[webdev] Web Design Update: November 29, 2012

Laura Carlson lcarlson at d.umn.edu
Thu Nov 29 06:25:31 CST 2012 

+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE.
- Volume 10, Issue 23, November 29, 2012.

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

++ISSUE 23 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: EVALUATION & TESTING.
04: EVENTS.
05: JAVASCRIPT.
06: MISCELLANEOUS.
07: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.
08: TYPOGRAPHY.
09: USABILITY.

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

[Contents ends.]


++ SECTION ONE: New references.

+01: ACCESSIBILITY.

How Accessible are Google Apps?
By Meris Stansbury.
"Accessible technology experts cite many problems with Google Apps,
though they say improvements are occurring..."
http://www.ecampusnews.com/technologies/how-accessible-are-google-apps/

Google Has Not Met Accessibility Standards
By Giacomo Bologna.
"Laura Patterson, the University's chief information officer, made
appearances at both Central Student Government and Rackham Student
Government meetings last week to address concerns with the
University's transition to Google services, which have been criticized
for a lack of accessibility for disabled students..."
https://www.michigandaily.com/news/u-cio-google-has-not-met-accessibility-standards

Accessible Apps 'More Usable by Everyone'
By Dan Jellinek.
"Mobile apps that are designed to be accessible to people with
disabilities are more usable by everyone, the London meeting of a
group for usability professionals has heard..."
http://www.headstar.com/egblive/?p=1254

Accessibility in HTML5
By Clarissa Peterson.
"This is a summary of my session on HTML5 accessibility at
Accessibility Camp Toronto (I didn't use slides for my talk, so you're
getting this instead)..."
http://www.clarissapeterson.com/2012/11/html5-accessibility/

Recent Legal Issues in Higher Education and Web Accessibility
By Cyndi Rowland.
"... have found that if you are not following this aspect of web
accessibility it is easy to lose sight of the momentum that is
building rapidly. With that in mind, I thought it might be helpful to
briefly review what has been happening in the recent past. What I
share below are thumbnail sketches of legal complaints and resolutions
that affect web accessibility in higher education since 2009. If I
have missed anything and you have other complaints or resolutions to
share, please add your comments below. I am hopeful that this can be
useful to those trying to find this content in one place..."
http://ncdae.org/blog/recent-legal-issues/

Web Accessibility Law in Higher Education
By Jonathan Whiting.
"I am often asked by people if their institution has a legal
obligation to provide web content that is accessible to individuals
with disabilities. The short answer to this question is yes, but
sometimes there is confusion regarding which laws apply to a specific
institution. This post provides a quick glance at the three most
significant laws regarding web accessibility in higher
education-Section 508, The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and
Section 504..."
http://ncdae.org/blog/web-accessibility-law/

Legal Costs Can be Big to Defend Inaccessible Web Content in
Postsecondary Education
By Linda Goetze.
"The cost that may result from legal action is a strong incentive for
institutions of higher education to improve their efforts to make web
content accessible for those who benefit from it. This article
outlines some of the costs incurred when litigation is the last
resort..."
http://ncdae.org/resources/articles/legalcosts.php


+02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.

Responsive Column Layouts
By Nick La.
"Typically, to create a column layout, you would need to add the first
or last classes to reset the margin space and clear the float. Today
I'm going to share a very simple CSS trick to create a responsive
column layout using nth-of-type pseudo class..."
http://webdesignerwall.com/tutorials/responsive-column-layouts

In Defense of Descendant Selectors and ID Elements
By Jeffery Zeldman.
"...I find occasional stinkers. Take the notion, now concretizing into
dogma, that id should almost never be used because it has 'too much
specificity,' and that class names are always preferable.
Respectfully, I call bunk..."
http://www.zeldman.com/2012/11/21/in-defense-of-descendant-selectors-and-id-elements/

Native CSS Feature Detection Via the @supports Rule
By Chris Mills.
"We have practised feature detection to allow us to provide
appropriate code to browsers with differing levels of standards
support for a while now, but we've always needed 3rd party libraries
to handle it. But not for much longer: The CSS3 Conditional Rules
Module Level 3 provides the @supports at-rule and associated
JavaScript API, providing a native mechanism for doing CSS feature
detection. In this article we'll give you the lowdown on how this rule
works, looking at a real example in the process..."
http://dev.opera.com/articles/view/native-css-feature-detection-via-the-supports-rule/

Why Use @supports Instead of Modernizr?
By Bruce Lawson.
"...The reason to use @supports over Modernizr is performance;
functionality that's built into the browser will always be faster than
adding it in script. Removing an external dependancy saves an HTTP
request to download Modernizr and doesn't require time to execute the
JavaScript..."
http://my.opera.com/ODIN/blog/why-use-supports-instead-of-modernizr

Native CSS Feature Detection With @supports
By Craig Buckler.
"Consider the following CSS snippet..."
http://www.sitepoint.com/supports-native-css-feature-detection/


03: EVALUATION & TESTING.

10 Things to Know About Unmoderated Usability Testing
By Jeff Sauro.
"...Here are 10 things to know about this essential usability testing
method that's reducing the cost and improving the frequency of
usability testing..."
http://www.measuringusability.com/blog/unmoderated-things.php


+04: EVENTS.

MinneWebCon
April 15-16, 2013.
Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.A.
http://www.minnewebcon.umn.edu/

UX Immersion Conference 2013
April 22-24, 2013.
Seattle, Washington, U.S.A.
http://www.uie.com/events/ux_immersion/2013/

Learn. Act. Innovate.
April 24, 2013.
Newcastle upon Tyne, England, United Kingdom
http://industryconf.com/


+05: JAVASCRIPT.

A Few New Things Coming To JavaScript
By Addy Osmani.
"In this post, I will review some of the features I'm personally
looking forward to landing and being used in 2013 and beyond..."
http://addyosmani.com/blog/a-few-new-things-coming-to-javascript/

How To Define Required Inputs With ARIA And HTML5
By Ted Drake.
"It's important to let users know when a form input is required. Most
developers do this via visual tricks; such as placing an asterisk near
the input, using color, or other background images. While this helps
the sighted viewers, we need to define the labels clearly for screen
reader users..."
http://developer.yahoo.com/blogs/ydn/posts/2012/11/how-to-define-required-inputs-with-aria-and-html5/


+06: MISCELLANEOUS.

What You'd Need to Replace the Web
By Ian Hickson.
"Occasionally, people e-mail me to say something along the lines of
'I've come up with something to replace HTML!'. So far I haven't seen
anyone come close. I hope that one day, someone will actually come up
with something that really will replace what the Web is today..."
https://plus.google.com/107429617152575897589/posts/SiLdNL9MsFw


+07: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.

New Main Element Approved, then Blocked
By Adrian Roselli.
"When I saw main proposed as an element a few months ago (or content
or maincontent as alternate names), I didn't think the process to fold
it into the HTML specification would move very quickly..."
http://blog.adrianroselli.com/2012/11/new-main-element-approved-then-blocked.html

The Use Cases for a <main> Element in HTML
By Silvia Pfeiffer.
"The W3C HTML WG and the WHATWG are currently discussing the
introduction of a <main> element into HTML..."
http://blog.gingertech.net/2012/11/28/the-use-cases-for-a-main-element-in-html/


+08: TYPOGRAPHY.

Text Contrasts
By Openweb.
"Text contrasts are a key point for website accessibility. They ensure
maximum readability for people with permanent vision impairments
(vision impairment, etc.), temporary impairment (fatigue, poor screen
quality, etc.)… and all other people..."
http://openweb.eu.org/articles/text-contrasts

Effects of Typography on Reader Mood and Productivity
By Dmitry Fadeyev.
"...The lesson here is twofold. First, good typography has a clear
impact on the mood of the reader. People who are reading a well
typeset page are more engaged in the experience and find that time
flies by faster. Second, research has shown that positive mood
improves creative problem solving1, and since typography can be used
to influence mood, it is possible that good typography also has direct
effect on our productivity, at least in the sphere of certain creative
tasks. Good typographic design then is not just a way to communicate
the character of your text and strengthen reader engagement, it could
boost their cognitive performance, too."
http://www.usabilitypost.com/2012/11/23/effects-of-typography-on-reader-mood-and-productivity/


+09: USABILITY.

Blurring of the Lines
By Dmitry Fadeyev.
"...It doesn't make any sense to port a user interface optimized for
mobile touch devices to the desktop, and neither does it make sense to
give tablet users the desktop interface. Each was custom built for its
own environment, and each is optimized to be operated by different
methods. In their compromise, what Microsoft are doing now is giving a
tablet to people who want to buy a PC, and giving a PC to people who
want to buy a tablet. Since there is no hybrid device that works great
for everything, there is no point in compromising the experience by
designing a hybrid UI."
http://www.usabilitypost.com/2012/11/21/blurring-of-the-lines/

There is No Such Thing as the Internet or Web Anymore
By Gerry McGovern.
"The Internet has become so pervasive that people don't think they are
on it anymore, even when they are.'
http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/new-thinking/there-no-such-thing-internet-or-web-anymore


[Section one ends.]


++ SECTION TWO:

+10: 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.

WEB DESIGN UPDATE is available by subscription. For information on how
to subscribe and unsubscribe please visit:
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/webdev_listserv.html
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 guideline information please visit:
http://www.headstar.com/ten


+ 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.]

More information about the Webdev mailing list