the project as time allows."
http://www.gray-bit.com/main.php
+10: USABILITY.
Usability Checklist
By Userium.
"Catch common usability problems before user testing."
http://userium.com/
Users' Pagination Preferences and 'View All'
By Jakob Nielsen.
"Long listings might need pagination by default, but if users customize the display to View All list items, respect that preference."
http://www.nngroup.com/articles/item-list-view-all/
The 3 R's of Measuring Design Comprehension
By Jeff Sauro.
"...to really measure comprehension, you need to use questions that assess users' knowledge of the policy, the product or design. We use three complimentary techniques: measuring recognition, recall and recounting..."
http://www.measuringusability.com/blog/measuring-comprehension.php
[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
Drupal Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/drupal.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
HTML5 Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/html.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.
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+ 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.]