+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE. - Volume 14, Issue 40, March 31, 2016. An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design and development. ++ISSUE 40 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: JAVASCRIPT. 07: MISCELLANEOUS. 08: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS. 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. The Veil of Ignorance By Adam Morse. "You are in your mid-twenties and your vision is 20/20 or better. You are not color blind and all the devices you own have a 'retina' screen. You are standing in a major city and your internet is fast..." http://mrmrs.io/writing/2016/03/23/the-veil-of-ignorance/ Web-Based Media Player Accessibility Comparison Table By Committee on Institutional Cooperation Information Technology Accessibility Group (CIC ITAG). "This table is developed and maintained by the Commitee on Institutional Cooperation Information Technology Accessibility Group (CIC ITAG) Media Player Accessibility sub-group. Some of its accessibilty criteria is borrowed from the W3C Media Accessibility User Requirements (MAUR), and it maps its criteria to that document..." http://kensgists.github.io/apt/ Lessons From Comics By Nate Evans and Phil Deaton. "Developing a framework for Audio Desciptions in Higher education..." https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1L-cjKd0qJTFfWST3nivXetzwLElWsk-cx3ed8VZrX9I/edit#slide=id.p Embracing Plain Language for Better Accessibility By Ashley Bischoff. "...Aim for an average sentence length of 20-ish words. Keep an eye out for any 3-and 4-syllable words. Use contractions early and often. Double-check your reading-grade level and average sentence length..." http://www.handcoding.com/presentations/plaina11y/#cover Is WCAG Too Long? By Karl Groves. "Yes. And no..." http://www.karlgroves.com/2016/03/28/is-wcag-too-long/ An Introduction to Native Mobile Accessibility - Featuring Deque University for iOS/Android By Chris McMeeking. "One of the most challenging aspects of mobile accessibility is that most developers,managers, user interface designers, software engineers, etc don't have a disability that makes the use of websites and mobile apps difficult. That is, they aren't able to view the process from a user perspective..." http://www.deque.com/blog/introduction-native-mobile-accessibility-featuring-deque-university-iosandroid/ Accessible Images for Everyone By Todd Kloots. "...Starting today, people using our iOS and Android apps can add descriptions - also known as alternative text (alt text) - to images in Tweets..." https://blog.twitter.com/2016/accessible-images-for-everyone Twitter Has Alt Text! (with some caveats) By Adrian Roselli. "In an exciting move, Twitter has taken a half step toward making images accessible..." http://adrianroselli.com/2016/03/twitter-has-alt-text-with-some-caveats.html California Court Grants Summary Judgment in Website Accessibility Case By Gonzalo E. Mon and Crystal N. Skelton. "As we've noted in previous posts, there has been an increase in lawsuits alleging companies have violated the Americans with Disabilities Act because their websites aren't accessible to the blind. This week, a California court granted summary judgement in one of these suits..." http://www.adlawaccess.com/2016/03/articles/california-court-grants-summary-judgment-in-website-accessibility-case/ +02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. Why I Don't Use CSS Preprocessors By Roger Johansson. "...A list of reasons then: I don't feel the 'problems' CSS preprocessors intend to solve are serious enough to warrant the cost, i.e. to me the solution is worse than the problem..." http://www.456bereastreet.com/archive/201603/why_i_dont_use_css_preprocessors/ CSS Grid and CSS Regions By Rachel Andrew. "The answer to a Grid question on Twitter was once again CSS Regions." https://www.rachelandrew.co.uk/archives/2016/03/25/css-grid-and-css-regions/ Should I Use Grid or Flexbox? By Rachel Andrew. "In my recent presentation at Fluent Conf I demonstrated the common features and also the differences between Flexbox and CSS Grid Layout..." https://www.rachelandrew.co.uk/archives/2016/03/30/should-i-use-grid-or-flexbox/ Houdini - Maybe The Most Exciting Development In CSS You've Never Heard Of By Philip Walton. "Have you ever wanted to use a particular CSS feature but didn't because it wasn't fully supported in all browsers?..." https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2016/03/houdini-maybe-the-most-exciting-development-in-css-youve-never-heard-of/ CSS and Scalability By Adam Morse. "Several years ago I got curious about how css worked at scale..." http://mrmrs.io/writing/2016/03/24/scalable-css/ CSS Flexbox Is Entirely Logical (Almost) By Paul Robert Lloyd. "Given a maturing specification, and related concerns regarding browser support and compatibility, I had largely been ignoring CSS Flexible Box Layout. Yet with support for this module - aka Flexbox - currently hovering around 96% (82% if using un-prefixed values) there's little excuse for developers like myself not to start using it..." https://paulrobertlloyd.com/2016/03/logical_flexbox +03: EVALUATION & TESTING. An Introduction to User Research Techniques By Gov.UK "Ways to understand your users and their needs..." https://www.gov.uk/service-manual/user-centred-design/user-research Welcome to User Research Methods Wiki By Leisa Reichelt and 205 others. "User research plays two very important roles in service design..." https://userresearchmethods.hackpad.com/Welcome-to-User-Research-Methods-Wiki-S0j1jM7vrcp +04: EVENTS. UX Boot Camp Rome June 20-22, 2016. Rome, Italy http://www.measuringu.com/italyux.php UX Boot Camp Denver August 17-19, 2016. Denver, Colorado, U.S.A. http://www.denverux.com/ IAAP Access October 5-7, 2016. Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A. http://www.accessibilityassociation.org/access2016 +05: HTML5. HTML5 Beginner's Guide By Robert Mening. "Learn how to set up a basic website with HTML5..." http://websitesetup.org/html5-beginners-guide/ +06: JAVASCRIPT. Promise-Based Functions Should Not Throw Exceptions By Axel Rauschmayer. "Promise-based functions should only ever reject the Promises they return, they should never throw exceptions..." http://www.2ality.com/2016/03/promise-rejections-vs-exceptions.html +07: MISCELLANEOUS. Why Say No to the Madness of Content Migration By Paul Boag. "If there is one phrase that fills me with dread it is 'content migration'..." https://boagworld.com/content-strategy/content-migration/ +08: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS. MathML is a Failed Web Standard By Peter Krautzberger. "Since I'm expecting more than my 1 2 regular readers to read this, let me add a preface..." https://www.peterkrautzberger.org/0186/ Interoperability and the W3C: Defending the Future from the Present By Cory Doctorow. "...Let's take a look at some of the interoperable applications that are blocked by the work of the W3C..." https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2016/03/interoperability-and-w3c-defending-future-present +09: TOOLS. Nightwatch E2E Accessibility Testing By Gerard K. Cohen. "There are a lot of accessibility tools available today. This presentation will provide an overview of these tools, and how they can be built into your workflow. From basic, all the way to advanced automated E2E testing. Geared for front-end developers/ engineers looking to improve the accessibility of their work." https://github.com/gerardkcohen/nightwatch-a11y-testing Accessibility Scanner By Google. "Accessibility Scanner is a tool that suggests accessibility improvements for Android apps..." https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.accessibility.auditor Related article: Google Releases New Tool to Scan Android Apps for Accessibility Issues By Valentina Palladino. "The Accessibility Scanner can tell if parts of your app are difficult to use..." http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/03/google-releases-new-tool-to-scan-android-apps-for-accessibility-issues/ +10: USABILITY. Front-End Style-Guides: Definition, Requirements, Component Checklist By Page Laubheimer. "Front-end style-guides help efficient design and testing, and enforce UI consistency. We present 8 style-guide requirements and 25 common components." https://www.nngroup.com/articles/front-end-style-guides/ The Problem With Flat Design, According To A UX Expert By Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan. "Just because people like flat design doesn't mean they get how to use it..." http://www.fastcodesign.com/3058094/the-problem-with-flat-design-according-to-a-ux-expert [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 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.]