+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE. - Volume 17, Issue 11, September 5, 2018. An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design and development. ++ISSUE 11 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: HTML. 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. Accessibility is Not a Feature. By Ethan Marcotte. "I care pretty deeply about accessible design. I wouldn't call myself an accessibility specialist, mind you, but I've always felt that 'designing for the web' means ensuring our work is accessible as broadly as possible. Not just accessible to differently-sized screens, but for people who might not browse the web like I do…" https://ethanmarcotte.com/wrote/accessibility-is-not-a-feature/ Survey of Users with Low Vision #2 By Jared Smith. "This survey for people with low vision will provide insight and data to better support accessibility best practices. Please share with potential respondents…" https://webaim.org/projects/lowvisionsurvey2/ Exploring WCAG 2.1 - 1.3.5 Identify Input Purpose By Becky Gibson. "Our series on the new WCAG 2.1 Success Criteria continues with the new success criteria focused on cognitive accessibility. This post will review 1.3.5 Identify Input Purpose. It falls under guideline 1.3, Adaptable…" https://knowbility.org/blog/2018/WCAG21-135InputPurpose/ WCAG 2.0: The International Standard for Web Accessibility and Inclusive Design By Sofia Enamorado. "Aside from state and federal web accessibility laws, the most widely adopted and comprehensive technical standards have emerged not from a law, but from the W3C's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)…" https://www.3playmedia.com/2018/08/31/wcag-2-0-the-international-standard-for-web-accessibility-and-inclusive-design/ WCAG 2.1: What's up with Accessibility Guidelines By Sathish Kumar. "The fifth of June 2018 saw a lot of buzz in the world of digital accessibility, social media and in blogs. What was this all about?…" https://www.digitala11y.com/wcag-2-1-whats-up-with-accessibility-guidelines/ Project Silver - what it means for accessibility and how you can help make the web more inclusive By Ability Net. "It's just a few months since the Web Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG) were publicly released by the World Wide Web Consortium (WC3). But, work has already started on the guidelines' successor, currently known as Project Silver." https://www.abilitynet.org.uk/news-blogs/project-silver-accessibility-make-web-inclusive Lawsuit Claims Apple's Website is Inaccessible for Visually Impaired Users By Tristan Parker. "A lawsuit has been filed against electronics giant Apple in the United States, over claims that its website violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and is not fully accessible to people who are blind or visually impaired…" http://www.headstar.com/eablive/?p=1696 Blind Woman Sues Brooklyn Brewery Over 'Inaccessible' Website By Colin Mixson. "A blind woman hauled the owners of Brooklyn Brewery to civil court on federal discrimination charges for allegedly failing to provide a handicapped-accessible website, her lawyer said…" https://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/41/35/dtg-brooklyn-brewery-sued-2018-08-31-bk.html +02: BOOKS. Pickering, Heydon. Inclusive Components: The Book, 2018. http://book.inclusive-components.design/ +02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. Take A New Look At CSS Shapes By Rachel Andrew. "In this article, we take a look at CSS Shapes and how to create non-rectangular shapes using images, gradients, and basic shapes. We also discover how the new tools in Firefox make editing shapes easier…" https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2018/09/css-shapes/ Super-Powered Grid Components with CSS Custom Properties By Michelle Barker. "…Grid is neither a substitute for flexbox nor vice versa. In fact, using a combination of the two gives us even more power when building components…" https://css-tricks.com/super-power-grid-components-with-css-custom-properties/ +03: COLOR. Understanding WCAG 2 Contrast and Color Requirements By WebAIM. "Contrast and color use are vital to accessibility. Users, including users with visual disabilities, must be able to perceive content on the page. There is a great deal of fine print and complexity within the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2 that can easily confuse web content creators and web accessibility evaluators. This article pulls together the terms and principles needed to understand WCAG 2 requirements for contrast and color…" https://webaim.org/articles/contrast/ +04: EVALUATION & TESTING. Using the Cognitive Interview to Improve Your Survey Questions By David Travis. "In an ideal survey, each respondent interprets the question in the way we intended But in reality, survey questions are misunderstood…" https://www.userfocus.co.uk/articles/cognitive-interviewing-for-surveys.html User Research or User Experience Research? By David Farkas and Brad Nunnally. "It's hard to conduct user research if you don't have anyone to research. Recruitment lets you find people that have the information you seek to learn. Recruitment is risky since the effort hinges on getting the right people in the room. There are a number of factors at play, and various methods a team can use to find the right kind of participants. Before worrying about the risks and before scheduling participants, you first must document whom you want to recruit…" https://www.oreilly.com/ideas/how-to-recruit-for-user-research Quantitative UX Research in Practice By Kate Moran. "Across 429 UX professionals, 71% of teams report performing some kind of quant UX research at least sometimes, and almost everyone reported struggling with challenges to get quant research done." https://www.nngroup.com/articles/quant-research-practice/ 4 Classes of Survey Questions By Jeff Sauro. "…While rating scales are an important part of a survey, they aren't the only part. Another key ingredient to a successful survey is knowing which type of question to use…" https://measuringu.com/survey-question-classes/ +05: EVENTS. Writing for Inclusivity: A Co-Meetup with Write The Docs PDX September 11, 2018. Portland Oregon, U.S.A. https://www.meetup.com/Portland-Accessibility-and-User-Experience-Meetup/events/254008027/ 2018 Digital Accessibility Trends Update September 13, 2018. Online https://www.levelaccess.com/resources/2018-digital-accessibility-trends-mid-year-update/ Paris Web October 4-6, 2018. Paris, France https://www.paris-web.fr/ EDUCAUSE Annual Conference October 30-November 2, 2018. Denver, Colorado, U.S.A. https://events.educause.edu/annual-conference ThunderPlains Developer Conference November 1, 2018. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, U.S.A. https://2018.thunderplainsconf.com/ Web Directions Summit November 1-2, 2018. Sydney, Australia http://webdirections.org/wds/ CanUX November 1-4, 2018. Ottawa, Canada http://canux.io/ +06: HTML. Conversational Semantics By Aaron Gustafson. "Semantic markup has always mattered, but with voice interfaces rapidly becoming the norm, it now matters more than ever. Aaron Gustafson shows us how simple HTML tags can have a huge impact with voice interfaces…" https://alistapart.com/article/conversational-semantics Heading Structures are Tables of Contents By Hidde de Vries. "The heading structure of a web page is like its table of contents. It gives people who can't see your page a way to navigate it without reading everything…" https://hiddedevries.nl/en/blog/2018-09-01-heading-structures-are-tables-of-contents The Details and Summary Elements By Scott O'Hara. "The details and summary elements are two of HTML's interactive elements and together are the elements that create a native disclosure widget…" https://www.scottohara.me/blog/2018/09/03/details-and-summary.html +07: NAVIGATION. Don't Use 'Click Here' By Mark Caron. I'm not the only one to write about this. In fact, you can easily search 'should I use click here for links' in Google and pretty much find all the information you need to convince yourself it's a bad practice. https://medium.com/@heyoka/dont-use-click-here-f32f445d1021 +08: USABILITY. Best Practices For Mobile Form Design By Nick Babich. "Users can be hesitant to fill out forms. That is why it is our goal as designers to make the process of filling out a form as easy as possible. Nick shares some techniques that can help you design effective forms…" https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2018/08/best-practices-for-mobile-form-design/ Form Usability: Getting 'Address Line 2' Right By Edward Scott. "While there's nothing wrong with including 'Address Line 2' in the address form, our large-scale Cart & Checkout testing reveals that the 'Address Line 2' form field can be a surprisingly difficult hurdle for some users to overcome when filling out their address information." https://baymard.com/blog/address-line-2 Peak-End Rule: Use to Your Advantage (Video) By Alita Joyce. "Users largely judge their experience with your product or service on two data points: the peak and the end." https://www.nngroup.com/videos/peak-end-rule/ Mobile Login Methods Help Chinese Users Avoid Password Roadblocks by Xinyi Chen and Yuxuan (Tammy) Zhou. "In China, QR-code scanning and verification codes are popular mobile-login alternatives that circumvent the problem of remembering and typing passwords." https://www.nngroup.com/articles/mobile-login-china/ [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.]