[webdev] Web Design Update: February 19, 2010

[Laura Carlson]

+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE.
- Volume 8, Issue 34, February 19, 2010.

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

++ISSUE 34 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: COLOR.
04: EVALUATION & TESTING.
05: EVENTS.
06: NAVIGATION.
07: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.
08: TOOLS.
09: USABILITY.


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

[Contents ends.]


++ SECTION ONE: New references.

+01: ACCESSIBILITY.

World Wide Access
By The DOIT Center.
A video on "How to make web pages accessible to people with disabilities."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MO2gpA91fR8

Government 2.0 Draft Report and Accessibility
By Roger Hudson.
"While there are many things to praise in the Government 2.0 Taskforce 
Draft Report, 'Engage: Getting on with Government 2.0', sadly I find it 
very light-on when it comes to the whole issue of social inclusion for 
people with disabilities..."
http://tinyurl.com/yktwhke

Target.com Accessibility
By Jared Smith.
"...Target, along with Amazon.com and a few other innovators in the 
e-commerce arena, is showing that accessibility of large, complex sites 
is not only possible, but beneficial to all potential customers and to 
the corporations themselves."
http://webaim.org/blog/target-com-accessibility/

Cognitive Web Accessibility Research
By Clear Helper.
"These resources, sorted by year, are original studies, literature 
reviews and related articles that cite references. Below them are listed 
other research-related resources..."
http://www.clearhelper.org/resources/cwa/research/

Accessibility of iTunes
By The Steeple project.
"iTunes accessibility was evaluated by the Open University in mid-June 
2009 under Windows XP, and with Jaws 10, ZoomText 9 (screen magnifier), 
and Windows High Contrast display setting (large font, white and yellow 
on black), and Dragon 9 (voice recognition)..."
http://www.steeple.org.uk/wiki/Accessibility_of_iTunes


+02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.

The Skinny on CSS Attribute Selectors
By Chris Coyier.
"CSS has the ability to target HTML elements based on any one of their 
attributes. You probably already know about classes and IDs..."
http://css-tricks.com/attribute-selectors/

The CSS Overflow Attribute
By Alan.
"If a CSS element has a fixed width and height, then the overflow 
attribute controls what happens when the content inside the box exceeds 
the dimensions of the CSS element."
http://www.brighthub.com/internet/web-development/articles/63901.aspx

Fixed Monospace Sizing
By Eric A. Meyer.
"Monospace text sizing is, from time to time, completely unintuitive and 
can be quite maddening if you don't look at it in exactly the right way. 
Fortunately, there is a pretty simple workaround, and it's one you might 
want to consider using even if you weren't aware that a problem existed..."
http://meyerweb.com/eric/thoughts/2010/02/12/fixed-monospace-sizing/

CSS3 Properties, Values and Browser Support
By Estelle Weyl.
"Below is every most CSS3 Properties, all the possible values for that 
property, and the support for each property value from grade-A browsers..."
http://tinyurl.com/ydz7u9n

CSS Gradients for All Web Browsers, Without Using Images
By Robert Nyman.
"One thing that is quite nice is that we now have the ability to create 
gradients in our pages just from CSS code, and without the use of any 
images."
http://tinyurl.com/yas2obp


+03: COLOR.

Specify a Text Colour for img Elements
By Roger Johansson..
"When an image specified with an img element is missing from a web page, 
some browsers display the alt text instead. Why not all browsers do that 
is a separate topic which I talk a bit about in Safari, WebKit and alt 
text for missing images. I think most people will agree that it is a 
good thing for web browsers to display the contents of an image's alt 
attribute when the image is missing or broken, or image rendering has 
been disabled. However, many web professionals forget to check what the 
alternative text will actually look like in those cases."
http://tinyurl.com/yfa3uuw


+04: EVALUATION & TESTING.

User Surveys - Do it Right or Not at All.
By Gary Barber.
"...It comes down to this - unless you have experience designing 
surveys, then it's best to either hire someone who has had experience 
and training, or find another way to collect the same information. 
Proceeding with a flawed survey will just produce results that are 
tainted with bias and other data warping horrors. Not something you want 
in your user research, eh..."
http://tinyurl.com/y9pgf2y


+05: EVENTS.

John Slatin Access U 2010
May 10-11, 2010.
Austin, Texas, U.S.A.
http://www.knowbility.org/conference/

W3C Workshop - RDF Next Steps
June 26-27, 2010.
Palo Alto, Califorina, U.S.A.
http://www.w3.org/2009/12/rdf-ws/

An Event Apart - San Diego
November 1-2, 2010.
San Diego, California, U.S.A.
http://aneventapart.com/2010/sandiego/


+06: NAVIGATION.

Sitemaps - The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
By Rob Mills.
"Sitemaps are a safety net. They can be a last resort for users before 
they abandon ship and leave your site having not found what they needed 
and vowing never to come back."
http://tinyurl.com/y9ed2jb

The Definitive Guide To Styling Web Links
By Lee Munroe.
"When you style links, remember that users don't read; they scan. You've 
heard that before, and it's true. So, make sure your links are obvious. 
They should also indicate where they will take the user..."
http://tinyurl.com/yjtvf42


+07: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.

Declarative Markup for Associated External Text Alternatives
By HTML5 Accessibility Task Force.
"This draft proposal introduces declarative markup into the audio and 
video elements of HTML5 to link to external resources that provide text 
alternatives for different roles, such as captions, subtitles and 
textual audio descriptions. This includes styling defaults and a 
resource selection algorithm for when there are alternative resources 
available."
http://www.w3.org/WAI/PF/HTML/wiki/Media_TextAssociations

JavaScript API for Multitrack Media Resources
By HTML5 Accessibility Task Force.
"This draft proposal introduces a JavaScript API for extracting basic 
information about the tracks contained inside a media resource (audio or 
video), which may include audio descriptions, sign language video, 
closed captions or subtitles."
http://www.w3.org/WAI/PF/HTML/wiki/Media_MultitrackAPI

Audio Track Accessibility for HTML5
By Silvia Pfeiffer.
"I have talked a lot about synchronizing multiple tracks of audio and 
video content recently. The reason was mainly that I foresee a need for 
more than two parallel audio and video tracks, such as audio 
descriptions for the vision-impaired or dub tracks for 
internationalization, as well as sign language tracks for the 
hard-of-hearing..."
http://tinyurl.com/yfcqmts

Introducing HTML 5
By David Chisnall.
"It's been a decade since the last HTML specification was released. In 
this article, the first of a two-part series, David Chisnall looks at 
what is in store for the next version."
http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1561901

Should HTML5 Spec Correct the img Element Definition?
By Vlad Alexander.
"The <img> element's visual content and its textual content are 
equivalent in meaning and should therefore be of equal importance. How 
elements are defined in the specification influences tool vendors, 
educators and ultimately Web site creators, so that clearly defining the 
correct use of HTML elements can over time improve the use of HTML."
http://rebuildingtheweb.com/en/correct-img-element-definition/

Working Group Publication Requests and Approval
By Philippe Le Hegaret.
"In response to some questions about W3C process from the past few days, 
I would like to make available this brief FAQ..."
http://www.w3.org/QA/2010/02/working_group_publication_requ.html

Adobe's non-Formal non-Objection
By Sam Ruby.
"At no time did the current, up to the minute, versions - complete with 
occasional typos and botched commits - of the editor's documents become 
unavailable: HTML5, RDFa, MicroData, 2D Context, Markup, Diffs..."
http://intertwingly.net/blog/2010/02/18/Adobes-non-Formal-non-Objection


+08: TOOLS.

Dynamic Dummy Image Generator
By Russell Heimlic.
"Sometimes you just need a placeholder image right at your finger tips. 
Just enter the width + x + height at the end of this URL and off you go..."
http://dummyimage.com/


+09: USABILITY.

Eliminating Bad Complexity
By Gerry McGovern.
"Good complexity leads to greater convenience, choice and options. Bad 
complexity leads to frustration, wasted time and wasted money."
http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/nt/2010/nt-2010-02-15-Bad-complexity.htm

Why Not a User
By Pietro.
"To prepare my thesis entitled 'User Involvement in the Creative 
Process' for my degree course at Siena University, I had the chance to 
interview several well-known interaction designers around Europe. Their 
contributions from different perspectives taught me some of the greatest 
lessons of my life. But one of them, Job Rutgers from Philips Design, 
was particularly radical in his approach: in 2002 he claimed that at 
Philips they had been avoiding the word 'user' for years because of  its 
connotations..."
http://www.iamnotauser.com/index.php/why-not-a-user/



[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.


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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.]