[webdev] Web Design May: April 6, 2011

Fri May 6 06:35:14 CDT 2011

+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE.
- Volume 9, Issue 45, May 7, 2011.

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

++ISSUE 45 CONTENTS.

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

01: ACCESSIBILITY.
02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.
03: EVENTS.
04: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE.
05: JAVASCRIPT.
06: MISCELLANEOUS.
07: NAVIGATION.
08: PHP.
09: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.
10: TOOLS.
11: TYPOGRAPHY.
12: USABILITY.

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

[Contents ends.]

++ SECTION ONE: New references.

+01: ACCESSIBILITY.

Even More About Captioning Video
By John Eric Brandt.
"I've been doing more homework about captioning YouTube video and have
some more information to share..."
http://jebswebs.net/blog/2011/05/even-more-about-captioning-video/

The Angst of Accessibility
By James Edwards.
"There are many things in the world of web-development that are
contentious, controversial, or provoke a passionate response. Some
people's feathers are easily ruffled by talk of legacy IE support,
some by whether vendor extensions to CSS are a good idea; for some,
you only have to mention HTML5 to get a tirade of exasperated
complaints!..."
http://blogs.sitepoint.com/the-angst-of-accessibility/

More on Image alt Requirement in HTML5
By Adrian Roselli.
"I am the 'alt,' not the 'title' Nearly two weeks ago I wrote up a
post outlining the W3C decision to no longer require the alt attribute
on images in HTML5: Image alt Attributes Not Always Required in HTML5.
I was genuinely surprised to see that was the most popular post on
this blog and garnered the most re-tweets on Twitter I've ever had..."
http://blog.adrianroselli.com/2011/05/more-on-image-alt-requirement-in-html5.html

Do We Need Three Ways to Describe Images?
By Vlad Alexander.
"Many people interpret the HTML spec to define alt as a short
description of an image and longdesc as a detailed description. Is
this useful? This definition of alt does not take into consideration
the context of the image, making comprehension difficult when reading
content containing images that cannot be seen. The definition of
longdesc is also problematic, because content authors see little point
in writing two versions of a description whose only difference is
their length. So, what is it that we really need?..."
http://rebuildingtheweb.com/en/3-ways-to-describe-images/

+02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.

Got Messy CSS? You're not Alone
By Scott Gilbertson.
"You just got a new web design gig. There's a blank CSS file staring
out from your favorite text editor. This time, you tell yourself, it's
going to be clean and simple CSS. No crazy descendant selector
spaghetti code, no resorting to inline styles for quick changes, no
!important. Clean, simple CSS built on established best practices..."
http://www.webmonkey.com/2011/04/got-messy-css-youre-not-alone/

Using CSS3: Older Browsers And Common Considerations
By Dave Sparks.
"You make the experience as good as you can make it, and then people
will get an experience that is suitable to what they're viewing the
movie on..."
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2011/05/03/using-css3-older-browsers-and-common-considerations/

IE 7 Button Text Redraw Bug
By Zoe Mickley Gillenwater.
"I've run into an IE 7 bug that I've been unable to fix. I'm hoping
some of you, dear readers, can help me figure it out..."
http://zomigi.com/blog/ie-7-button-text-redraw-bug/

+03: EVENTS.

An Introduction to HTML5
May 14, 2011.
San Francisco California, U.S.A.
http://www.sfbayacm.org/?p=2581

+04: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE.

There Is No One Right Way To Categorize Information
By Susan Weinschenk.
"...The best way to organize information depends on who will be using
it, in what context, and for what purpose..."
http://www.whatmakesthemclick.net/2011/04/28/there-no-one-right-way-categorize-information/

+05: JAVASCRIPT.

Now You See Me
By Aaron Gustafson.
"Showing and hiding content using JavaScript-based page manipulations
for tabbed interfaces, collapsible elements, and accordion widgets is
a common development pattern. Learn how your choice of hiding
mechanism can influence content accessibility in assistive
technologies like screen readers in an excerpt from Adaptive Web
Design..."
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/now-you-see-me/

Validate URL syntax with JavaScript
By Roger Johansson.
"Something that I initially thought would be simple turned into hours
of googling for solutions. The problem? I wanted to use JavaScript to
check if a URL uses valid syntax..."
http://www.456bereastreet.com/archive/201105/validate_url_syntax_with_javascript/

+06: MISCELLANEOUS.

The Dreaded Creeping Scope
By Jonathan Nicol.
One of the most frustrating aspects of project management is dealing
with 'scope creep', also known as 'feature creep' or 'requirement
creep'. These ominous sounding terms refer to a project's scope being
changed after work is already underway. This phenomenon can impact on
the project's schedule, cost and complexity..."
http://f6design.com/journal/2011/04/29/the-dreaded-creeping-scope/

+07: NAVIGATION.

A Paradox of Navigation Metaphors for the Web
By Tom Johnson.
"In Ambient Findability, Peter Morville has an interesting observation
about visual maps. He notes that we use a lot of physical wayfinding
metaphors for the web - we go to a page, we follow a path, we search
for objects, we become lost, we use breadcrumbs to orient ourselves,
we surf around, we use sitemaps, we design with blueprints, we
practice information architecture, we navigate around, etc. These are
all metaphors for using the web. All of these terms are borrowed the
space of the physical world..."
http://idratherbewriting.com/2011/05/02/a-paradox-of-navigation-metaphors-for-the-web/

+08: PHP.

Sophisticated Object Iterators in PHP
By Craig Buckler.
"In my previous post, Simple Object Iterators in PHP, we discovered
how to iterate over array items defined within an object using a
foreach loop. However, what if you need to iterate over items which
are not stored in an array, e.g. records from a database or lines of
text read from a file?..."
http://blogs.sitepoint.com/php-object-iterators/

+09: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.

HTML5 Multi-Track Audio or Video
By Silvia Pfeiffer.
"In the last months, we've been working hard at the WHATWG and W3C to
spec out new HTML markup and a JavaScript interface for dealing with
audio or video content that has more than just one audio and video
track..."
http://blog.gingertech.net/2011/05/01/html5-multi-track-audio-or-video/

+10: TOOLS.

Installing the W3C Markup Validator on Mac OS X
By Roger Johansson.
"...Several (many) years ago I posted a Quicklink about a document on
Apple's Developer site called Installing the W3C HTML Validator on Mac
OS X, which obviously is useful for those of us who use Mac OS X. That
document is still online, but the instructions there don't seem to be
quite up-to-date. Instead of following them, here's what I did to get
the W3C Markup Validator running on Mac OS X 10.6..."
http://www.456bereastreet.com/archive/201105/installing_the_w3c_markup_validator_on_mac_os_x/

BoxShadows
By thany.nl
"Use this page to see the differences in various box-shadow
declarations across browsers."
http://thany.nl/apps/boxshadows/

+11: TYPOGRAPHY.

More Meaningful Typography
By Tim Brown.
"Designing with modular scales is one way to make more conscious,
meaningful choices about measurement on the web. Modular scales work
with - not against - responsive design and grids, provide a sensible
alternative to basing our compositions on viewport limitations du
jour, and help us achieve a visual harmony not found in compositions
that use arbitrary, conventional, or easily divisible numbers. As
we've seen in this article, though, modular scales are tools - not
dogma. The important thing for our readers, our craft, and our culture
is that we take responsibility for our design decisions. Because in so
doing, we'll make better ones."
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/more-meaningful-typography/

Font Sizing With Rem
By Jonathan Snook.
"Determining a unit of measurement to size our text can be a topic of
heated debate, even in this day and age. Unfortunately, there are
still various pros and cons that make the various techniques less
desirable. It's just a matter of which less-desirable is most
desirable..."
http://snook.ca/archives/html_and_css/font-size-with-rem

+12: USABILITY.

3 Important Usability Challenges for Designing Web Apps.
By Jared M. Spool
"...Matching the user's natural flow is just one challenge a web-based
application developer needs to address during the design and
development process. To help our clients, we've compiled a list of
three challenges they'll want to keep their eye on..."
http://www.uie.com/articles/web_app_challenges/

[Section one ends.]

++ SECTION TWO:

+13: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site?

Accessibility Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/accessibility.html

Association Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/associations.html

Book Listings.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/books.html

Cascading Style Sheets Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/css.html

Color Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/color.html

Dreamweaver Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/dreamweaver.html

Evaluation & Testing Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/testing.html

Event Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/events.html

Flash Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/flash.html

Information Architecture Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/architecture.html

JavaScript Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/javascript.html

Miscellaneous Web Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/misc.html

Navigation Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/navigation.html

PHP Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/php.html

Sites & Blogs Listing.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/sites.html

Standards, Guidelines & Pattern Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/standards.html

Tool Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/tools.html

Typography Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/type.html

Usability Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/usability.html

XML Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/xml.html

[Section two ends.]

++END NOTES.

+ SUBSCRIPTION INFO.

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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.]