[webdev] Web Design Update: August 23, 2007

[Laura Carlson]

+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE.
- Volume 6, Issue 09, August 23, 2007.

An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design 
and development.

++ISSUE 09 CONTENTS.

SECTION ONE: New references.
What's new at the Web Design Reference site?
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/webdesign/
New links in these categories:

01: ACCESSIBILITY.
02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.
03: EVALUATION & TESTING.
04: EVENTS.
05: JAVASCRIPT.
06: MISCELLANEOUS.
07: PHP.
08: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.
09: TYPOGRAPHY.
10: USABILITY.
11: XML.

SECTION TWO:
12: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site?

[Contents ends.]


++ SECTION ONE: New references.

+01: ACCESSIBILITY.

Reading and Presenting with PowerPoint If You are a Screen Reader User
By Henny Swan.
"We talk a lot about making PDF's accessible and how we should present 
them on the web but rarely do we touch on making PowerPoint accessible. 
As with PDF the bottom line is that if the content of the PowerPoint 
can not be made accessible then an accessible alternative should be 
given..."
http://tinyurl.com/2esv74


+02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.

Running on :empty
By Eric Meyer.
"While kicking around some ideas at the CSS workshop I led in London, I 
ran into some interesting problems with :empty. If you're not up on 
what that one does, it's a way of selecting elements that have no 
children, including text..."
http://meyerweb.com/eric/thoughts/2007/08/17/running-on-empty/

Tripoli
"Tripoli is a generic CSS standard for HTML rendering. By resetting and 
rebuilding browser standards, Tripoli forms a stable, cross-browser 
rendering foundation for your web projects. I call it 'the mother of 
all CSS resets'..."
http://monc.se/tripoli/


+03: EVALUATION & TESTING.

Effectively Testing Your Website in Multiple Browsers
By Vandelay.
"As a website designer you have the ability to create an attractive and 
functional design. Unfortunately, you do not have the ability to 
control which internet browsers will be using to view your site. 
Because each browser behaves differently you will need to test your 
projects in multiple browsers..."
http://tinyurl.com/3b6xnb

Remote Usability Testing
By Free Usability Advice.
"What Are the Pros and Cons of Remote Usability Testing?..."
http://freeusabilityadvice.com/archive/44/remote-usability-testing

Which Design? An Introduction to Split A/B Testing
By Lisa Halabi.
"Following on from any website usability study a number of usability 
problems are usually found. There can often be debate within any 
organization as to the best solution for each problem, with no one 
really knowing the optimal solution. Rather than letting the person 
that shouts the loudest get his or her own way, a better solution can 
be to test two solutions in a live environment. Whichever performs the 
best is clearly the superior solution. Welcome to split A/B testing!..."
http://www.usabilitynews.com/news/article4100.asp


+04: EVENTS.

Rich Web Experience
September 6-8, 2007.
San Jose, California, U.S.A.
http://www.therichwebexperience.com/conference/san_jose/2007/09/

South By South West
March 7-11, 2008.
Austin, Texas, U.S.A.
http://2008.sxsw.com/interactive/

2008 SXSW Interactive Panel Picker
"What panel ideas do you think are the best fit for the 2008 SXSW 
Interactive Festival? Use the search options to find proposals that 
interest you. Click on the specific panel title for more info and to 
comment."
http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/


+05: JAVASCRIPT.

JavaScript Interaction Must be Input Device Independent
By Roger Johansson.
"Time for a bit of what in my opinion is Accessibility 101: input 
device independency. For some reason it is common to see otherwise nice 
uses of JavaScript made inaccessible by developers forgetting that not 
everybody uses a mouse (or some other pointing device)..."
http://tinyurl.com/3ahsws

More on JavaScript and XML
By David Flanagan.
"In this conclusion to a three-part series you'll learn about 
serializing XML expanding HTML templates with XML data and more..."
http://www.devarticles.com/c/a/JavaScript/More-on-JavaScript-and-XML/

Bring Your Forms to Life With JavaScript
By Kris Hadlock.
"In this article you'll learn how to prevent errors in your forms. This 
method validates the form and provides immediate feedback to the user. 
If the form has been correctly filled out, the submit button is 
enabled, if not, the button remains grayed out..."
http://www.webreference.com/programming/javascript/jsforms/


+06: MISCELLANEOUS.

Deliverables That Work: Design Description Documents
By Robert Hoekman Jr.
"You know those things you're supposed to deliver to a client during a 
big project - use cases, wireframes, etc.? Robert Hoekman Jr. does and 
he shares the tool he uses to package them all..."
http://tinyurl.com/2xh4o7


+07: PHP.

Beginner's Object Oriented PHP Tutorial - Part 1
By Stefan Mischook.
"This tutorial is designed to teach total beginners object oriented 
PHP..."
http://www.killerphp.com/tutorials/object-oriented-php/


+08: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.

What Crisis?
By Jeffery Zeldman.
"...Maybe the W3C is the problem, or maybe the problem is that there is 
standards-related activity going on outside the W3C. Depending on who 
you talk to, each of the preceding clauses defines the crisis. 
Certainly the W3C is political. Certainly some, perhaps more than some, 
of its committees bog down in in-fighting. In pursuit of a theory, or 
from lack of fresh air, committee members too often forget the user..."
http://zeldman.com/2007/08/15/what-crisis

The IPhone Is Internet Explorer 4 All Over Again
By Scott Gilbertson.
"...The iPhone has created a division in the mobile-optimized web which 
is eerily similar to the days of IE 4 when many sites simply didn't 
work in Netscape..."
http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/2007/08/the-iphone-is-i.html

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly - iPhone Edition
By Aaron Gustafson.
"Since its release nearly two months ago, the iPhone has proven to be a 
rather disruptive device, not only in the mobile market, but on the web 
as well. With designers and developers scrambling to get a foothold in 
this new market, issues have surfaced and (in many cases) tempers have 
flared..."
http://tinyurl.com/29u922


+09: TYPOGRAPHY.

Identify That Font
By Johno.
"Ever seen a font you like but couldn't identify it? I once knew an Art 
Director who seemed to be able to identify just about any font I showed 
him. However, in recent years, even he responds with a 'I don't have a 
clue'. So where to turn? Well, rather than publishing my Art Director 
friend's email address here, I'll introduce a few resources to get you 
started. Although none of the following resources is infallible, they 
will definitely give you a head start..."
http://ilovetypography.com/2007/08/19/identify-that-font/


+10: USABILITY.

Banner Blindness, Old and New Findings
By Jakob Nielsen.
"Users rarely look at display advertisements on websites. Of the four
design elements that do attract a few ad fixations, one is unethical and
reduces the value of advertising networks."
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/banner-blindness.html


+11: XML.

XForms for HTML Authors, Part 1
By Steven Pemberton.
"XForms is the new markup language for forms on the Web. This document 
is a quick introduction to XForms for HTML Forms authors. It shows you 
how to convert existing forms to their XForms equivalent. It assumes 
knowledge of HTML Forms, so is not a beginner's tutorial. Although 
there is mention of additional facilities of XForms beyond those 
possible in HTML Forms (marked with an asterisk on the headings), it is 
not a full tutorial on all features of XForms. Part 2 deals with 
additional features that are not available in HTML Forms."
http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/Forms/2003/xforms-for-html-authors.html

XForms for HTML Authors, Part 2
By Steven Pemberton.
"This is the second part of XForms for HTML Authors. Part 1 introduced 
mostly features that have some equivalent with features from HTML. This 
part introduces completely new concepts that have no HTML equivalent."
http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/Forms/2006/xforms-for-html-authors-part2.html


[Section one ends.]


++ SECTION TWO:

+12: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site?

Accessibility Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/accessibility

Association Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/associations

Book Listings.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/books

Cascading Style Sheets Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/css

Color Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/color

Dreamweaver Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/dreamweaver

Evaluation & Testing Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/testing

Event Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/events

Flash Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/flash

Information Architecture Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/architecture

JavaScript Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/javascript

Miscellaneous Web Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/misc

Navigation Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/navigation

PHP Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/php

Sites & Blogs Listing.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/sites

Standards, Guidelines & Pattern Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/standards

Tool Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/tools

Typography Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/type

Usability Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/usability

XML Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/xml

[Section two ends.]


++END NOTES.


+ SUBSCRIPTION INFO.

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http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/webdevlist
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 at d.umn.edu


[Issue ends.]