[webdev] Web Design Update: February 22, 2008

[Laura Carlson]

+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE.
- Volume 6, Issue 35, February 22, 2008.

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

++ISSUE 35 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: DREAMWEAVER.
04: EVENTS.
05: JAVASCRIPT.
06: MISCELLANEOUS.
07: NAVIGATION.
08: PHP.
09: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.
10: TYPOGRAPHY.
11: USABILITY.

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

[Contents ends.]


++ SECTION ONE: New references.

+01: ACCESSIBILITY.

Bloopers Aren't Disablism; Brutality Is
By Jack Pickard.
"I think that a lot of non-disabled people are frightened by the 
language of disability. They're worried about saying the wrong thing: 
using the term 'handicapped' rather than 'person with a disability', 
worrying whether they will cause offense if they say 'see you later' to 
a blind person and so on..."
http://tinyurl.com/2xlmew

Screen Readers and Abbreviations
By Jon Gibbins.
"...So, in fact, it actually doesn't matter one way or another which 
element you use. Since, an acronym is a form of abbreviation and screen 
readers don't seem to pay any attention to which element you use in 
your markup, I don't use acronym at all any more..."
http://dotjay.co.uk/2008/feb/screen-readers-and-abbreviations

Raising the Standard
By E-ACCESS.
PAS 78 is set to become a full British Standards Institute (BSi) 
standard.
http://www.headstar.com/eablive/?p=159


+02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.

Attribute Selectors in CSS
By Virginia DeBolt.
"HTML elements can have attributes. For example, an A element can have 
an HREF attribute. An IMG element can have a TITLE attribute. Using 
attribute selectors in CSS provides an additional way to hang styles on 
very specific elements..."
http://www.webteacher.ws/2008/02/15/attribute-selectors-in-css/

A Command of Headings: Usage and Styling
By Mike Cherim.
"I command thee, headings. Do not defy me as I am the all-powerful web 
developer. I am your master for I wield a style sheet with which I can 
make you mine..."
http://tinyurl.com/2x58rh

Create Resizing Thumbnails Using Overflow Property
By Alen Grakalic.
"This tutorial is aimed at controlling the size of the thumbnails 
appearing on your page. Sometimes we don't have enough space to spare 
to fit in large thumbnails and yet we would like to avoid small and 
barely recognizable images. Using this trick we limit the default 
dimensions of the thumb, and show it in full size when user mouse-overs 
it..."
http://tinyurl.com/2dq783

CSS Specificity, The Battle for Dominance
By Niels Matthijs.
"css is built around the struggle for dominance. The whole concept of 
css is constructed around cascading, better known to most people as the 
waterfall principle. While many people understand this principle, the 
exact details of the way css is applied in real life are usually a bit 
fuzzy. So no better time than the present to freshen up on css and the 
specificity of css selectors..."
http://www.onderhond.com/blog/work/css-specificity


+03: DREAMWEAVER.

New Dreamweaver CS3 Video Tutorial
By Stefan Mischook.
"...This video targets people new to Dreamweaver and people new to web 
design..."
http://www.killersites.com/blog/2008/new-dreamweaver-cs3-video-tutorial/


+04: EVENTS.

Website User Experience and CSS Workshop
March 31-April 1, 2008 in Canberra, Australia.
April 3-4, 2008 in Melbourne, Australia.
April 28-29, 2008 in Sydney, Australia.
May 1-2, 2008 in  Brisbane, Australia.
http://maxdesign.com.au/workshop2008/

Professional JavaScript and Ajax
March 26, 2008.
London, United Kingdom.
http://www.carsonworkshops.com/dev/fuchs/26March2008.html

MinneWebCon
April 14, 2008.
Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.A.
http://www.minnewebcon.umn.edu/

php|tek 2008: Chicago
May 20-23, 2008.
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.
http://tek.phparch.com/

The Web and Beyond 2008: Mobility
May 22, 2008.
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
http://www.thewebandbeyond.nl/2008/06/website/?page_id=22


+05: JAVASCRIPT.

Beware of id and name attribute mixups when using getElementById in 
Internet Explorer
By Roger Johansson.
"It is probably old news to the JavaScript experts among you, but since 
I recently ran into this problem myself and pulled my hair in 
frustration before a coworker hinted at the solution I think it's worth 
mentioning..."
http://tinyurl.com/2ppn97


+06: MISCELLANEOUS.

How to Say 'Your Site Sucks' Nicely
By Peter J. Meyers.
"No matter what your area of expertise, there comes a time in every web 
developers life when you have to tell a client that their site, to put 
it plainly, sucks. I'm all for honestly, but in 11 years of working 
with clients on internet projects, I've found out the hard way that the 
direct approach isn't always the best..."
http://www.usereffect.com/topic/how-to-say-your-site-sucks-nicely

The Trouble With Web 2.0
By Alexander Wilms.
"Today, there is a lot of buzz around a number of topics labeled as 
'Web 2.0'. Consultants jump on the "Web 2.0" bandwagon and IT vendors 
desperately struggle to add 'Web 2.0' features to their products. But 
the term is still unclear and nobody has a good definition of what 'Web 
2.0' is and what it is not. The term was originally coined by Tim 
O'Reilly in an article describing the changes in business processes and 
models that have been triggered by new and creative combinations of 
already existing technologies..."
http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/the-trouble-with-web

What Is Your Mental Model?
By Chris Baum.
"An Interview With Indi Young..."
http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/what-is-your-mental


+07: NAVIGATION.

Skip Links
By Adrian Rayfield.
"Skip links are internal links or local targets placed in an (X)HTML 
page to enable people to skip over repetitive elements such as links. 
Who can use these? Anyone can use them but they are normally used to 
assist disabled users..."
http://www.rayfields.co.uk/css_skip_link_art.php


+08: PHP.

PHP Sessions Video Tutorials - Part 1
By Stefan Mischook.
"I've just released a new beginners video tutorial that introduces 
people to PHP sessions..."
http://tinyurl.com/2k4mud

PHP Sessions Video Tutorials - Part 2
By Stefan Mischook.
"In this video, I get into practical examples where we see basic PHP 
sessions in action."
http://tinyurl.com/2hh9gu

PHP Sessions Video Tutorials - Part 3
By Stefan Mischook.
http://tinyurl.com/2yrn8u


+09: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.

Web Standards Born in 'Flame Wars' Due to Lack of Leadership
By Stephen Bell Wellington.
"...There is no visible strong driver for the effort, whether it's 
called standards or good practice, she [Holzschlag] says; '[web 
founder] Tim Berners-Lee is brilliant, but he's not a leader.'..."
http://tinyurl.com/2jephe

They Shoot Browsers, Don't They?
By Jeremy Keith.
"IE8's version targeting will allowing Microsoft to reach new heights 
of standards compliance where CSS and (especially) scripting are 
concerned. But to benefit from it, developers must explicitly opt in. 
That's just not right, says Jeremy Keith."
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/theyshootbrowsers

Version Targeting: Threat or Menace?
By Jeffrey Zeldman.
"Version targeting shakes our browser-agnostic faith. Its default 
behavior runs counter to our expectations, and seems wrong. Yet to 
offer true DOM support without bringing JScript-authored sites to their 
knees, version targeting must work the way Microsoft proposes, argues 
Jeffrey Zeldman."
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/minorthreat

Thoughts on Browser Version Targeting
By Richard Rutter.
"So the battle for hearts and minds continues as A List Apart publishes 
its third and fourth articles on Microsoft's proposed version targeting 
for IE8 and beyond. That's four articles on the same subject, so it 
must be important right? It is important, but the issue is also pretty 
simple."
http://www.clagnut.com/blog/2096/

Common Bonds
By Eric A. Meyer.
"...Sometimes what binds us is strong enough that the few differences 
seem sharper by comparison. That shouldn't keep us from remembering 
what we have in common, and the importance of that commonality."
http://meyerweb.com/eric/thoughts/2008/02/19/common-bonds/

All These Years, I've Been Using the Site Element Incorrectly
By Mark Pilgrim.
"...spec editors are now officially allowed to perform marriage 
ceremonies."
http://diveintomark.org/archives/2008/02/19/all-these-years

Losing My Religion
By Brian Kelly.
"...It's not longer just a question of passively accepting the vision 
of the standards developers, I'm afraid. And if you don't believe me, 
tell me -do you think the future lies in W3C's XHTML 2 standard (July 
2006 draft) or W3C's HTML 5 standard (hmm, latest draft came out on 11 
February 2008)? If there's a schism within W3C and W3C Consortium 
Members such as Microsoft, Sun, Opera and Google, which sect will you 
follow? Or do you feel the need to avoid the religious wars and join 
the agnostics?"
http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/2008/02/15/losing-my-religion/

Are Lists Becoming the New Tables?
By Mike Cherim.
"Misusing specific elements in a way not intended, especially for 
presentational purposes, while creative and admirable on many levels, 
simply isn't right. It happened to tables, and now it seems to be 
happening to lists..."
http://green-beast.com/blog/?p=259

Designing With Web Standards Video for Molly Holzschlag
By Patrick H. Lauke.
"my small contribution to molly holzschlag's presentation "why web 
standards aren't" at this year's webstock.."
http://www.splintered.co.uk/news/100


+10: TYPOGRAPHY.

'helvetica, arial', Not 'arial, helvetica'
By Jens Meiert.
"Unless Arial really is your standard font, please use the order 
helvetica, arial in your CSS font declarations, not the popular arial, 
helvetica. Why? Because Arial basically still means kind of a copy of 
Helvetica, and Helvetica is ubiquitous or popular enough so that one 
can actually reference it..."
http://meiert.com/en/blog/20080220/helvetica-arial/


+11: USABILITY.

Top-10 Application-Design Mistakes
By Jakob Nielsen.
"Application usability is enhanced when (a) users know how to operate 
the UI and (b) the UI guides them through the workflow. Violating 
common guidelines prevents both."
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/application-mistakes.html

Am I Too Slow?
By Matthew Smith.
"Matthew's article tells how the accessibility and usability of web 
content may be impacted by speed issues from various causes. The 
article goes on to explain how speed may be measured or estimated and 
how the various causes may be addressed."
http://www.smiffysplace.com/am-i-too-slow

E.T. and his iPhone
By Oliver Reichenstein.
"...To understand interaction design, you need to practice it."
http://informationarchitects.jp/et-and-his-iphone/

Usability in Open Source Software
By Celeste Lyn Paul.
"Open source is a software licensing philosophy which believes the 
human readable code source of a software should be available for the 
public to freely install, modify, or redistribute. The term 'open 
source' can also refer to the community and development practices of 
thousands of free/libre/open source software (FLOSS) projects who 
subscribe to this philosophy and license their software under one of 
the many available software licenses."
http://tinyurl.com/27uq8z

What Is Usability?
By Peter J. Meyers.
"I've been working on some of my marketing materials and put together 
this short, introductory blurb about usability. I'd love to get 
feedback on it: 'Remember how technology was supposed to make our lives 
easier? These days, it seems like we spend more time trying to figure 
out our gadgets than we save using them. Even recently, modern 
technology was rarely designed for the people who use it. Fortunately, 
designers and engineers are finally beginning to understand the need to 
focus on the human element. Usability is, simply put, the science of 
making technology work for people'..."
http://www.usereffect.com/topic/what-is-usability


[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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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 
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+ 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.]