+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE. - Volume 15, Issue 18, October 26, 2016. An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design and development. ++ISSUE 18 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: JAVASCRIPT. 06: MISCELLANEOUS. 07: NAVIGATION. 08: USABILITY. SECTION TWO: 09: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site? [Contents ends.] ++ SECTION ONE: New references. +01: ACCESSIBILITY. Handling Common Accessibility Problems By Chris David Mills. "... we turn our attention to accessibility, providing information on common problems, how to do simple testing, and how to make use of auditing/automation tools for finding accessibility issues..." https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn/Tools_and_testing/Cross_browser_testing/Accessibility Mobile Accessibility Gets a Seat at the Table in Developing Countries By Ken Nakata. "In the United States, it's easy to become focused on the robust web experience—and making that experience as accessible as possible. But in the developing world, mobile accessibility is a much bigger driver and opens opportunities to a far larger number of people..." https://insight.cryptzone.com/accessibility/mobile-accessibility-gets-a-seat-at-the-table-in-developing-countries/ About Audio Description By UC Berkeley. "Audio description (a.k.a. Descriptive Audio or Descriptive Video) is required when important information is visually shown on the screen that cannot be observed by a blind or vision-impaired individual..." https://webaccess.berkeley.edu/resources/tips/audio-description What is "Descriptive Audio"? By UC Berkeley. "...'Descriptive audio' means that your video has additional audio content that describes aspects of the video that are purely visual and not accessible to blind or visually-impaired people..." https://webaccess.berkeley.edu/ask-pecan/descriptive-audio How People with Low Vision Access Computing Devices: Understanding Challenges and Opportunities By Sarit Felicia Anais Szpiro, Shafeka Hashash, Yuhang Zhao, and Shiri Azenkot. "...Our findings reveal the unique needs of low vision people, which differ from those of people with no vision and design opportunities for improving low vision accessibility tools..." http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2982168 4 Reasons Why an Accessible Website is a Win-Win By Joel H Crawford-Smith. "...No matter what your motivation is, everyone benefits from creating accessible websites..." https://opensource.com/life/16/10/why-web-accessibility Miami University Reaches Justice Department Consent Decree to Improve Technology Access for Students with Disabilities By Karen Farkas. "OXFORD, Ohio - Miami University, which settled a lawsuit filed by a blind student, has reached a proposed consent decree with the U.S. Justice Department to resolve allegations that it violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by using inaccessible classroom and other technologies..." http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2016/10/miami_university_reaches_justi.html +02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. What is the Difference Between CSS Variables and Preprocessor Variables? By Chris Coyier. "Variables are one of the major reasons CSS preprocessors exist at all. The ability to set a variable for something like a color, use that variable throughout the CSS you write, and know that it will be consistent, DRY, and easy to change is useful. You can use native CSS variables ("CSS Custom Properties") for the same reasons. But there are also some important differences that should be made clear..." https://css-tricks.com/difference-between-types-of-css-variables/ +03: EVALUATION & TESTING. Can We Use the Same Participant in Usability Tests Multiple Times? (Video) By Kara Pernice. "Kara Pernice answered this frequently-asked question at the UX Conference in Atlanta..." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5dArcUcw40 Field Studies By Susan Farrell. "Field research is conducted in the user's context and location. Learn the unexpected by leaving the office and observing people in their natural environment." https://www.nngroup.com/articles/field-studies/ Design Critiques: Encourage a Positive Culture to Improve Products By Sarah Gibbons. "Open feedback is essential for a collaborative UX process. However, sharing unfinished work is naturally uncomfortable and often generates tension. The right facilitation process can foster an efficient, honest feedback loop." https://www.nngroup.com/articles/design-critiques/ Know What You're Up Against With Competitive Testing By Cindy McCracken. "You can learn a lot from your competition..." http://uxmastery.com/competitive-testing/ +04: EVENTS. Las Vegas UX Conference February 26-March 2, 2017. San Diego, California, U.S.A. https://www.nngroup.com/training/san-diego/ CSUN Annual International Technology and Persons with Disabilities Conference February 27-March 4, 2017. San Diego, California, U.S.A. http://www.csun.edu/cod/conference ConveyUX '17 February 28-March 2, 2017. Seattle, Washington, U.S.A. http://conveyux.com/ Confoo.Ca March 8-10, 2017 Montreal, Canada https://confoo.ca/en/yul2017 +05: JAVASCRIPT. aria-selected - When (Not) to Use It By Stefan Judis. "as James Williamson tweeted today: 'The biggest misconception about accessibility is that by adding it you're doing somebody a favor. You're not, you're doing your job.'..." https://www.stefanjudis.de/aria-selected-and-when-to-use-it.html jQuery Accessible Accordion System, Using ARIA By Nicolas Hoffmann. "... major refactoring, thanks to the fantastic work made by Yvain Liechti..." https://a11y.nicolas-hoffmann.net/accordion/ +06: MISCELLANEOUS. Jakob Nielsen: AI's Impact on New Technologies (Video) By Jakob Nielsen. "Jakob Nielsen answers an audience question about artificial intelligence and its impact on new technologies. (From the UX Conference in New York.)" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNj6NRI_Zfc The Internet Is For Everyone By Nicole Dominguez. "...By design, the web is for everyone; so let's make sure everyone can experience it." https://medium.com/@sodevious/the-internet-is-for-everyone-fca2a8fc8f92 +07: NAVIGATION. Is the Underlined Link Hurting Readability? By Cassandra Naji. "...Don't underline text that isn't a link. Use different colors for visited and unvisited links. Make links accessible by writing semantic HTML. Write specific messages for your links, that indicate where the user will be directed (avoid uninformative phrases such as 'click here'). Keep linked phrases short, 3-5 words..." http://www.uxbooth.com/articles/is-the-underlined-link-hurting-readability/ +08: USABILITY. The UX Challenges in Designing for Millennials (Video) By Kate Meyer. "Kate Meyer, User Experience Specialist at Nielsen Norman Group, explains the UX challenges in designing for young adults, based on our extensive user research with this target audience..." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxSRmFSITKY The Negativity Bias in User Experience By Hoa Loranger. "People remember the bad more than the good. Users' tendency to identify flaws in designs raises the bar for what they consider acceptable." https://www.nngroup.com/articles/negativity-bias-ux/ How to Build Honest UIs and Help Users Make Better Decisions By Graeme Fulton. "...giving users control and staying transparent are key to maintaining trust. What do you think about dark patterns used in anticipatory design..." https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2016/10/how-to-build-honest-uis-and-help-users-make-better-decisions/ Form Field Usability: Should You Use Single or Multi-Column Forms? [Original Research] By Ben Labay. "...If you're using multi-column forms, or thinking of, don't. The more linear the better." http://conversionxl.com/research-study/form-field-usability/ Icons As Part Of A Great User Experience By Nick Babich. "...Icons can save space by reducing text, but at the price of recognition. An icon can represent a thousand different words, and that is exactly the problem..." https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2016/10/icons-as-part-of-a-great-user-experience/ [Section one ends.] ++ SECTION TWO: +09: 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.]