+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE. - Volume 17, Issue 12, September 14, 2018. An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design and development. ++ISSUE 12 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: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE. 08: JAVASCRIPT. 09: USABILITY. SECTION TWO: 10: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site? [Contents ends.] ++ SECTION ONE: New references. +01: ACCESSIBILITY. Web Accessibility: How Can You Get Started? (Video) By Deborah Edwards-Onoro. "Web accessibility. Lots of people are talking about it. But what is it? And how do you get started?…" https://www.lireo.com/web-accessibility-how-can-you-get-started-video/ Audio Descriptions - At a Glance (Video) By Microsoft. "This video is an introduction to audio descriptions and explains what they are, why they matter to people who are blind, and what are some best practices for including them in videos." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y89reMUP1Jk Describing aria-describedby By Scott O'Hara. "A well-designed user interface (UI) should clearly identify important content and controls. Often people correlate this to using prominent visual cues to help guide individuals through a task or point them to necessary information. However, what may be visually apparent to some could be misunderstood or completely passed over by others…" https://developer.paciellogroup.com/blog/2018/09/describing-aria-describedby/ WCAG 2.1 Adoption in Europe By Shadi Abou-Zahra. "Last week the three official European Standards Organizations (ESOs), CEN, CENELEC, and ETSI, published an updated version of EN 301 549 'Accessibility requirements for ICT products and services'. The most significant change in this version is adoption of the W3C 'Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1″ for web content, electronic documents, and non-web software, such as native mobile applications…" https://www.w3.org/blog/2018/09/wcag-2-1-adoption-in-europe/ Mobile Accessibility at W3C By Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). "Mobile accessibility is covered in existing W3C WAI accessibility standards/guidelines. There are not separate guidelines for mobile accessibility…" https://www.w3.org/WAI/standards-guidelines/mobile/ PDF Validator-The Free Tool You Need to Start Using Today By David Herr. "…CommonLook's free PDF Validator is the most functionally rich PDF testing tool available. It's the perfect tool for testing and validating documents against the leading accessibility standards…" https://www.digitala11y.com/pdf-validator-the-free-tool-you-need-to-start-using-today/ We Build Stores With Disabilities In Mind. Why Not Websites? By Ben Crudo. "Users with hearing impairment, vision loss and dyslexia deserve the same access as everyone else…" https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/ben-crudo/website-design-for-disabilities_a_23518259/ WCAG 1.0 to be Marked Superseded By Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). "Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 1.0 is the first version of the guidelines finalized in 1999. We plan to mark WCAG 1.0 'superseded' by the end of this year…" https://www.w3.org/WAI/news/2018-08-30/WCAG-10-Superseded/ Lawsuit Says Purple's Website Discriminates to Visually Impaired By Noddy A. Fernandez. "Purple Innovation is accused of violating the Americans with Disabilities Act for allegedly failing to have a website that can be accessed by visually impaired users…" https://pennrecord.com/stories/511512393-lawsuit-says-purple-s-website-discriminates-to-visually-impaired Senators Write DOJ Sharing CUNA Concerns Over ADA, Websites By CUNA. "Six Senators wrote to Attorney General Jeff Sessions Wednesday with concerns shared by CUNA over how the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) applies to websites…" http://news.cuna.org/articles/114799-senators-write-doj-sharing-cuna-concerns-over-ada-websites +02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. Customise Radio Buttons Without Compromising Accessibility By Chen Hui Jing. "…we're going to cover the different methods of hiding input elements, their effects on accessibility and how to ensure they remain navigable via keyboard after being styled. There will also be a small bonus section on layout, because after making our radio buttons pretty, we want them to go into the right place…" https://www.chenhuijing.com/blog/customise-radios-without-compromising-accessibility/ Changes on CSS Grid Layout in Percentages and Indefinite Height By Manuel Rego Casasnovas. "A s̶h̶o̶r̶t̶ long story on how percentage work on CSS in general and in CSS Grid Layout row tracks and gutters particularly…" https://blogs.igalia.com/mrego/2018/08/10/changes-on-css-grid-layout-in-percentages-and-indefinite-height/ CSS Architecture: Block-Element-Modifier (BEM) and Atomic CSS By Tiffany Brown. "In this article, we'll look at two methodologies for naming things in CSS. Both methods were created to improve the development process for large sites and large teams; however, they work just as well for teams of one. Whether you choose one or the other, neither, or a mix of both is up to you. The point of introducing them is to help you to think through approaches for writing your own CSS. Block-Element-Modifier (BEM)…" https://www.sitepoint.com/css-architecture-block-element-modifier-bem-atomic-css/ +03: COLOR. Understanding SC 1.4.1 Use of Color By Raghavendra Satish Peri. "This success criterion requires that color should not be the sole method of conveying information to the users…" https://www.digitala11y.com/understanding-sc-1-4-1-use-of-color/ Designing UI with Color Blind Users in Mind Rich Staats By Rich Staats. "…in this article, we'll share some tips on how you can improve your site's accessibility and the experience it delivers for color blind people…" https://www.secretstache.com/blog/designing-for-color-blind-users/ +04: EVALUATION & TESTING. The Importance Of Manual Accessibility Testing By Eric Bailey. "Automated accessibility tests are a great resource to have, but they can't automatically make your site accessible. Use them as one step of a larger testing process…" https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2018/09/importance-manual-accessibility-testing/ UX Copywriting: 3 Copy Testing Methods That Beat A/B Testing + QUIZ By Tímea Falmann. "UX copywriting and user testing? It might sound like a new match in the UX design world. But you don't have to start from scratch when it comes to testing content and microcopy. We, at UX studio, collected three methods that provide more insights than general AB testing. We also gathered some tips from around the web to help you implement testing UX copy into your user experience research processes like a pro…" https://uxstudioteam.com/ux-blog/ux-copywriting/ When It Comes To Personas, The Real Value Is In The Scenarios By Jared M. Spool. "…Too many times, what the team required for their personas was far less than what they created. Had they put the resources into creating great scenarios, the effort would have played a bigger role in a better-designed product…" https://articles.uie.com/when-it-comes-to-personas-the-real-value-is-in-the-scenarios/ How Harmful Is the Net Promoter Score? By Jeff Sauro. "The Net Promoter Score (NPS) is widely used. But it's not necessarily widely loved…" https://measuringu.com/nps-harmful/ +05: EVENTS. #UDLHE Inaugural Chat September 20, 2018. Online. https://www.smore.com/vw7zk-udlhe-higher-ed-inaugural-chat WCAG 2.1 Jumpstart September 20, October 16, and December 4, 2018. Online https://www.eventbrite.com/e/web-content-accessibility-guidelines-wcag-21-jump-start-webinar-tickets-49561539900 DrupalCorn Camp September 27-30, 2018. Des Moines, Iowa, U.S.A. https://2018.drupalcorn.org/ UX Conference New York City October 20-26, 2018. New York, New York, U.S.A. https://www.nngroup.com/training/new-york-city/ W3C Developer Meetup October 22, 2018. Lyon, France. https://www.w3.org/2018/10/Meetup/ SmashingConf New York October 23-24, 2018. New York, New York, U.S.A. https://smashingconf.com/ny-2018 Disability Rights Advocates 25th Anniversary Gala October 25, 2018. San Francisco, California, U.S.A. https://dralegal.org/dras-25th-anniversary-gala/ Boston Accessibility October 27, 2018. Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A. http://a11y-bos.org/about-a11ybos-2018/ UX Conference London November 3-9, 2018. London, England, United Kingdom https://www.nngroup.com/training/london/ +06: HTML. Chrome's NOSCRIPT Intervention By Tim Kadlec. "Long story short, the NOSCRIPT intervention looks like a really great feature for users. More often than not it provides significant reduction in data usage, not to mention the reduction in CPU time-no small thing for the many, many people running affordable, low-powered devices." https://timkadlec.com/remembers/2018-09-06-chromes-noscript-intervention/ Google AMP Can Go To Hell By Polemic. "Google wants websites to adopt AMP as the default approach to building webpages. Tell them no…" https://www.polemicdigital.com/google-amp-go-to-hell/ +07: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE. Open vs. Closed Card Sorting (Video) By Kathryn Whitenton. "There are two types of card sorting, which measure different aspects of users' mental models for information architecture." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tNPT6X9Lhc +08: JAVASCRIPT. The 'Developer Experience' Bait-and-Switch By Alex Russell. "we cannot continue to use as much JavaScript as is now 'normal' and expect the web to flourish. At the same time, most developers experience no constraint on their use of JS…until it's too late. 'JS neutral' and 'TTI negative' tools are here, but we're stuck in a rhetorical rut. We need to reset our conversation about 'developer experience' to factor in the asymmetric cost of JS…" https://infrequently.org/2018/09/the-developer-experience-bait-and-switch/ aria-rowcount (property) By Rakesh Paladugula. "…Developers must set the value of aria-rowcount to an integer equal to the number of rows in the full table. In case the total number of rows is unknown, authors must set the value of aria-rowcount to -1 to indicate that the value should not be calculated by the user agent…" http://www.maxability.co.in/2018/09/aria-rowcount-property/ +09: USABILITY. Signal-to-Noise Ratio By Xinyi Chen. "Relevant information is 'signal,' while irrelevant information is 'noise'. A high signal-to-noise ratio is a key outcome for any UX professional's work, in terms of both content and page design." https://www.nngroup.com/articles/signal-noise-ratio/ Decorative Images: Delightful or Dreadful? (Video) By Katie Sherwin. "Images are content, and different types of images serve different purposes. Decorative images have a role in establishing tone and emotional appeal, but they must not interfere with a user's ability to accomplish a task…" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3m9kpK0rok Robustness and Least Power By Jeremy Keith. "…Even though the robustness principle was formulated for packet-switching, I see it at work in all sorts of disciplines, including design…" https://adactio.com/journal/14327 Disruptive Interfaces & The Emerging Battle To Be The Default By Scott Belsky. "A new battle is brewing to be the default of every choice we make…" https://medium.com/positiveslope/disruptive-interfaces-the-emerging-battle-to-be-the-default-23a6485a6f29 [Section one ends.] ++ SECTION TWO: +10: 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.]