+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE. - Volume 12, Issue 33, February 6, 2014. An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design and development. ++ISSUE 33 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: HTML5. 06: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE. 07: JAVASCRIPT. 08: MISCELLANEOUS. 09: TOOLS. 10: TYPOGRAPHY. 11: USABILITY. SECTION TWO: 12: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site? [Contents ends.] ++ SECTION ONE: New references. +01: ACCESSIBILITY. GOALS Blueprint for Institutional Web Accessibility By National Center on Disability and Access to Education. "This blueprint will guide you through several key phases of implementing institutional accessibility: Gaining support from administration, engaging in institutional self-study, benchmarking and planning, reporting and providing recommendations, and finally making accessibility improvements at your institution..." http://ncdae.org/goals/blueprint.php Infographic Accessibility - Text is Text By Derek Featherstone. "Infographics are growing in popularity, but they are often criticized for the accessibility challenges they create. Here's an infographic that was very surprising when it comes to accessibility, and we felt it should be celebrated and shared as a positiveÑa small thing, done well." http://simplyaccessible.com/article/text-is-text/ Institutional Guidelines on Captioning By Cyndi Rowland. "Many would argue that the single most difficult issue of institutional web accessibility is captioning. The issue presents a challenge, in part because there are so many people linking audio and video materials without regard to the need to have captions present. The ways in which institutions engage their faculties and staffs on this tough issue shows the maturity of the institution's journey toward full web accessibility..." http://ncdae.org/blog/guidelines-captioning/ The ADA Title III Year in Review - Trends, Hot Topics, and What's In Store for 2014 By Seyfarth Shaw. "...Perhaps the most significant news in the area of website accessibility is that DOJ sought to intervene in a private class action brought against a public accommodation for not having an accessible website. While DOJ has always pressured businesses behind the scenes to make their websites accessible, this is the first enforcement suit of its kind, filed before DOJ has even issued proposed regulations defining what constitutes an accessible website. The proposed complaint cites to the WCAG 2.0 as a well-accepted industry guideline, further persuading us that the DOJ will in fact adopt this set of guidelines as its legal standard when it finally issues its proposed rule..." http://www.adatitleiii.com/2014/01/the-ada-title-iii-year-in-review-trends-hot-topics-and-whats-in-store-for-2014/ Loss Aversion and Web Accessibility By Jared Smith. "I think we can all agree that the field of web accessibility needs more good data...the best approach is not to simply ask users what they think, but to actually test users in real-world environments and situations to determine what best affects their experience..." http://webaim.org/blog/loss-aversion-and-web-accessibility/ Blind People Using Touchscreens - The Issues By Incobs. "Our tablet tests conducted in November 2013 have revealed some general issues that blind users encounter when using touch input on a tablet with the screen reader turned on. We describe the issues here..." http://www.incobs.de/tests-english/items/tablettest-blind-en-touchscreen-use.html Few Excuses for Not Performing Accessibility Testing By Ken Nakata. "My friends at Microsoft told me that they had just partnered with GW Micro to provide free copies of Window-Eyes to any customers who bought and installed any version of Microsoft Office 2010. For those who don't actively follow the assistive technology market, Window-Eyes is a popular and very powerful screen reader software used by blind and visually-impaired users for accessing computer information-and now (hopefully) also by software professionals who develop and test webpages and software..." http://blog.hisoftware.com/2014/compliance/few-excuses-for-not-performing-accessibility-testing Accessibility Testing and Multiple Platforms By Dylan Barrell. "Last week there was quite heated Twitter debate between Paul Adam, myself and a couple of other people as to what the appropriate approach is to accessibility testing and multiple platforms." http://unobfuscated.blogspot.com/2014/02/accessibility-testing-and-multiple.html +02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. Boxes That Fill Height (Or More) (and Don't Squish) By Chris Coyier. "...let's just try and focus on one thing that flexbox solves very nicely: the ability to have an arbitrary set of boxes fill up all the available height of a parent box. And not only that, but expand beyond that if needed (not squish them to fit)..." http://css-tricks.com/boxes-fill-height-dont-squish/ International Box-Sizing Awareness Day By Chris Coyier. "It makes working with boxes so super duper much nicer." http://css-tricks.com/international-box-sizing-awareness-day/ Managing Hyphenation With CSS By Nicolas Hoffmann. "This article describes how to set up hyphenation on websites." http://openweb.eu.org/articles/managing-hyphenation-with-css CSS Regions Matter By Sara Soueidan. "...CSS Regions give us the ability to do a lot of things that are otherwise not possible without them..." http://flippinawesome.org/2014/01/27/css-regions-matter/ Reversing Course, Google Rejects Adobe Web Publishing Tech By Stephen Shankland. "The CSS Regions would have helped ease magazine-like layouts on the Web. But Google's priority now is on performance, not features - especially mobile browser performance..." http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57617840-93/reversing-course-google-rejects-adobe-web-publishing-tech/ Why Native CSS Variables Will Be A Good Addition By Steven Bradley. "On Monday I walked through css custom properties for cascading variables and mentioned that some people have objections to variables becoming part of the css language. Two notable objectors are Jeremy Keith and Chris Coyier..." http://www.vanseodesign.com/css/variables-belong-in-css/ One Solution To Responsive Images By Gavyn McKenzie. "In this article, we'll look at one solution to the problem that we implemented on our portfolio website at Etch, where you can see an early working version in the wild." http://mobile.smashingmagazine.com/2014/02/03/one-solution-to-responsive-images/ +03: EVALUATION & TESTING. Lorem Ipsum and the Art of Prototype Testing By Dave Ellender. "...the solution that preserves user flow, works well with tired facilitators and enables effective and unbiased enquiry around users expectations about the effect of their actions? Yes, a wireframe where key pieces of text are changed back into lorem ipsum. This way when the user gets to the next screen we can ask for their expectations as to what should be there..." http://www.nomensa.com/blog/2014/lorem-ipsum-and-the-art-of-prototype-testing/ 5 Essential Analytics Reports for UX Strategists By Jennifer Cardello. "Google Analytics is filled with very useful information for UX Strategists defining a baseline and tracking trends in order to define design goals, strategies, and concepts for a brighter tomorrow." http://www.nngroup.com/articles/analytics-reports-ux-strategists/ +04: EVENTS. STLUX 2014 March 14, 2014. Saint Louis, Missouri, U.S.A. http://stlux.org/ SmashingConf Oxford March 17-19, 2014. Oxford, England, United Kingdom http://smashingconf.com/ Responsive Web Design Summit April 1-3, 2014. Online https://www.eventbrite.com/e/rwd-summit-2014-the-online-live-responsive-web-design-conference-registration-9888276100 UX Immersion Mobile Conference April 7-9, 2014. Denver, Colorado, U.S.A. http://uxim14.uie.com/ Industry 2014 April 22-23, 2014. Newcastle Upon Tyne, England, United Kingdom http://2014.industryconf.com/ ARTIFACT Conf May 5-7, 2014. Austin, Texas, U.S.A. http://artifactconf.com/ +05: HTML5. HTML is Too Complex By Baldur Bjarnason. "...unless there is an immediate visual or behavioural benefit to using an element, most people will ignore it..." http://studiotendra.com/2014/01/29/html-is-too-complex/ The Complexity of HTML By Jeremy Keith. "... I've talked before about the confusion between section and article. Providing two new elements might seem better than providing just one, but in fact it just muddies the waters and confuses authors (in my experience). But I realise that in the grand scheme of things, I'm nitpicking. I think HTML is in pretty good shape. Baldur said 'simply put, HTML is a mess,' and he's not wrong Ébut HTML has always been a mess. It's the worst mess except for all the others that have been tried. When it comes to markup, I think that 'perfect' is very much the enemy of 'good'..." http://adactio.com/journal/6663/ Does EPUB3 Have Any Place in an HTML5 Universe? By Brad Neuberg. "A common question I hear is whether EPUB3 is useless above and beyond HTML5. Why not just eliminate EPUB and use plain HTML5?..." http://codinginparadise.org/ebooks/html/blog/epub3_in_html5_universe.html +06: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE. The Lingering Seduction of the Page By Andy Fitzgerald. "...I examined the articulatory relationship between information architecture and user interface design, and argued that the tools that have emerged for constructing information architectures on the web will only get us so far when it comes to expressing information systems across diverse digital touchpoints. Here, I want to look more closely at these traditional web IA tools in order to tease out two things: (1) ways we might rely on these tools moving forward, and (2) ways we'll need to expand our approach to IA as we design for the Internet of Things..." http://radar.oreilly.com/2014/01/the-lingering-seduction-of-the-page.html Architecture, Design, and the Connected Environment By Andy Fitzgerald. "...user interface design is a context-specific articulation of an underlying information architecture. It is this IA foundation that provides the direct connection to how human end users find value in content and functionality. The articulatory relationship between architecture and design creates consistency of experience across diverse platforms and works to communicate the underlying information model we've asked users to adopt...his basic distinction between architecture and design is not a new idea, but in the context of the Internet of Things, it does present architects and designers with a new set of challenges. In order to get a better sense of what has changed in this new context, it's worth taking a closer look at how the traditional model of IA for the web works." http://radar.oreilly.com/2013/12/architecture-design-and-the-connected-environment.html +07: JAVASCRIPT. Accessibility and the Shadow DOM By Marcy Sutton. "...It's easy - to make Web Components accessible to all users, write accessible code..." http://substantial.com/blog/2014/02/05/accessibility-and-the-shadow-dom/ Repeating Strings Efficiently By Axel Rauschmayer. "Recently, Michael Ficarra pointed me to an efficient algorithm for repeating a string several times. In this blog post, I explain how it works. The algorithm makes use of the fact that natural numbers (non-negative integers) can be represented as sums of powers of two..." http://www.2ality.com/2014/01/efficient-string-repeat.html Smart Defaults: On Libraries and Frameworks By Tim Kadlec. "What worries me is that for many, libraries have become the default. They're rolled into boilerplates and pattern libraries as an assumed dependency. And if we know anything about default settings, it's that most people will stick with them. This undoubtedly leads to many projects incurring this overhead without every giving consideration to whether it is really necessary." http://timkadlec.com/2014/01/smart-defaults-on-libraries-and-frameworks/ +08: MISCELLANEOUS. Accessibility Standards: An Interview with Mike Paciello By Whitney Quesenbery. "Mike Paciello has been a leader in promoting information and communication technology accessibility since the 1980s. He helped launch the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), was an author on the first version of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), and co-led the 2008 rewrite of the Section 508/Section 255 standards..." http://rosenfeldmedia.com/blogs/a-web-for-everyone/accessibility-standards-an-interview-with-mike-paciello/ An Interview with Australian Accessibility Pioneer Dr Andrew Arch By Scott Hollier. "Welcome to 2014! It's my great pleasure to kick things off for the year by bringing you an interview with Australian web accessibility pioneer Dr Andrew Arch..." http://www.accessiq.org/news/w3c-column/2014/01/an-interview-with-australian-accessibility-pioneer-dr-andrew-arch +09: TOOLS. Why Codesign Tools are the Future of Web Design By Leigh Howells. "Co-what tools? I hear you ask. Ok, so I invented that word to categorise software such as Webflow, Adobe Reflow and Macaw (not available yet) as I didn't know what to collectively call them. These new tools, and more like them, are slowly edging their way into the web designers' world and would really like to revolutionise how we think and design for the web..." http://boagworld.com/design/why-codesign-tools-are-the-future-of-web-design/ +10: TYPOGRAPHY. The Science Behind Fonts (and how they make you feel) By Mikael Cho. "The right font choice along with the absence of sidebars and popups makes everything feel easier and better to read. Websites like Medium, Signal vs. Noise, and Zen Habits are like yoga studios for content. Their presentation of content puts me at peace while reading, allowing me to fully focus on the stories without distraction." http://thenextweb.com/dd/2013/12/23/science-behind-fonts-make-feel/ +11: USABILITY. When Design Best Practices Become Performance Worst Practices By Tammy Everts. "Your design team has come up with a gorgeous prototype for the next iteration of your home page. It conforms to known design and usability best practices, and your testers loved it in the lab. You push the design to your live site and the results are ...well, a little disappointing. Not terrible, but your conversion rate hasn't made the leap you expected..." http://uxmag.com/articles/when-design-best-practices-become-performance-worst-practices Don't Make Abbreviations a Puzzle For Me to Solve By Deborah Edwards-Onoro. "...Don't leave your readers puzzling over what an abbreviation means. Share the explanation with them early so they can focus on your content, without wondering what that group of four letters means." http://www.lireo.com/dont-make-abbreviations-puzzle-for-readers-to-solve/ Infinite Scrolling Is Not for Every Website By Hoa Loranger. "Endless scrolling saves people from having to attend to the mechanics of pagination in browsing tasks, but is not a good choice for websites that support goal-oriented finding tasks." http://www.nngroup.com/articles/infinite-scrolling/ User Friendly Online Forms By Svetlana V. Kouznetsova. "I've came across enough of online forms to say that many of them have usability and accessibility issues regardless of whether you have a disability or not. I would like to list some of them." http://svknyc.com/journal/2014/01/user-friendly-online-forms/ Writing for the Web #4 - Lists By Linnea Ann Williams. "This is the fourth post in my series on Writing for the Web. In this post, I will outline some options for how to use lists online..." https://swsblog.stanford.edu/blog/writing-web-4-lists [Section one ends.] ++ SECTION TWO: +12: 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.]