[webdev] Web Design Update: April 5, 2012

Thu Apr 5 06:40:06 CDT 2012

+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE.
- Volume 10, Issue 41, April 5, 2012.

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

++ISSUE 41 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: DREAMWEAVER.
04: EVALUATION & TESTING.
05: EVENTS.
06: FLASH.
07: MISCELLANEOUS.
08: NAVIGATION.
09: TYPOGRAPHY.
10: USABILITY.

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

[Contents ends.]

++ SECTION ONE: New references.

+01: ACCESSIBILITY.

Closed Captioning of Internet Protocol-Delivered Video Programming:
Implementation of the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video
Accessibility Act of 2010.
By The Federal Communications Commission.
"Pursuant to the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video
Accessibility Act of 2010, the FCC revises its regulations to require
closed captioning of IP-delivered video programming that is published
or exhibited on television with captions after the effective date of
the new regulations..."
https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2012/03/30/2012-7247/closed-captioning-of-internet-protocol-delivered-video-programming-implementation-of-the

Adding ALT Text in Blogger
By John Eric Brandt.
"When inserting images into webpages, accessibility standards require
the use of something called "ALT description..."
http://jebswebs.blogspot.com/2012/04/adding-alt-text-in-blogger.html

+02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.

The EMs Have It - Proportional Media Queries
By Lyza Gardner.
"A core tenet of Responsive Web Design (RWD) is fluidity and
proportion. Instead of using fixed-width layouts, we enlightened web
devs and designers use percentages in our CSS. Font units aren't
pixels or points anymore, they're percentages (typically for top-level
baseline reset) or, more often, ems. And yet the vast majority of us
still write width-based media queries in pixels..."
http://blog.cloudfour.com/the-ems-have-it-proportional-media-queries-ftw/

How To Develop Scalable and Maintainable CSS
By Steven Bradley.
"...Most of us have been following the same set of best practices for
years. I certainly have. Unfortunately many of those practices were
based on incorrect assumptions about coupling and semantics...."
http://www.vanseodesign.com/css/scalable-maintainable/

Responsive CSS Grid Oldest Trick in the Book
By Niels Matthijs.
"...Best practices, even when they don't have an immediate effect, are
important, if not essential for future-proof coding. The grid system
I've been using for about 5 years now suddenly proves very effective
in accommodating responsive layouts. These are the finer moments in
one's career. Things are a little different if you want all-liquid
columns of course, but I'm not quite sure I think that's a very good
idea in the first place..."
http://www.onderhond.com/blog/work/responsive-grid-old-trick

Updating Only CSS - The Holy Grail of Web Design
By Chris Sanderson.
"...Ultimately this approach saved us hours of effort rebuilding the
Blue Cross site from scratch and allowed us to deliver a completely
new look and feel in a matter of weeks. Unless you're tackling a
simple site redesign or a minor rebrand, bear in mind that you will
have to make some markup changes no matter how good your coding is."
http://barn.headscape.co.uk/articles/updating-only-css/

+03: DREAMWEAVER.

Using Dreamweaver with Sass and Less
By Greg Rewis.
"...If you're wanting to use Sass or Less with Dreamweaver, here's how
to make it work..."
http://blog.assortedgarbage.com/2012/03/using-dreamweaver-with-sass-and-less/

+04: EVALUATION & TESTING.

Personas - Inclusive Requirements
By Caleb Tang.
"...Personas can be a useful design decision-making tool when creating
a product or service. It keeps the whole design process focused and
ensures a common language between team members and stakeholders. The
approach to creating personas can vary depending on context and
project requirements..."
http://www.foolproof.co.uk/personas-inclusive-requirements/

+05: EVENTS.

WebVisions
May 15-18, 2012.
Portland, Oregon, U.S.A.
http://www.webvisionsevent.com/

Real-World HTML5
May 14, 2012 in Canberra, Australia.
May 21, 2012 in Brisbane, Australia.
May 30, 2012 in Sydney, Australia.
June 4, 2012 in Adelaide, Australia.
June 13, 2012 in Melbourne, Australia.
http://www.maxdesign.com.au/workshops/#sec1

Real-World CSS3
May 15, 2012 in Canberra, Australia.
May 22, 2012 in Brisbane, Australia.
May 31, 2012 in Sydney, Australia.
June 5, 2012 in Adelaide, Australia.
June 14, 2012 in Melbourne, Australia.
http://www.maxdesign.com.au/workshops/#sec2

Real-World Accessibility
May 16, 2012 in Canberra, Australia.
May 23, 2012 in Brisbane, Australia.
June 1, 2012 in Sydney, Australia.
June 6, 2012 in Adelaide, Australia.
June 15, 2012 in Melbourne, Australia.
http://www.maxdesign.com.au/workshops/#sec3

+06: FLASH.

Adobe Touts Tools for Flash-to-HTML Conversion
By Stephen Shankland.
"The company is working closely with CreateJS to help Flash developers
-- and Adobe itself -- move to Web standards. The technology dovetails
with an upcoming Flash Pro CS6 feature, too."
http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-57407926-264/adobe-touts-tools-for-flash-to-html-conversion

+07: MISCELLANEOUS.

Throw Away Photoshop and be True to Your Medium
By James Weiner.
"At GDS, we have been building teams focused around product rather
than teams focused solely on expertise and I am pretty typical of this
ethos. My background is graphic design, so working on the web meant I
needed to learn how to build websites as well as designing what they
look like. It forced me to think about users' interactions with, and
their journeys through the sites I designed and built..."
http://digital.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/2012/03/29/breaking-down-walls-designing-in-browser/

Usability Engineers Versus Designer - The Process Problem
By Jonathan Arnowitz.
"...Usability Engineers may be great designers or maybe crap designers
but as long as they include objective design rationale for their
proposed solutions they will always be helpful..."
http://www.stroomt.nl/journal/usability-engineers-vs-designer-process-problem

+08: NAVIGATION.

Mobile Navigation Design and Tutorial
By Nick La.
"One of the common challenges when designing responsive design for
mobile is the navigation menu. If the site has many sections or pages,
it gets challenging to squeeze all the items into a small mobile
resolution. The navigation most likely ends up running into multiple
lines or the buttons stacking on top each other..."
http://webdesignerwall.com/tutorials/mobile-navigation-design-tutorial

+09: TYPOGRAPHY.

Drop Caps - Historical Use And Current Best Practices
By Laura Franz.
"The practice of using a large letter to mark the start of a text has
been around for almost two thousand years. Illustrated caps increased
usability by marking important passages and guiding readers through
the text. Unlike their historic counterparts, drop caps on the Web
don't add value in terms of usability or readability-and they are hard
for Web developers to control, often rendering differently across
browsers."
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2012/04/03/drop-caps-historical-use-and-current-best-practices/

+10: USABILITY.

Extending the Experience Beyond the Device
By Tim R. Todish.
"Over the last few years, the popularity of UX has grown by leaps and
bounds. Companies have come to realize the importance of offering
engaging experiences to their users, lest they risk losing them to
competitors that have invested time and money into improving their
product and service experiences. An interesting side effect of this
enhanced focus on UX is that it has helped make users more
sophisticated. This, however, can be a double-edged sword; as users
become more sophisticated their expectations also increase, and UX
professionals must find new ways to meet these elevated expectations.
One way to achieve this is to extend the experience beyond the
device."
http://uxmag.com/articles/extending-the-experience-beyond-the-device

Quieting the Outcry Over Software User Interface Redesigns
By Scott Plewes.
"Companies that have successful software products often know that
their user interfaces need improvement, but they may be concerned that
any sort of major change might upset their user base..."
http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2012/04/quieting-the-outcry-over-software-user-interface-redesigns.php

[Section one ends.]

++ SECTION TWO:

+11: 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.

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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.]