+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE. - Volume 14, Issue 51, June 16, 2016. An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design and development. ++ISSUE 52 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: NAVIGATION. 09: TOOLS. 10: USABILITY. 11: XML. SECTION TWO: 12: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site? [Contents ends.] ++ SECTION ONE: New references. +01: ACCESSIBILITY. What We Mean When We Talk About Accessibility By Alistair Duggin. "...Accessibility means that people can do what they need to do in a similar amount of time and effort as someone that does not have a disability. It means that people are empowered, can be independent, and will not be frustrated by something that is poorly designed or implemented..." https://accessibility.blog.gov.uk/2016/05/16/what-we-mean-when-we-talk-about-accessibility-2/ Research with Blind Users on Mobile Devices By Ed Horsford. "...Last year we did some usability research with users with a range of visual impairments. We found out lots of interesting things, and one in particular was about the way blind users of touchscreen devices experience the web..." https://accessibility.blog.gov.uk/2016/06/09/research-with-blind-users-on-mobile-devices/ We're Just Temporarily Abled: Designing for the Future By Jennifer Aldrich. "We aren't just designing accessible products and websites for a subgroup of people who we may or may not know, who have permanent visual or motor issues. We're designing these sites and products for our future selves as well." http://uxmag.com/articles/we-re-just-temporarily-abled Designer's Guide to the Basics of Web Accessibility Design By Jake Rocheleau. "The web should be a place where everyone can access the same content from anywhere in the world..." http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/web-accessibility-design-guide/ The High Cost of Digital Discrimination: Why Companies Should Care About Web Accessibility By Jonathon Hensley. "Netflix, Disney and Target have all faced lawsuits alleging their websites offer poor accessibility for the disabled. It makes no sense to wait for US guidelines, now expected in 2018, to end an era of digital discrimination..." http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2015/dec/31/digital-discrimination-netflix-disney-target-web-accessibility-doj Section 508 Refresh Timing Confirmed By Timothy Stephen Springer. "...David Capozzi, Executive Director of the U.S. Access Board, confirmed the Board is working to publish the final rule updating Section 508 standards by October of this year..." http://www.ssbbartgroup.com/blog/section-508-refresh-timing-confirmed/ +02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. Quick Tip: How Z-index and Auto Margins Work in Flexbox By George Martsoukos. "Flexbox is well-known for solving common layout problems such as sticky footers and equal-height columns. Beyond those capabilities, it also provides a few other useful features that aren't so popular. Let's explore two of them!.." https://www.sitepoint.com/quick-tip-how-z-index-and-auto-margins-work-in-flexbox/ +03: EVALUATION & TESTING. 4 Forgotten Principles of Usability Testing By David Travis. "...Here are 4 principles of usability testing that have been absent in many of the tests I've observed. 1) Screen for behaviours not demographics. 2) Test the red routes. 3) Focus on what people do, not what they say. 4) Don't ask users to redesign the interface..." https://medium.com/@userfocus/4-forgotten-principles-of-usability-testing-29751df38bc1 User Testing v/s Usability Testing By Pratik. "My dear friend (ahem, I wish) Travis, now Founder and CEO of UBER App got stuck in a traffic in Paris on a rainy day and couldn't get a cab. He took the problem in hand and started going to friends' / bus stops / taxi stand / building exits, asking them if they would like to have an app which could get them a cab in a click (and how). That's user testing..." http://canvasflip.com/blog/index.php/2016/06/12/user-testing-vs-usability-testing/ 5 Common Mistakes In UX Benchmark Studies By Jeff Sauro. "...Here are five of the more common mistakes made when conducting benchmark studies..." http://www.measuringu.com/blog/benchmark-mistakes.php +04: EVENTS. Forward JS July 29, 2016. San Francisco, California, U.S.A. https://forwardjs.com/ Melbourne UX Conference August 1-5, 2016. Melbourne, Australia https://www.nngroup.com/training/melbourne/ Midwest JS August 10-12, 2016. Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.A. http://midwestjs.com/ Seattle UX Conference August 15-19, 2016. Seattle, Washington, U.S.A. https://www.nngroup.com/training/seattle/ HybridConf August 18-19, 2016. Berlin, Germany https://hybridconf.net/ +05: HTML5. Tabindex for Accessibility: Good, Bad and Ugly By Rakesh Paladugula. "Tabindex is a HTML attribute that can set an order for focusable elements which allow keyboard focus for non focusable elements and remove focus for a focusable element..." http://www.maxability.co.in/2016/06/tabindex-for-accessibility-good-bad-and-ugly/ Computer Says NO to HTML5 Document Outline By Steve Faulkner. "...the HTML 5.1 specification requires developers to use h1-h6 to convey document structure. The simple reason for this change is that the HTML5 document outline is not implemented..." http://html5doctor.com/computer-says-no-to-html5-document-outline/ Using the HTML lang Attribute By Léonie Watson. "...The HTML lang attribute is used to identify the language of text content on the web. This information helps search engines return language specific results, and it is also used by screen readers that switch language profiles to provide the correct accent and pronunciation..." https://www.paciellogroup.com/blog/2016/06/using-the-html-lang-attribute/ +06: JAVASCRIPT. Video of the Week: Elijah Manor-JavaScript Code Smells By John Allsopp. "Recently, someone who'll remain nameless, but who holds something of an engineering leadership role at a high-profile financial institution in Australia, said to me 'It's not like this is rocket science. It's only JavaScript'..." https://www.webdirections.org/blog/video-week-elijah-manor-javascript-code-smells/ JavaScript Object Creation: Patterns and Best Practices By Jeff Mott. "...In this article, I'm going to take you on a tour of the various styles of object creation and how each builds on the others in incremental steps..." https://www.sitepoint.com/javascript-object-creation-patterns-best-practises/ +07: MISCELLANEOUS. The Web's Creator Looks to Reinvent It By Quentin Hardy. "...Mr. Berners-Lee and Mr. Kahle and others brainstormed at the event, called the Decentralized Web Summit, over new ways that web pages could be distributed broadly without the standard control of a web server computer, as well as ways of storing scientific data without having to pay storage fees to companies like Amazon, Dropbox or Google. Efforts at creating greater amounts of privacy and accountability, by adding more encryption to various parts of the web and archiving all versions of a web page, also came up. Such efforts would make it harder to censor content...'The web is already decentralized,' Mr. Berners-Lee said. 'The problem is the dominance of one search engine, one big social network, one Twitter for microblogging. We don't have a technology problem, we have a social problem'..." http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/08/technology/the-webs-creator-looks-to-reinvent-it.html +08: NAVIGATION. On Link Underlines By Adrian Roselli. "In general, I recommend underlining links in body content. In the absence of a better style appropriate for a specific site, this is the way to go..." http://adrianroselli.com/2016/06/on-link-underlines.html +09: TOOLS. Tool List By Austin Cheney. "All tools are public Github repositories primary written in HTML and/or JavaScript..." https://github.com/prettydiff/a11y-tools +10: USABILITY. Do Icons Need Labels? By Steve McCarthy. "...For the last few years we involved in digital web/app/product development have been heavily focused on adaptive and responsive design, ensuring users have access to content across multiple devices. We now need to take what this design approach has started, and begin applying it to the way users orientate and consume content. The first step is to understand the importance and strength of the Signs we are creating. Only then can we consider optimising and personalising the experience. Only then can we start to remove the labels." https://uxdesign.cc/do-icons-need-labels-6cb4f4282c00#.js1q2rey7 Branding is Bull By Gerry McGovern. "...Branding is bull, and that's a fact. Branding in practice is the manipulation of human emotion, the targeting of human weaknesses, the wrapping of the product in an image that has got nothing to do with the product itself. The gushing, smiling faces of actors pretending to be customers. Branding is the mark of the establishment. The opposite of authenticity..." http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/new-thinking/branding-bull Computer-Assisted Embarrassment By Susan Farrell. "Computer systems shouldn't make us feel bad. But they often do. Contextual usability methods can help discover social defects in user experience." https://www.nngroup.com/articles/embarrassment/ Should You Really Reduce Form Fields? By Shanelle Mullin. "Reducing form fields to increase conversions isn't a myth, but it's also not an absolute truth. Just because it works often, doesn't mean it will work always." http://conversionxl.com/reduce-form-fields/ +11: XML. SVG Masking Examples - Paths, Gradients, And Patterns By Steven Bradley. "...I thought I'd walk you through some different examples today and next week showing some other options for the mask content and the elements being masked. Hopefully it will give you some ideas for how you might use masks in your work..." http://vanseodesign.com/web-design/svg-masking-examples-1/ [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.]