[webdev] Web Design Update: August 7, 2008

[Laura Carlson]

+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE.
- Volume 7, Issue 06, August 7, 2008.

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/goto/webdesign/
New links in these categories:

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

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

[Contents ends.]


++ SECTION ONE: New references.

+01: ACCESSIBILITY.

Steppingstones Literature Review Summary
By WebAIM.
"A summary of an extensive literature review which analyzed 
recommendations regarding cognitive and learning disabilities and 
technology accessibility."
http://webaim.org/projects/steppingstones/litreviewsummary.php


+02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.

Mining the SitePoint CSS Reference
By Andrew Tetlaw.
"...While editing the SitePoint CSS Reference I came across many 
valuable nuggets of CSS knowledge; things I only partially understood 
or was completely unaware of. Here are a few examples..."
http://tinyurl.com/5dwega

CSS Contents and Browser Compatibility
By Peter-Paul Koch.
PPK updated his CSS browser compatibility charts to include iPhone.
http://www.quirksmode.org/css/contents.html

Solving 5 Common CSS Headaches
By Jeffrey Way.
"CSS is a relatively simple language to learn. Mastering it, on the 
other, can prove a little more difficult. Compensating for various 
browser inconsistencies alone can produce a migraine. In this article, 
we'll demystify five of the most head thumping issues that you'll 
encounter when building web applications..."
http://nettuts.com/html-css-techniques/solving-5-common-css-headaches/

Using CSS to Make Content Area Images Stretch and Compress
By Phil Smears.
"How CSS can be used to allow images to stretch or compress within 
liquid layouts thus preventing layout breaks..."
http://www.sdesign1.com/flexible-css-images.htm

Why 'variables' in CSS are Harmful
By Bert Bos.
"Adding any form of macros or additional scopes and indirections, 
including symbolic constants, is not just redundant, but changes CSS in 
ways that make it unsuitable for its intended audience. Given that 
there is currently no alternative to CSS, these things must not be 
added..."
http://www.w3.org/People/Bos/CSS-variables


+03: EVALUATION & TESTING.

User Interviews - A Basic Introduction
By Alistair Gray.
"It's surprising how few people have a real understanding of who's 
using their site. You can collect demographic data on your site 
visitors but to really know your users you must have direct contact 
with them. Knowing your users means you know what to do to keep them 
happy and returning to your site. This month's feature article offers a 
basic introduction to user interviews - a great way to gain insights 
into user behavior and help improve the usability of your site."
http://tinyurl.com/5jfhe4

Using Persona Advocates to Develop User-Centric Intranets and Portals
By Howard McQueen.
"Intranets and portals are all-or mostly-about serving and enabling 
users. What information do they need and what tasks must they 
accomplish? How will they look for information? How does it need to be 
organized and presented for them to understand and use it? Do users 
have expertise in different subject areas or varying levels of 
technical vocabularies? Do they need instant information gratification 
or will they patiently research until they explore all possibilities? 
Do users know what information they are seeking or do they need to be 
able to browse for something that will catch their eyes and provide the 
'Aha!' experiences. Grasping complex information needs and uses can 
indeed be daunting. One powerful design tool, personas, can help make 
sense of these needs and provide a framework for building Intranets 
that will satisfy a variety of needs. Effectively developed and used, 
personas enable Intranet teams to hone in on user needs and build 
interfaces and user experiences that end-user audiences can and will 
use."
http://www.mcq.com/article-persona


+04: EVENTS.

Fronteers 2008
September 11-12, 2008
Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
http://fronteers.nl/congres/2008/english

The Future of Web Design
November 3-4, 2008.
New York, New York U.S.A.
http://futureofwebdesign.com/2008/newyork/


+05: JAVASCRIPT.

Introduction to WAI ARIA
By Gez Lemon.
"This article is for those who are new to ARIA. You need an 
understanding of HTML and the potential difficulties that people with 
disabilities can face using the Web. It is useful to be familiar with 
some Rich Internet Applications from a user's perspective. After 
reading this article, you'll understand what ARIA is for, how to 
integrate it into your sites, and how you can use it now to make even 
the simplest of sites more accessible..."
http://dev.opera.com/articles/view/introduction-to-wai-aria/

Enhancing TabView Accessibility with WAI-ARIA Roles and States
By Todd Kloots.
"...through the application of the WAI-ARIA Roles and States, it is 
possible to enhance TabView's accessibility such that users of screen 
readers perceive it as a desktop tab control..."
http://yuiblog.com/blog/2008/07/30/tabview-aria/

ARIA in Gmail 1: Alerts
By Marco Zehe.
"Google have recently started to put ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet 
Applications) into GMail. This means that ARIA is now getting a lot 
more exposure than it used to, with GMail being probably one of the 
most widely used web applications today. It's great to see that the 
hard work Mozilla, IBM, the W3C and especially Aaron Leventhal put into 
this standard recommendation is getting this prominent placement so 
soon!.."
http://www.marcozehe.de/2008/08/04/aria-in-gmail-1-alerts/

Primitive Data Types, Arrays, Loops, and Conditions
By Stoyan Stefanov.
"Before diving into the object-oriented features of JavaScript, one 
needs to look at some of the basics, including: primitive data types, 
such as strings and numbers, arrays, common operators, flow control 
statements, etc..."
http://www.webreference.com/programming/javascript/beginning-oojs/


+ 06: NAVIGATION.

Linkification
By Cameron Moll.
"How do we select the particular words that are linked within a 
sentence or paragraph, and does it matter for the user?"
http://cameronmoll.com/archives/2008/07/linkification/


+07: PHP.

Top Ten Security Vulnerabilities in PHP Code
By Rochak Chauhan.
http://tinyurl.com/5ks8m7


+08: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.

A Brave New alt in {HTML5}
By Steve Faulkner.
"After much data crunching Of 'billions of web pages', in his infinite 
wisdom the King of HTML5 has given us a whole new way of using the alt 
attribute in HTML5..."
http://www.paciellogroup.com/blog/?p=84

HTML5 Video Element About to Land in Firefox 3.1
By Stuart Langridge.
"Firefox 3.1 is about to support the HTML5 <video> element, and Opera 
already does. This means that both those browsers will have support for 
inline video in the browser without plugins. As usual, Internet 
Explorer lag behind, and sadly Safari does as well - they're fast at 
implementing lots of stuff over at the WebKit team, but Apple don't 
like easy video that isn't in a patented format, so the Safari <video> 
support only plays stuff that QuickTime can do..."
http://tinyurl.com/5gp453

Announcing the WaSP Curriculum Framework
By Steph Troeth.
"In parallel to the wonderful work that Chris Mills and team are doing 
on the Opera Web Standards Curriculum, the Education Task Force has 
begun efforts since March this year on a complementary project: the 
WaSP Curriculum Framework. Our framework aims to identify the skill 
sets and competencies that aspiring Web professionals need to acquire 
to prepare them for their chosen careers..."
http://tinyurl.com/6mmqrj

Borderline Semantics/Crossing the Line
By Niels Matthijs.
As modern-day web developers, we eat, breath and sleep semantics. When 
adapting designs to html, making our documents as semantic as possible 
is one of our main priorities (the other being structuring). Lucky for 
us, html is not too complex and most elements have a clear semantic 
meaning. Even the generic ones, like div and span elements, have a 
clear purpose. But work with html long enough and you'll definitely run 
into some borderline cases..."
http://www.onderhond.com/blog/work/borderline-semantics


+09: USABILITY.

Why Usability Versus Branding is Such a Farce
By David Hamill.
"...usability is branding. It shapes people's opinions of your product 
or organization. The brand is not a color palette, it is not a typeface 
and it is not a selection of images. The brand is the way someone feels 
about your product or organization..."
http://tinyurl.com/688wpb

Low Value Content is Destroying Your Website
By Gerry McGovern.
"Low-value content is destroying the usefulness of intranets and public 
websites. It needs to be stored separately..."
http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/nt/2008/nt-2008-08-04-archive.htm

7 Essential Guidelines For Functional Design
By Dustin M. Wax.
"Look at what you've made. Beautiful, isn't it? But does it work? For 
whom does it work? Of course you can use it, but can anyone else? In 
short, is it functional?..."
http://tinyurl.com/6kb6zt

Closed Question Response Categories
By Jessica Enders.
"There are two main types of questions on form: open and closed..."
http://formulate.com.au/articles/closed-question-response-categories/

How Environments, Real And Virtual, Influence Us
By Kyle Mueller.
"What sort of state is your desk in right now? Clutter on your website, 
just as in your environment, can have a negative effect on your 
visitors' state of mind. Kyle Mueller takes a look at some
of the common pitfalls and how to avoid them."
http://www.digital-web.com/articles/environments_real_and_virtual/

[Section one ends.]


++ SECTION TWO:

+10: 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 
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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.]