+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE. - Volume 19, Issue 06, August 5, 2020. An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design and development. ++ISSUE 06 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: JAVASCRIPT. 08: MISCELLANEOUS. 09: NAVIGATION. 10: TYPOGRAPHY. 11: USABILITY. 12: XML. SECTION TWO: 13: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site? [Contents ends.] ++ SECTION ONE: New references. +01: ACCESSIBILITY. W3C Publishes Cognitive Accessibility Task Force Publication By John Eric Brandt. "Perhaps the most difficult challenge in digital accessibility is making content and applications accessible for people with cognitive disabilities…" https://jebswebs.net/blog/2020/08/w3c-publishes-cognitive-accessibility-task-force-publication/ Why Sound Matters in Captioning Videos By Meryl K. Evans. "I've been captivated by 'Mystic Pop-up Bar,' a Korean series on Netflix. However, this is a subtitled series, not a captioned one. What that means is the sounds of phones ringing and when they speak English aren't captioned. And sound effects play a big role in the series…" https://www.linkedin.com/posts/meryl_video-captioned-merylvideo-activity-6691396322848755713-BjLF/ YouTube Axes Community Captions Feature, Citing Low Usage By Liam O'Dell. "The tool, which enables viewers to contribute subtitles to a channel's videos, will be retired in two months' time…" https://liamodell.com/2020/07/30/youtube-axes-community-captions-feature-citing-low-usage-rikki-poynter-creator-insider-deaf-accessibility-pewdiepie-jacksepticeye-no-more-craptions/ Write Good Alt Text to Describe Images By Harvard University. "Alternative (Alt) Text is meant to convey the 'why' of the image as it relates to the content of a document or webpage…" https://accessibility.huit.harvard.edu/describe-content-images Annual OCR Report, Touting Dedication to Website Accessibility, Delivered with Major Accessibility Flaws By Jack. "…It's an unfortunate fact that this report can't be confidently or independently used by many members of the public or students with disabilities; however, there are key lessons to take away for others interested in delivering accessible PDF documents…" https://www.boia.org/blog/annual-ocr-report-touting-website-accessibility-delivered-with-major-accessibility-barriers Using Chrome to Generate More Accessible PDFs By Dominic Mazzoni. "Starting in Chrome 85 (scheduled to go to stable in late August), Chrome will automatically generate a tagged PDF when you print a web page and choose the "Save as PDF" destination…" https://blog.chromium.org/2020/07/using-chrome-to-generate-more.html PDF Accessibility Tools & Resources Roundup By Raghavendra Satish Peri. "Some resources to help you get started with PDF Accessibility. Please use the comments to alert us to any resources that need adding to the list…" https://www.digitala11y.com/pdf-accessibility-tools-resources-roundup/ Angela Hooker: Make Sure Your Work is Accessible (Video) By Microsoft. "Creating accessible content from the start saves time, money, and reaches the largest audience possible." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nElxOBiUpck Three Starting Points for Making Accessible Digital Content By Ashlee M Boyer. "…I hope you find this short list useful to help your first dive into making accessible digital content…" https://ashleemboyer.com/three-starting-points-for-making-accessible-digital-content Making Facebook.com Accessible to as Many People as Possible By Tatiana Iskandar, Dominic Gannaway, Ankit Sardesai, Jonathan Yung. "We recently shared the work we did to rebuild our tech stack to support the redesigned Facebook.com…" https://engineering.fb.com/web/facebook-com-accessibility/ Inclusive Design 24 Returns September 17, 2020. By Deborah Edwards-Onoro. "Winning strategies for digital inclusion, testing mobile sites and native apps for accessibility, and designing digital assistants for those who need it most are among the the topics for this year’s Inclusive Design 24 conference…" https://www.lireo.com/inclusive-design-24-september-17-2020/ +02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. On the Origin of Cascades (Video) By Hidde de Vries. "A presentation at CSS Café…" https://talks.hiddedevries.nl/2gDDUr/on-the-origin-of-cascades 10 Modern Layouts in 1 Line of CSS (Video) By Una Kravets. "In this dynamic talk, Una goes over the power of modern CSS layout techniques by highlighting a few key terms and how much detail can be described in a single line of code…" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qm0IfG1GyZU What Does 100% Mean in CSS? By Amelia Wattenberger. "One of the CSS units I use most is the wonderful % — so handy for positioning elements on the page. Unfortunately, the rules aren't exactly straightforward…" https://wattenberger.com/blog/css-percents Introspecting CSS via the CSS OM: Getting supported properties, shorthands, longhands By Lea Verou. "For some of the statistics we are going to study for this year's Web Almanac we may end up needing a list of CSS shorthands and their longhands…" https://lea.verou.me/2020/07/introspecting-css-via-the-css-om-getting-supported-properties-shorthands-longhands/ The Cicada Principle, Revisited with CSS Variables By Lea Verou. "Many of today's web crafters were not writing CSS at the time Alex Walker's landmark article The Cicada Principle and Why it Matters to Web Designers was published in 2011…" https://lea.verou.me/2020/07/the-cicada-principle-revisited-with-css-variables/ +03: COLOR. Pale Text on a Light Background By Neil Milliken. "Pale text on a light background is minimalist in only one way - it minimises the number of people that can use your website or app…" https://twitter.com/NeilMilliken/status/1290995793743286274 +04: EVALUATION & TESTING. UX Series: Digital Accessibility and the UX Testing Process By David Sloan. "When we design with users in mind, we should evaluate our designs from the user perspective at the earliest possible opportunity…" https://www.paciellogroup.com/ux-series-digital-accessibility-and-the-ux-testing-process/ Understanding Users by Going Beyond Personas, Demographics, and Affinity Groups By Kate Matesic. "Getting through the user research phase of a design project can seem daunting, but in reality it's just the beginning…" https://uxmag.com/articles/understanding-users-by-going-beyond-personas-demographics-and-affinity-groups Remote Research During the COVID-19 Crisis By Jeff Lindsay. "…Testing remotely has unique challenges but also has unique advantages…" https://www.uxbooth.com/articles/remote-research-during-the-covid-19-crisis/ What is the Mean Opinion Scale (MOS)? By Jim Lewis and Jeff Sauro. "…In this article, the first of a two-part series, we provide more detail about the MOS transitioning from a version with some psychometric weaknesses into a psychometrically stronger questionnaire…" https://measuringu.com/evolution-of-mos-part1/ Are Within-Subjects Designs Invalid? By Jim Lewis and Jeff Sauro. "A key decision in the design of UX studies that involve more than two interfaces is whether participants will experience just one interface (between-subjects experimental design) or all interfaces (within-subjects experimental design)…" https://measuringu.com/are-within-subjects-studies-invalid/ User Fountain's 2020 Usability-Testing Industry Report By Lydia Wright. "…The majority of respondents were working in a UX role (58%), but other roles included digital, conversion optimization, user research, design, product, sales, and insights…" https://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2020/08/user-fountains-2020-usability-testing-industry-report.php +05: EVENTS. Accessibility & Inclusive Design Q&A with Derek Featherstone August 6, 2020. Omline. https://levelaccess.zoom.us/webinar/register/4915954452977/WN_OZppBGSiTqigXyRB2MIoJg A11y Talks (August 2020): If It's Interactive, It Needs a Focus Style August 11, 2020. Omline. https://groups.drupal.org/node/536051 Inclusive Research: Applying UX and qualitative research methods to meet the needs of individuals with limited health literacy skills August 12, 2020. Online https://uxpa.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_l3bob5QVQvaJqDm1-obmkA Panel Discussion on Accessible Education August 13, 2020. Online https://zoom.us/webinar/register/2515959508109/WN_KnKVDH62QAmjhXQGURQSAA Accessible PowerPoint August 13, 2020. Online https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJEldOitqjooHNw2Sx9QBKpKLVPyfQKMzFAJ The Future of WCAG: Introduction to WCAG 3.0 August 25, 2020. Online https://www.levelaccess.com/the-future-of-wcag-introduction-to-wcag-3-0/ Global Inclusion Online Forum September 3-10, 2020. Online https://inclusionforum.global/ Smashing Freiburg Conference September 7-8, 2020. Online https://smashingconf.com/freiburg-2020/ Accessible InDesign September 24, 2020. Online https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJcof-ugpj8sHtUXNYQRTRhAzDxKUY9xfWx_ +06: HTML. Hello HTML Accessibility By Steve Faulkner. "The articles here will be about platform/browser/AT accessibility…" https://html5accessibility.com/stuff/2020/08/03/hello-html-accessibility/ HTML: How to Make Loveliness (Video) By Bruce Lawson. Bruce's GOTO Chicago 2020 presentation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L83LVfhTbzg #21 Legendary legend! By Nicolas Steenhout. "Context: A button that expands and collapses a section of text…" https://www.htmhell.dev/21-legendary-legend/ SVG Title vs. HTML Title Attribute By Chris Coyier. "You know the title attribute?…" https://css-tricks.com/svg-title-vs-html-title-attribute/ Quick Tip: Caution with the Title Attribute By WebAIM. "…There are almost no appropriate uses for the title attribute in HTML. On one hand, it must not be used to present important information because it is totally hidden from keyboard and touchscreen users. On the other hand, it should not be used to present unimportant information because it is usually read by a screen reader, often resulting in repetition if it's identical to the element's text, label, or alternative text…" https://webaim.org/newsletter/2020/july +07: JAVASCRIPT. The Amazing Power of Service Workers By Chris Ferndinandi. "Today, I want to talk about service workers: what they are, and when and why you'd use them…" https://gomakethings.com/the-amazing-power-of-service-workers/ What the Heck is this in JavaScript? By Chris Ferndinandi. "Of all the concepts in JavaScript, wrapping your head around the this keyword is one of the most confusing…" https://gomakethings.com/what-the-heck-is-this-in-javascript/ Overview of Accessible JavaScript By WebAIM. Recently updated. https://webaim.org/techniques/javascript/ +08: MISCELLANEOUS. Tom Harkin: Accept Each Person as a Human First (Video) By Microsoft. "Former US Senator and sponsor of the Americans with Disabilities Act on treating everyone with humanity." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peZMn5QaSGs On Equal Terms: Lucy Greco, Web Accessibility Evangelist By UC Berkeley. "The first woman to be honored is Lucy Greco, UC Berkeley's web accessibility evangelist…" https://news.berkeley.edu/2020/07/30/on-equal-terms-lucy-greco-web-accessibility-evangelist/ Web History, Chapter 1: Birth By Jay Hoffman. "Tim Berners-Lee is fascinated with information…" https://css-tricks.com/chapter-1-birth/ Why Medium is Not the Home for Your Ideas By Rahul Chowdhury. "Building a blog for the long run? Avoid Medium. This is why…Until you host your content on your platform, you will always live at the mercy of the company hosting the platform…" https://hulry.com/medium-vs-own-blog/ +09: NAVIGATION. A Skip Link on Squarespace and a Little About z-index (Part Two of Two) By Derek Jackson. "Although the skip link I developed in part one worked, it was not a perfect solution. In this post I will discuss some potential drawbacks of my Squarespace skip link…" https://knowbility.org/blog/2020/squarespace-skip-link-2/ +10: TYPOGRAPHY. Rethinking Accessible Drop Caps By Justin Gagne. "…What started as a work-related step later turned into an after-hours detour. I became distracted by the markup of accessible drop caps. Thinking back to the Sliding Doors of CSS days à la A List Apart, I wanted a more artful solution. Something with all the semantic brevity of HTML and visual magic of CSS. And a more accessible separation of content from structure…" https://justingagne.design/words/rethinking-accessible-drop-caps/ +11: USABILITY. Proximity Principle in Visual Design By Aurora Harley. "Design elements near each other are perceived as related, while elements spaced apart are perceived as belonging to separate groups." https://www.nngroup.com/articles/gestalt-proximity/ Tips for UX Writing By Chanchal Agawal. "UX writing is the practice of crafting text that help users interact with digital products more conveniently…" https://uxmag.com/articles/tips-for-ux-writing Building Narrative into Your User Interface, Part 2 By Jonathan Walter. "…in Part 2, I'll pick up the story where I left off-pun intended-and present the following techniques: 1.) invoking appropriate consequences, 2.) reinforcing themes, 3.) maintaining a consistent tone, 4. providing clear orientation clues…" https://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2020/08/building-narrative-into-your-user-interface-part-2.php Changes in Important Information-Seeking Behavior on the Internet Over 22 Years By Feifei Liu. "We studied the most important activities users perform on the internet, repeating an old classic study. Users' most critical behaviors have shifted substantially over 22 years, due to more information available online and the constant presence of mobile devices…" https://www.nngroup.com/videos/changes-information-seeking-behavior/ Mobile App UX Design Process By Vitaly Kuprenko. "…Each stage of the process is vital, but flexible, to accommodate changes and ensure we test our ideas…" https://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2020/08/mobile-app-ux-design-process.php New Realities: Mobile VR Design By Constantin Kuleshov. "Virtual reality is becoming mainstream, with small and medium companies in multiple industries embracing the technology…" https://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2020/08/new-realities-mobile-vr-design.php Print Culture is Holding Organizations Back By Gerry McGovern. "Many organizations have not really adapted to the Web but rather have made the Web adapt to them and their print processes, their print thinking and their print culture…" https://gerrymcgovern.com/print-culture-is-holding-organizations-back/ Crafting Product-Specific Design Principles to Support Better Decision Making (Video) By Maria Rosala. "Product design principles (or, in short, design principles) are value statements that frame design decisions and support consistency in decision making across teams working on the same product or service." https://www.nngroup.com/articles/design-principles/ Remote Work and Play: The Most Important UX Challenge (Video) By Jakob Nielsen. "At the virtual UX Conference, Jakob Nielsen was asked 'What's the most interesting UX topic at the moment?' Answer: better support for remote lifestyles." https://www.nngroup.com/videos/remote-work-play-ux-challenge/ +12: XML. How Would I Improve RSS? Three Ideas By Matt Webb. "RSS should be how we read our favourite content on the web. But it's not…" http://interconnected.org/home/2020/07/29/improving_rss [Section one ends.] ++ SECTION TWO: +13: 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.]