+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE. - Volume 14, Issue 01, July 1, 2015. An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design and development. ++ISSUE 01 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: DRUPAL. 05: EVALUATION & TESTING. 06: EVENTS. 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. Online Accessibility Program By Stanford Online Accessibility Program (SOAP). The SOAP web site is a treasure trove of information for getting started in accessibility along with tips and tools. http://soap.stanford.edu What Does the Future Hold for Web Accessibility Guidelines By Joey Koss. "Disabilities do not change, technology changes. This observation, shared by Gregg Vanderheiden, Ph.D, captures the crux of the issue facing those who work on the web accessibility guidelines committees and was the heart of the discussion by the 'W3C-WAI: New Horizons for 2020' panel at this month's M-Enabling Summit..." http://www.ssbbartgroup.com/blog/what-does-the-future-hold-for-web-accessibility-guidelines/ WCAG 2.0 - Criteria And Techniques For Successful Accessibility Conformance By Steven Bradley. "It's one thing understand the basic principles and guidelines for making your site more accessible and another thing to actually meet those guidelines..." http://www.vanseodesign.com/web-design/wcag-success-criteria-techniques/ Accessibility Best Practice - Part I: What it is By Sailesh Panchang. "While providing feedback to clients following an accessibility evaluation, it is generally a good idea to include best practice recommendations in the report..." http://www.mindoversight.com/?p=41 Make Infographics Accessible to All By Tess Pajaron. "...There are at least two simple ways that you can use to create user-friendly infographics and the bonus is they will both enhance your reputation with search engines..." http://spinsucks.com/social-media/infographics-should-be-accessible-to-all/ Blind Students' Lawsuit Leads to Big Changes at N.J. County College By Kelly Heyboer. "...the National Federation for the Blind announced Atlantic Cape Community College had agreed to settle the case out of court by making extensive changes to accommodate students with disabilities. Under the deal, the 6,800-student county college, which serves Atlantic and Cape May counties, will upgrade its technology, overhaul is websites and upgrade its library to make materials accessible to students with disabilities..." http://www.nj.com/education/2015/06/blind_students_lawsuit_atlantic_cape_community.html Justice Department Files Statements of Interest in Title III and Section 504 Lawsuits against Harvard and MIT By Cas Institute. "The Justice Department announced that it has filed Statements of Interest in two private cases pending in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, National Association of the Deaf, et al., v. Harvard University, et al (link is external)., and National Association of the Deaf, et al., v. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (link is external)..." http://www.casinstitute.org/news/justice-department-files-statements-interest-title-iii-and-section-504-lawsuits-against-harvard DOJ Shifts Position on Web Access: Stating In Court Filings That Public Accommodations Have a 'Pre-Existing' Obligation to Make Websites Accessible By Minh N. Vu. "...at issue are videos of general interest (e.g., a lecture posted by a professor, a speech given at the university, or even a campus organization's event..." http://www.adatitleiii.com/2015/06/doj-shifts-position-on-web-access-stating-in-court-filings-that-public-accommodations-have-a-pre-existing-obligation-to-make-websites-accessible/ CVAA Video Programming Requirements - Video Description By Sam Joehl. "Video description (also called audio description) is audio-narrated descriptions of the key visual elements of video programming which are then inserted within the natural pauses in the program's dialogue to help blind and visually impaired viewers to better understand the story..." http://www.ssbbartgroup.com/blog/cvaa-video-programming-requirements-video-description/ +02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. Quantity Queries In Action (Video) By Russ Weakley. Watch as Russ Weakley shows how to use CSS quantity queries https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8ZvKWiebzU Borders on Bootstrap Columns By Russ Weakley. "Equal height borders on columns, they're not impossible" https://learnable.com/screencasts/borders-on-bootstrap-columns Thoughts on Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) By Mark DuBois. "As a professor teaching web technologies, I am often presented with clear examples demonstrating that someone does not fully grasp a concept. In this case, the number in question was 3,547. That was the number of classes in one CSS linked stylesheet to style one website. Yep. Over three thousand separate classes. I know, I counted them. Yes, it was painful..." http://webprofessionals.org/thoughts-on-css/ Gradient Flags By Eric A Meyer. "With the news today of the Supreme Court's decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, and my recent completion of the part of CSS:The Definitive Guide that deals with gradients, I thought I'd create a couple of flags using linear gradients..." http://meyerweb.com/eric/thoughts/2015/06/26/gradient-flags/ Edge Conf - Notes on User Queries By Bruce Lawson. "One problem with this is the classic web dev chicken-and-egg problem..." http://www.brucelawson.co.uk/2015/edge-conf-notes-on-user-queries/ The Debate Around 'Do We Even Need CSS Anymore?' By Chris Coyier. "...thought we could have a little campfire here and talk about it as rationally as we can, covering all the relevant points..." https://css-tricks.com/the-debate-around-do-we-even-need-css-anymore/ Sass Reference By Sitepoint. A guide to Sass. http://www.sitepoint.com/sass-reference/ +03: COLOR. Designing For (and With) Color Blindness By Aaron Tenbuuren. "Every time someone finds out I'm color blind, I'm always hit with the same question: 'So, what color is this?' 95% of the time I'll answer correctly, which is always followed by, 'Wait, so if you can tell this is {insert color}, then how are you color blind? What do you see?'. This is where the joy of explaining how colorblindness works, and how it affects me comes into play..." https://medium.com/@aaron10buuren/designing-for-and-with-color-blindness-48392aab3d87 Index of Color Contrast Samples By TRACE (Hat Tip Gregg Vanderheiden). Includes Sample Palattes of Passing Colors, Text Samples that just pass at several Contrast Ratios, http://trace.wisc.edu/contrast-ratio-examples/index.htm +04: DRUPAL. Drupal Modules that Improve Accessibility By Jonas Bartsch. "A list of modules that you can use to enhance the accessibility of your Drupal site..." https://groups.drupal.org/node/85199 +05: EVALUATION & TESTING. How to Combine 'Gut Feel' and Science in Multivariate Testing By Anton Ruin. "As site owners, designers, and developers we often underestimate the value of our intuition..." http://www.sitepoint.com/how-to-combine-gut-feel-science-in-multivariate-testing/ The Deceptively Simple Trick to Understanding Your Customers By Jennifer Winter. "The reward for observation isn't just insight on solving existing problems. It can help you find new ones before your customers do, not to mention provide opportunities to address unmet needs..." http://www.usertesting.com/blog/2015/06/25/observation/ Getting to Know Conjoint Analysis By Jeff Sauro. "...When you need to identify the relative importance of features in a product a conjoint analysis may provide useful results..." http://www.measuringu.com/blog/conjoint-analysis.php How to Perform Your Own Lean Mobile Usability Testing By Greg Nudelman. "Usability testing doesn't have to be done in labs, doesn't require experts, and doesn't have to be expensive..." http://uxmag.com/articles/how-to-perform-your-own-lean-mobile-usability-testing +06: EVENTS. Accessibility Summit 2015 September 8-9, 2015. Online conference http://environmentsforhumans.com/2015/accessibility-summit/ The Mobility and Modern Web Conference September 16-18, 2015. Los Angeles, California, U.S.A. http://mmwcon.org/ Generate London September 17-18, 2015. London, England, United Kingdom http://www.generateconf.com/london-2015 From The Front September 17-18, 2015. Bologna, Italy http://2015.fromthefront.it/ Fluxible 2015 September 25-27, 2015. Kitchener, Canada http://www.fluxible.ca/ +07: JAVASCRIPT. Availability By Stuart Langridge. "...It is true that not everyone has JS and that sometimes that's you, so let's work out how to do this without regressing to 1998. So I'm not going to be talking about progressive enhancement any more. I'm going to be talking about availability. About reach. About my web apps being for everyone even when the universe tries to stop it." http://blog.webflow.com/how-to-boost-your-sites-performance Why Availability Matters By Stuart Langridge. "You've heard how about 1% of visits to your site don't get the full site -- don't get the JavaScript or the CSS or something. And that means it's like this..." http://www.kryogenix.org/code/browser/why-availability/ aria-multiselectable (property) By Rakesh Paladugula. "aria-multiselectable is used to notify the users about the existence of the components where more than one element can be selected. aria-multiselectable is not an alternate for aria-selected. Tablists, listbox, tree and grid are the roles which allows the users to select more than one element. Do not use aria-multiselectable property where only one element..." http://www.maxability.co.in/2015/06/aria-multiselectable-property/ +08: MISCELLANEOUS. Brad Frost and the Future of the Web By Leah Lizarondo. "Brad Frost is many things: designer, artist, creative director, musician, even philosopher...)" http://www.nextpittsburgh.com/next-wave/brad-frost-and-the-future-of-the-web/ +09: TOOLS. aXe Chrome Extension By Deque Systems. "Automated tool to find Accessibility defects on your web site by using the aXe Chrome extension..." https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/axe/lhdoppojpmngadmnindnejefpokejbdd tota11y By Khan Academy. "An accessibility visualization toolkit..." http://khan.github.io/tota11y/ +10: TYPOGRAPHY. Legibility ≠ Optional By Colm Roche. "When creating a website, there's a mental checklist a designer might run through... is this engaging?, is it easy to understand?, is it on-brand?… but the very first, no-brainer point is, can people read it? Yet..." https://medium.com/@colm_roche/legibility-optional-764710e769f4 The Last Word on Helvetica? By John Boardley. "...rather than hate a typeface, why not channel that energy into loving another. That is my last word on Helvetica." http://ilovetypography.com/2015/06/27/the-last-word-on-helvetica/ +11: USABILITY. The Roots of Minimalism in Web Design By Kate Meyer. "Many of today's most popular design trends are influenced by minimalism. This web design movement began in the early 2000s, but borrows its philosophy from earlier movements in the fields of fine art and human-computer interaction." http://www.nngroup.com/articles/roots-minimalism-web-design/ Great Summaries on 'About Us' Pages Engage Users and Build Trust By Hoa Loranger. "Tell your story on top-level pages in 'About Us.' People who trust you are much more open to engaging with your organization and website." http://www.nngroup.com/articles/about-us-summaries/ Trends in Digital Design By Gerry McGovern. "The future of digital design must be founded in empathy for the customer. It must be focused on use because with today's impatient and empowered customer, if it's not immediately easy-to-use, their attention will be lost...." http://gerrymcgovern.com/new-thinking/trends-digital-design How to Boost Your Site's Performance By Neal O'Grady. "Almost half of your visitors will leave if your site takes longer than three seconds to load. Learn the simple, non-technical ways to boost the speed http://blog.webflow.com/how-to-boost-your-sites-performance [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 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 HTML 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. + 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.]