[webdev] Web Design Update: March 14, 2013

Thu Mar 14 06:12:31 CDT 2013

+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE.
- Volume 10, Issue 38, March 14, 2013.

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

++ISSUE 38 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: DRUPAL.
04: EVENTS.
05: JAVASCRIPT.
06: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.
07: TOOLS.
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.

Call for Review - HTML Image Description Extension (longdesc)
By Shawn Henry.
"The W3C HTML Working Group today published the First Public Working
Draft of: HTML Image Description Extension
http://www.w3.org/TR/html-longdesc
This specification ("HTML-longdesc") enables web authors to provide
longer text descriptions for complex images. It defines the "longdesc"
attribute to link descriptions with images in HTML5 content.
HTML-longdesc is an extension specification that is part of the HTML5
family of specifications, which enables it to evolve independently and
be finalized more rapidly. HTML-longdesc is part of W3C's work to
ensure that the Open Web Platform is accessible to people with
disabilities..."
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-wai-ig/2013JanMar/0148.html

NFB Proposes Bill on Accessibility Standards for Digital Instructional Materials
By Jarret Cummings.
"The National Federation of the Blind (NFB) has released a fact sheet
for proposed national legislation to enact a key recommendation of the
Postsecondary Accessible Instructional Materials (AIM) Commission
report released over a year ago. (For more on the AIM Commission,
please see the end of this post.) NFB's legislative proposal would
have Congress direct the U.S. Access Board, which develops
accessibility guidelines under the Americans with Disabilities Act and
the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, to establish such guidelines for
digital instructional materials at the postsecondary level, including
related delivery technologies. The proposal would further direct the
U.S. Department of Justice to adopt those guidelines as enforceable
standards under the ADA and Rehabilitation Act. This would make
colleges and universities subject to legal and regulatory sanction if
the digital instructional materials and delivery technologies they
deploy do not meet the standards..."
http://www.educause.edu/blogs/jcummings/nfb-proposes-bill-accessibility-standards-digital-instructional-materials

Overwhelmed? Stick To Basics
By Dennis E. Lembree.
"A few people at the CSUN conference last week commented on the
overbearing WCAG 2.0 specs. Many folks agree that WCAG is extremely
large and difficult to read (not unlike the HTML5 spec). And
especially for accessibility newbies, WCAG can be a difficult place to
start..."
http://www.webaxe.org/overwhelmed-stick-to-basics/

Web Accessibility Lessons from Indiana Jones
By Derek Featherstone.
"Learn an important accessibility lesson from Indiana Jones: when you
take something in an interface away, you need to replace it with
something that serves the same purpose just as well, or even
better...."
http://simplyaccessible.com/article/indiana-jones/

+02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.

Adapting to the Ink - Tips And Tricks For Print Style Sheets
By Dudley Storey.
"Print continues to be treated somewhat cursorily by most Web
designers, who tend to be obsessed with pixels rather than printers.
In the real world, a significant portion of people rely on pages
printed from websites for reference: there's still something about
having a physical sheet of paper in one's hands, even in this age of
digital saturation."
http://coding.smashingmagazine.com/2013/03/08/tips-tricks-print-style-sheets/

Calling QR in Print CSS Only When Needed
By Adrian A. Roselli.
"For those of us who put together print styles for our sites, we've
probably tossed around the idea of embedding QR codes so that users
can quickly get back to a page they have printed. In the hardcopy
version of my article for .net Magazine, "Make your website printable
with CSS," I show how you can embed QR codes in your page (it's not
included in the online version)..."
http://blog.adrianroselli.com/2013/03/calling-qr-in-print-css-only-when-needed.html

Learn CSS Layout
By learnlayout.
"This site teaches the CSS fundamentals that are used in any website's layout."
http://learnlayout.com/

+03: DRUPAL.

Getting Started with Drupal 7 Tutorials
By Level Ten.
"Welcome to the Getting Started with Drupal 7 video tutorial course.
Drupal is an incredibly powerful construction kit for building dynamic
websites. It is also free and open source. Thus it is highly
accessible for use on any website."
http://www.leveltendesign.com/tutorial/course/getting-started-drupal-7

Drupal Accessibility User Testing Compilation (YouTube Video)
By kat3drx.
"Presented as part of the session "Accessibility in Drupal 6 and
Drupal 7" at DrupalCon San Francisco..."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMlzQRdA9tE

Drupal Accessibility (YouTube Video)
By Mike Gifford.
"A quick usability test for a friend with mobility challenges."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyIHtNHYroM

Future of Accessibility Checking Discussion - QUAIL, Node
Accessibility, Accessible Content, etc.
By Kevin Miller.
"There has been a very good discussion going on in the issue queue of
Accessible Content about the future of that module, as well as how it
will relate to other initiatives to provide accessibility testing in
Drupal. With the QUAIL project now at a stable state, I have been
working on a complete rewrite of the Accessible Content module, but I
would like to ensure we don't have duplicitous work going, and that
any direction we go in is vetted by this community."
http://groups.drupal.org/node/287773

Providing Responsive Images with Drupal
By Michael Herchel.
"Serving images to mobile devices can prove a major annoyance for
developers. Michael Herchel highlights a number of methods to make
life more flexible."
http://www.netmagazine.com/tutorials/providing-responsive-images-drupal

Create a Responsive Drupal Theme
By Tim Millwood.
"Drupal themes enable you to change the look and feel of your site.
Tim Millwood explains how to create a theme that makes it appear
differently on different screen sizes "
http://www.netmagazine.com/tutorials/create-responsive-drupal-theme

Tips to Create Drupal Themes with Dreamweaver
By WebDea.
"Drupal themes consist of PHP and web standards (CSS and HTML). You
can use PHP with Drupal API and make Drupal theme without templates.
Those who prefer markup can take advantage of templates within a theme
folder when no custom code necessary. Such templates are known as TPL
files because of their .tpl or .tpl.php file extensions."
http://www.webdea.com/drupal-themes-with-dreamweaver.html

+04: EVENTS.

DrupalCon
May 20-24, 2013.
Portland, Oregon, U.S.A.
http://portland2013.drupal.org/conference

+05: JAVASCRIPT.

A Note About Using WAI-ARIA
By Sailesh Panchang.
"'Using WAI-ARIA wherever and whenever we can' goes against the basic
tenets of ARIA outlined in the Introduction to ARIA. ARIA needs to be
used only when needed and I have been highlighting this in my email
responses on various public lists for 4+ years because many need to be
reminded of this."
http://www.deque.com/wai-aria-opinion

Sometimes You Have to Use Illegal WAI-ARIA to Make Stuff Work
By Marco Zehe.
"In this blog post, I'd like to recap an experience I just had while
trying to apply some accessibility enhancements to the NoodleApp
app.net client..."
http://www.marcozehe.de/2013/03/08/sometimes-you-have-to-use-illegal-wai-aria-to-make-stuff-work/

+06: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.

Wendy Seltzer - DRM and the Open Web
By Wendy Seltzer.
"There's been lots of buzz about the proposed addition of "Encrypted
Media Extensions" to HTML5, and the related extension of the HTML5
Working Group charter to include support for "protected content." In
the wake of the announcement that these are "in-scope" for HTML, we
wanted to explain what this means -- and doesn't mean -- for W3C and
the Open Web..."
http://www.w3.org/QA/2013/03/drm_and_the_open_web.html

+07: TOOLS.

Drupal API for Dreamweaver
By xtnd.us.
"Reduce tons of typing and get rid of the plain text look when editing
Drupal files in Dreamweaver. If you are into Drupal and use, or want
to use, Dreamweaver then you really need this extension."
http://xtnd.us/dreamweaver/drupalapi

aViewer 2013
By Steve Faulkner.
"Here at the paciello group we are very excited by the improvements
being made to our aViewer accessibility API information inspection
tool. We want to share the updated aViewer with you and in the process
elicit your feedback on the new features and any bugs you may find..."
http://blog.paciellogroup.com/2013/03/aviewer-2013/

+08: TYPOGRAPHY.

Designing for the Reading Experience
By Marko Dugonjic.
"With the rise of Web fonts as well as affordable hosted Web font
services and ready-made kits, typography is reclaiming its title as
design queen, ruler of all graphic and Web design."
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2013/02/18/designing-reading-experience/

The Era of Symbol Fonts
By Brian Suda.
"Welcome to the third epoch in web performance optimization: symbol
fonts. Everything from bullets and arrows to feed and social media
icons can now be bundled into a single, tiny font file that can be
cached and rendered at various sizes without needing multiple images
or colors. This has the same caching and file size benefits as a CSS
sprite, plus additional benefits we're only now realizing with
high-resolution displays. Discover the advantages and explore the
challenges you'll encounter when using a symbol font."
http://alistapart.com/article/the-era-of-symbol-fonts

40 Best Typeface Combinations in Web Design
By Ali Qayyum.
"When it comes to prints or Web Design, typography is one of the most
important part. So selectng the right type of typography for your web
design is one of the most crucial part. Keeping the small textured
detail in mind while designing a website can sometimes be enough to
get amazing results. A good combination of typeface can enhance the
look of your website a lot! In websites, you can use typography in
many forms: big bold headers, simple and clean menus and explanatory
text etc..."
http://smashinghub.com/40-best-typeface-combinations-in-web-design.htm

+09: USABILITY.

Breaking Free of the Print Design Mentality
By Paul Boag.
In a world where even your watch can access the web, it amazes me how
many are still fighting for pixel control over their websites. It's
time to put them straight.
http://boagworld.com/design/breaking-free-of-the-print-design-mentality/

Leaning into Longform
By Nicole Jones.
"Today's web designers and writers have to accommodate a variety of
devices and text formats. So what can we do to embrace this shifting
landscape of content and devices? The answer is deceptively simple:
make readers comfortable, no matter what they're reading or what
device they use..."
http://webstandardssherpa.com/reviews/leaning-into-longform/

Giving Context to Your Content
By Sandi Wassmer.
"In the first of a four-part series, Sandi Wassmer establishes a
framework for content strategy..."
http://www.netmagazine.com/features/giving-context-your-content

Improving UX Through Front-End Performance
By Lara Swanson.
"Adding half a second to a search results page can decrease traffic
and ad revenues by 20 percent, says a Google study. For every
additional 100 milliseconds of load time, sales decrease by 1 percent,
Amazon finds. Users expect pages to load in two seconds-and after
three seconds, up to 40 percent will simply leave. The message is
clear: we must make performance optimization a fundamental part of how
we design, build, and test every site we create-for every device.
Design for performance; measure the results."
http://alistapart.com/article/improving-ux-through-front-end-performance

Save Bandwidth with WebP - Soon with Fallback
By Bruce Lawson.
"A long time ago, 'responsive' didn't mean 'resize your browser window
repeatedly to make a website reformat while your fellow designers
orgasm themselves into a moleskine atop a puddle'. It simply meant
'Reacting quickly and positively', meaning that the page loaded fast
and you could interact with it immediately."
http://www.brucelawson.co.uk/2013/save-bandwidth-webp-with-fallback/

Windows 8 - Design Over Usability
By Simson Garfinkel.
"Windows 8 gets a lot right, but Microsoft's determination to offer
computer and mobile users the same interface makes the operating
system somewhat weird."
http://www.technologyreview.com/review/511116/windows-8-design-over-usability/

[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.

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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.]