+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE. - Volume 15, Issue 17, October 20, 2016. An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design and development. ++ISSUE 17 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: EVALUATION & TESTING. 05: EVENTS. 06: HTML5. 07: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE. 08: JAVASCRIPT. 09: NAVIGATION. 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. WCAG 2.1 Under Exploration, Comments Requested By 1 November By Michael Cooper. "The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Working Group announces a plan to develop WCAG 2.1, which builds on but does not supersede WCAG 2.0. The group would like input from stakeholders on this plan..." https://www.w3.org/blog/2016/10/wcag-2-1-under-exploration/ 5 Things Users Have Taught Us About Accessibility By Heather Moore. "...We've synthesized our learnings into 5 takeaways for you to consider the next time you undertake an accessibility testing project..." http://usabilitymatters.com/5-things-users-have-taught-us-about-accessibility/ Popup Ads Are Terrible, and They're Even Worse for the Blind By Rose Eveleth. "...This column explores the products, research programs, and conclusions that are made not because any designer or scientist or engineer sets out to discriminate, but because the 'normal' user always looks exactly the same. The result is products and research that are biased by design." https://motherboard.vice.com/read/you-think-popup-ads-are-bad-theyre-even-worse-for-the-blind Accessibility from the Ground Up: Without Glasses, You Couldn't Read This Content By Pamela Hogle. "...This article addresses visual disabilities, which are included in the 'P' of POUR (discussed in 'Accessibility from the Ground Up: Build Captions and Usable Design Into All eLearning')-content that is perceivable to learners' senses..." http://www.learningsolutionsmag.com/articles/2090/accessibility-from-the-ground-up-without-glasses-you-couldnt-read-this-content Changing Section 508 Laws and the Implications to Your E-Learning By Tanya Seidel. "...The technical standards will be updated to reference the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0, level AA...The rule will now directly specify that all types of public-facing content that communicates official federal government agency business will need to be accessible..." https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/changing-section-508-laws-implications-your-tanya-seidel Miami University Agrees to Overhaul Critical Technologies to Settle Disability Discrimination Lawsuit By Department of Justice. "...Miami University will make significant improvements to ensure that technologies across all its campuses are accessible to individuals with disabilities and will pay $25,000 to compensate individuals with disabilities. The agreement also requires reforms to Miami University's technology procurement practices. These improvements will benefit all current and future Miami University students with disabilities..." https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/miami-university-agrees-overhaul-critical-technologies-settle-disability-discrimination Miami University Consent Decree By Department of Justice. "Within six (6) months of the entry of this Consent Decree Miami will: Subject to Paragraph 22, infra, provide in conformance with the World Wide Web Consortium's ("W3C") Web Content Accessibility Guidelines ("WCAG") 2.0 AA all new (i.e., non-existent until on or after entry of this Consent Decree) and redeveloped (i.e., existing before entry of this Consent Decree but substantially changed in terms of functionality or structure) web pages, web applications, and web content, created by Miami, on websites and subdomains used for Miami's academic divisions, academic departments, and administrative offices (listed at Exhibit A)..." https://www.ada.gov/miami_university_cd.html ADA Lawsuit Settlement Compels Miami University to Make Digital Content Accessible By Emily Griffin. "...The decree demands that the university take aggressive steps to remediate their digital content to make it accessible to people with disabilities." http://www.3playmedia.com/2016/10/17/ada-lawsuit-settlement-compels-miami-univ ADA Compliance and Defense Lawyer: ADA Website Accessibility Lawsuits Escalate By Jim Butler. "Marty Orlick talks about a recent wave of website accessibility clams plaguing owners of commercial real estate. Be smart. Understand the problem and fix it now. This issue is not going to go away..." http://www.hotelnewsresource.mobi/?p=91579 ICT Refresh Finally Becoming Reality By Rosemary Musachio. "Since many U.S. companies want their products to comply both with Section 508 and Worldwide Web Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG 2.0), the ICT Refresh is comparable, or harmonizes, with the success criteria of WCAG 2.0..." http://connections.accessibilityassociation.org/blogs/rosemary-musachio/2016/10/18/ict-refresh-finally-becoming-reality +02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. Beware Smushed Off-Screen Accessible Text By J. Renee Beach. "My colleague, Matt King, encounters a lot of friction when using web UIs. Matt uses a screen reader to access the web..." https://medium.com/@jessebeach/beware-smushed-off-screen-accessible-text-5952a4c2cbfe CSS Hide-and-Seek By Gael Poupard. "Or how to visually hide some text while keeping it accessible..." http://hugogiraudel.com/2016/10/13/css-hide-and-seek/ Revolutionize Your Page: Real Art Direction on the Web By Jen Simmons. "We finally have the tools necessary to create amazing page designs on the web. Now we can art direct our layouts, leveraging the power and tradition of graphic design. In this eye-opening talk, Jen will explore concrete examples of an incredible range of new possibilities..." http://jensimmons.com/presentation/revolutionize-your-page-real-art-direction-web +03: COLOR. How the Web Became Unreadable By Kevin Marks. "I thought my eyesight was beginning to go. It turns out, I'm suffering from design....It wasn't hard to isolate the biggest obstacle to legible text: contrast, the difference between the foreground and background colors on a page..." https://backchannel.com/how-the-web-became-unreadable-a781ddc711b6 +04: EVALUATION & TESTING. 10 Things to Know about a Key Driver Analysis By Jeff Sauro. "A key driver analysis (KDA) allows you to identify what features or aspects have the biggest impact on an outcome variable such as likelihood to recommend, brand attitudes, and UX quality. It's one of the more powerful techniques we use to help prioritize findings in surveys. Here are 10 things to know about this powerful technique..." http://www.measuringu.com/blog/key-drivers.php +05: EVENTS. Public Procurement of Accessible ICT Products and Services Starts November 6, 2016. https://academy.itu.int/index.php?option=com_joomdle&view=coursescatalogdomain&layout=default1&lang=en&Itemid=478&key=public+procurement An Event Apart January 30-February 1, 2017. St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.A. https://aneventapart.com/event/st-louis-2017 UX + DEV Summit February 1-3, 2017. Fort Lauderdale, Florida, U.S.A. http://uxdsummit.com/ SustainableUX February 16, 2017. Online http://sustainableux.com/ World IA Day February 18, 2017. Everywhere. http://worldiaday.org/ +06: HTML5. The State of HTML5 Input Elements By Tim Severien. "Recently I was working on a project where we required date and numeric fields. Being a purist, my preference is and always will be native elements over some bloated JavaScript library..." https://www.sitepoint.com/the-state-of-html5-input-elements/ HTML5 Accessibility Chops: hidden and aria-hidden By Steve Faulkner. "Latest Update: The state of hidden content support in 2016..." https://www.paciellogroup.com/blog/2012/05/html5-accessibility-chops-hidden-and-aria-hidden/ +07: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE. Wireframing for Beginners By Leon Barnard. "Wireframing is an essential skill for UX Designers and other experience design participants..." http://uxmastery.com/wireframing-for-beginners/ +08: JAVASCRIPT. aria-valuenow Property By Rakesh Paladugula. "aria-valuenow property is used while developing range widgets..." http://www.maxability.co.in/2016/10/aria-valuenow-property/ You Might Need JavaScript By Hugo Giraudel. "The problem with blindly banishing JavaScript from interactive components is that it often means making them inaccessible. It is a popular belief to think that JavaScript is an enemy of accessibility; that's a fallacy..." http://hugogiraudel.com/2016/10/13/you-might-need-javascript/ We Need JavaScript to Fix the Web By Christian Heilmann. "TL;DR: JavaScript is too great an opportunity to build accessible, easy-to-use and flexible solutions for the web to not use it..." https://medium.com/@codepo8/we-need-javascript-to-fix-the-web-a01bca57ff97 Is it Accessible? By Scott O'Hara. "...Steve Faulkner may have said it best: 'Reliance on JavaScript is not an #a11y issue. Reliance on crap JavaScript may be'." http://www.scottohara.me/article/is-it-accessible.html JavaScript and Accessibility By Unfettered Thoughts. "...Everything has it's place. Maybe I am just lazy, but I would rather take what the platform gives me and then enhance for functionality, compatibility, or accessibility..." https://unfetteredthoughts.net/2016/10/17/javascript-and-accessibility/ Progressive Enhancement Isn't Dead, But it Smells Funny By Nolan Lawson. "Progressive enhancement is a touchy subject. It can be hard to discuss dispassionately because, like accessibility, it's often framed as an issue of empathy and compassion..." https://nolanlawson.com/2016/10/13/progressive-enhancement-isnt-dead-but-it-smells-funny/ Progressive Misconceptions By Aaron Gustafson. "Last week, my colleague, Nolan Lawson, wrote a lengthy post about his struggles with progressive enhancement..." https://www.aaron-gustafson.com/notebook/progressive-misconceptions/ Web Development Has Two Flavors of Graceful Degradation By Laurie Voss. "Nolan Lawson has written a great piece about progressive enhancement that brings up some fascinating points..." http://seldo.com/weblog/2016/10/14/web_development_has_two_flavors_of_graceful_degradation Choice By Jeremy Keith. "...We've made the mistake in the past of framing problems as 'either/or', when in fact, the correct solution was 'both!'... We don't have to choose. It might take more work, but we can have our web cake and eat it. The false dichotomy that I'm most concerned about is the pernicious idea that offline functionality is somehow in opposition to progressive enhancement. Given the design of service workers, I find this proposition baffling..." https://adactio.com/journal/11354 JavaScript for Web Designers: DOM Scripting By Mat Marquis. "We're pleased to share Chapter 5 of Mat Marquis' new book, JavaScript for Web Designers, available now from A Book Apart..." http://alistapart.com/article/javascript-for-web-designers +09: NAVIGATION. Journey Mapping in Real Life: a Survey of UX Practioners By Kate Williamson. "Successful journey maps need to be focused on a clear business goal, well communicated in the organization, and truthful to user needs." https://www.nngroup.com/articles/journey-mapping-ux-practitioners/ +10: USABILITY. Consistency in the Omnichannel Experience By Kim Flaherty. "A consistent user experience, regardless of platform, is one of the 5 key components of a successful omnichannel user experience. Consistency across channels builds trust with customers." https://www.nngroup.com/articles/omnichannel-consistency/ Why Formatted Data Fields Always Need Input Masks By UX Movement. "In the world of forms, there are two types of data input found on text fields..." http://uxmovement.com/forms/why-formatted-data-fields-always-need-input-masks/ +11: XML. SVG and Media Queries By Jake Archibald. "One of the great things about SVG is you can use media queries to add responsiveness to images..." https://jakearchibald.com/2016/svg-media-queries/ SVG Filter Effects-3 Simple Filter Primitives By Steven Bradley. "...Today I want to cover two primitives I've shown you already, feGaussianBur and feOffset, but in more detail than I've offered to this point..." http://vanseodesign.com/web-design/simple-filter-primitives/ [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.]