+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE. - Volume 20, Issue 52, June 22, 2022. An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design and development. ++ISSUE 52 CONTENTS. SECTION ONE: New references. What's new at the Web Design Reference site? https://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: TOOLS. 11: TYPOGRAPHY. 12: USABILITY. 13: WEBWASTE & SUSTAINABILITY. SECTION TWO: 14: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site? [Contents ends.] ++ SECTION ONE: New references. +01: ACCESSIBILITY. 5 Very Simple Steps You Can Take For Accessibility Improvement By Jennie Delisi. "What you need to know for useful websites, and web and mobile apps…" https://mn.gov/mnit/media/blog/?id=38-530231 Simple And Systemic Changes For High Impact - Part 2 By Jennie Delisi. "State employees share successful tips you need to know…" https://mn.gov/mnit/media/blog/?id=38-530635 Keep Minnesota Bright By Tamara Sawyer. "Understanding WCAG 2.1, 1.4.11 Color contrast for non-text items…" https://mn.gov/mnit/media/blog/?id=38-530701 What Is Alternative Text? How Do I Write It for Images, Charts, and Graphs? Matthew Deeprose. "What do we mean by alternative text? Who is it useful for? What strategies can we use for writing it? How might we write alternative text for more complex images like graphs, flow charts, and Venn diagrams? I attempt to explain in this video." https://matthewdeeprose.github.io/alt-text-images-charts-graphs The What, How, and Why of Audio Description with Dr. Joel Snyder By 3Play Media. "This month's episode features Dr. Joel Snyder, Ph.D., and is about audio description…" https://www.3playmedia.com/alliedpodcast/audio-description-with-dr-joel-snyder/ Sing It With Me Now… By Derek Featherstone. "If you make a custom thing behave like radio buttons. You need a visual affordance that lets people know to use them like radio buttons. If you don't, they'll think they should use the tab key instead of arrows. Because you use arrows not tab for radio buttons…" https://twitter.com/feather/status/1537062614869712899 Podcast Accessibility By Nicolas Steenhout and Eric Eggert. "Your podcast should be accessible. But what does that mean, exactly? Why should you care? What can you do to improve the accessibility?…" https://podcast-accessibility.com/ Communication Accessibility: It's Time to Change How We Communicate By Meryl K. Evans. "Let's start with a little story about communication accessibility. Or rather, inaccessible communications…" https://meryl.net/communication-accessibility/ Teaching Accessible Computing Interest By Amy Ko, Richard Ladner, Alannah Oleson, et al. "Amy Ko, Richard Ladner, Alannah Oleson, and the AccessComputing team at the University of Washington are organizing a new book on how to teach accessibility in post-secondary computer science education. Our vision is to create a resource for faculty to quickly learn about accessibility, its relationship to CS, and practical ways of integrating accessibility and disability topics into their CS courses throughout the curriculum." https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdLoLi7hB7NIxCorTVSRV3oUixDumdvUGiaI6ff7_2BveLawg/viewform Submit a Course, Training, or Certification on Digital Accessibility By W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). "This form allows you to provide information about courses, training, and certification on digital accessibility…" https://www.w3.org/WAI/courses/submission/ Accessibility and Inclusive Design Meetup Groups By Deborah Edwards-Oñoro. "Want to get involved with and accessibility or inclusive design meetup group?…" https://www.lireo.com/accessibility-inclusive-design-in-person-groups/ Best Practices for Overlays- Part 2 By Ken Nakata. "…Given the current state of technology, it is impossible for any fully-automated accessibility solution (e.g. scanner, overlay, etc.) to ensure full compliance with the ADA or full conformance with WCAG. No member shall represent to customers that their fully-automated solutions can ensure legal compliance or find or remediate all accessibility problems…" https://convergeaccessibility.com/2022/06/20/best-practices-for-overlays-part-2/ Why is IAAP Giving Special Treatment to Overlays? By Karl Groves. "…there's still a problem…There needs to only be one best practice for overlays: Stop Lying…" https://karlgroves.com/why-is-iaap-giving-special-treatment-to-overlays/ Exploring an Update to the State's Digital Accessibility Standard By Jay Wyant. "The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 and Minnesota…" https://mn.gov/mnit/media/blog/?id=38-530990 +02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. Specificity By Estelle Weyl. "Specificity is the algorithm used by browsers to determine the CSS declaration that is the most relevant to an element, which in turn, determines the property value to apply to the element…" https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Specificity In And Out Of Style (Video) By Jeremy Keith. Jeremy's CSS Day 2022 presentation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdZZcbZG83o Styling Selects? You've Got Options! (Slides) By Hidde de Vries. "A presentation at CSS Day meets CSS Café in June 2022 in Amsterdam, Netherlands by Hidde de Vries…" https://talks.hiddedevries.nl/iohQPm/styling-selects-youve-got-options +03: COLOR. The Guide To Windows High Contrast Mode By Cristian Díaz. "In this article, we'll see how to make our sites friendly for Windows High Contrast Mode. We'll check a good set of practices we can use for that purpose, and we'll see the use of the media query forced-colors and its toolset to tweak our website as needed…" https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2022/06/guide-windows-high-contrast-mode/ How to Pick the Least Wrong Colors By Matthew Ström. "…Starting from a position of knowing very little color theory, I've been able to wander from concept to concept in search of a solution to a very tricky problem…" https://matthewstrom.com/writing/how-to-pick-the-least-wrong-colors/ +04: EVALUATION & TESTING. Conducting a UX Research Kick-off Meeting By Preeti Srinivasan. "During this initial meeting, you'll set expectations and resolve conflicting priorities.…" https://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2022/06/conducting-a-ux-research-kick-off-meeting.php A Research Incentive for a Colleague By Caroline Jarrett. "…I've found that a thank-you to the person's boss works well, and even better when it goes on to become part of the formal performance management framework…" https://www.effortmark.co.uk/research-incentive-for-a-colleague/ +05: EVENTS. UX Discussion: How Data and UX Intersect Part 2 June 28, 2022. Online https://www.meetup.com/ixdaatlanta/events/285830291/ Speaking Up and Speaking Out: Tactical Communication and Consulting July 12, 2022. Online https://www.meetup.com/a11ynyc/events/286292267/ That Conference 2022 - Wisconsin July 25-29, 2022. Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin U.S.A. https://that.us/events/wi/2022/ UX Australia 2022 August 23-26, 2022. Online and Melbourne, Australia https://uxaustralia.com.au/conferences/ux-australia-2022 W3C Technical Plenary (TPAC) 2022 September 12-16, 2022. Online and Vancouver, Canada https://www.w3.org/2022/09/TPAC/Overview.html +06: HTML. Internationalization Techniques: Authoring HTML & CSS By W3C. "This page lists links to resources on the W3C Internationalization Activity site and elsewhere that help you author HTML and CSS for internationalization…" https://www.w3.org/International/techniques/authoring-html Languages Using Right-to-Left Scripts By W3C. "Knowing the directionality of text, based on the script(s) to be used, is important to web designers and authors, because right-to-left text can be more complicated (for beginners) to work with and the organization and directionality of the page layout are affected. Therefore, knowing the writing direction can be relevant to estimating the work involved to create web pages in a new language…" https://www.w3.org/International/questions/qa-scripts +07: JAVASCRIPT. How to Create a Web Component With Vanilla JS By Chris Ferdinandi. "Yesterday, we looked at what web components are. Today, I wanted to share how to actually create one…" https://gomakethings.com/how-to-create-a-web-component-with-vanilla-js/ Understanding the JavaScript Window Object By Darren Jones. "Every JavaScript environment has a global object. Any variables that are created in the global scope are actually properties of this object, and any functions are methods of it. In a browser environment the global object is the window object, which represents the browser window that contains a web page…" https://www.sitepoint.com/javascript-window-object/ +08: MISCELLANEOUS. Internet Explorer Still Does Not Go Away Today By Adrian Roselli. "At the start of 2016 I wrote Internet Explorer Does Not Go Away Today because back then IE up to version 11 was being retired. But not Internet Explorer 11…" https://adrianroselli.com/2022/06/internet-explorer-still-does-not-go-away-today.html Interview with Sheri Byrne-Haber By Denis Boudreau. "…Run the PowerPoint accessibility checker on your deck, and ask yourself on every slide: * how would someone with hearing loss equally access this information? * how would vision loss visually equally this information? * how would someone who is neurodiverse access this information?…" https://inklusiv.ca/interview-with-sheri-byrne-haber/ +09: NAVIGATION. Designing Better Links For Websites And Emails: A Guideline By Slava Shestopalov. "There are so many websites out there that have not considered the overall usability of their visually impaired users. When it comes to designing better links and sending better emails, Slava Shestopalov has a few tips on how to improve your website's experience while accessibility in mind…" https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2021/12/designing-better-links-websites-emails-guideline/ +10: TOOLS. Accessibility Tools and Resources for Designers By Raghavendra Satish Peri. "Here are a set of tools and resources for designers to inculcate accessibility into their designs, often organizations talk about moving shift left when they talk about accessibility, and we believe these accessibility tools will make it easy and reduce the number of accessibility defects during the development phase…" https://www.digitala11y.com/accessibility-tools-and-resources-for-designers/ +11: TYPOGRAPHY. The Dos and Don'ts of Pairing Typefaces By Rachel Krause. "When choosing typography to use in designs, narrow down your options by understanding the most common classifications, looking for typefaces with multiple variations and distinct characters, and pairing typefaces together with consistency and readability in mind…" https://www.nngroup.com/articles/pairing-typefaces/ Measuring The Performance Of Typefaces For Users (Part 1) By Thomas Bohm. "In this article, we will be discussing how typefaces work, ways to test typefaces, and broader typographic issues. Though this article is slightly high-end and academic, fear not. The content will be of interest, especially for committed typeface designers and typographers. If you like complex issues and problems, this is for you.…" https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2022/06/measuring-performance-typefaces-users-part1/ Measuring The Performance Of Typefaces For Users (Part 2) By Thomas Bohm. "In this article, we will be discussing ways to test typefaces and other typographic issues. Though this article is slightly high-end and academic, fear not. The content will be interesting, especially for committed typeface designers and typographers. If you like complex issues and problems, this is for you…" https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2022/06/measuring-performance-typefaces-users-part2/ Do Dyslexia Fonts Improve Accessibility? By Bureau of Internet Accessibility. "Dyslexia is a relatively common disability that affects about 20% of the United States population…" https://www.boia.org/blog/do-dyslexia-fonts-improve-accessibility +12: USABILITY. Communication not Decoration (UX Slogan #4)(Video) By Jakob Nielsen. "Users visit websites and use apps to get things done, so emphasize the content of interest to communicate with your audience. Avoid design pollution that decorates the UI with non-communicative elements…" https://www.nngroup.com/videos/communication-not-decoration-ux-slogan-4/ Outcomes Over Outputs (Video) By Anna Kaley. "Teams often fall into the trap of focusing on outputs (features, deliverables, and artifacts). Instead, a mindset shift of working toward purposeful outcomes (problems solved, needs addressed, and real benefits) leads to better results." https://www.nngroup.com/videos/outcomes-over-outputs/ +13: WEBWASTE & SUSTAINABILITY. Is it Expensive to Build an Eco-Friendly Website? By Sustainable WWW. "If you are about to have your new website built or maybe just thinking about it, then you might have asked yourself the question of whether an eco-friendly website is more expensive to build than a normal one. The quick answer is NO…" https://sustainablewww.org/principles/is-it-expensive-to-build-an-eco-friendly-website When It Comes to Good CX, Measurement Is Critical By Mike Gifford. "In December, the White House signed the Executive Order on Transforming Federal Customer Experience and Service Delivery to Rebuild Trust in Government:" https://www.govloop.com/community/blog/when-it-comes-to-good-cx-measurement-is-critical/ Thirsty, Secretive Data Centers By Gerry McGovern. "…US data centers were projected to use a total of 660 billion liters of water in 2020, according to David Mytton, an expert in sustainable computing. 80% of this figure is for the water required to generate the electricity used in data centers." https://gerrymcgovern.com/thirsty-secretive-data-centers/ [Section one ends.] ++ SECTION TWO: +14: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site? Accessibility Information. https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/accessibility.html Association Information. https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/associations.html Book Listings. https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/books.html Cascading Style Sheets Information. https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/css.html Color Information. https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/color.html Drupal Information. https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/drupal.html Evaluation & Testing Information. https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/testing.html Event Information. https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/events.html HTML Information. https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/html.html Information Architecture Information. https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/architecture.html JavaScript Information. https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/javascript.html Miscellaneous Web Information. https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/misc.html Navigation Information. https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/navigation.html PHP Information. https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/php.html Sites & Blogs Listing. https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/sites.html Standards, Guidelines & Pattern Information. https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/standards.html Tool Information. https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/tools.html Typography Information. https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/type.html Usability Information. https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/usability.html WebWaste & Sustainability Information. https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/webwaste.html XML Information. https://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: https://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.]