[webdev] Web Design Update: November 29, 2013

Laura Carlson lcarlson at d.umn.edu
Fri Nov 29 11:01:34 CST 2013


+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE.
- Volume 12, Issue 23, November 29, 2013.

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: COLOR.
04: DRUPAL.
05: HTML5.
07: JAVASCRIPT.
08: MISCELLANEOUS.
09: NAVIGATION.
10: USABILITY.

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

[Contents ends.]


++ SECTION ONE: New references.

+01: ACCESSIBILITY.

Image alt Exception Change Re-Re-Re-Requested
By Adrian Roselli.
"This post is an unexpected follow-up to my post Image alt Exception
Change Re-Re-Requested (note one fewer "re-") from June 2012. Back
then, some had called into question the need for alt attributes to be
required and ubiquitous on all img tags. Well, guess what - alt is
back under review..."
http://blog.adrianroselli.com/2013/11/image-alt-exception-change-re-re-re.html

Accessible Video in WordPress
By Joe Dolson.
"Since version 3.6, WordPress has incorporated the MediaElementJS
library in core to handle the output of video files. It's a great
library - it has support for captions and subtitles; support for
chapters; support for fallback formats of video; support for YouTube;
keyboard support - everything you'd want to have for displaying video
accessibly. That's totally exciting!
But there's a 'but'..."
https://www.joedolson.com/articles/2013/11/accessible-video-wordpress/

USDOJ Seeks to Intervene in Lawsuit Alleging H&R Block's Tax
Preparation Website is Inaccessible to Persons with Disabilities
By Global Accessibility News.
"The Civil Rights Division and U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz announced
yesterday that they have moved to intervene in National Federation of
the Blind et al v. HRB Digital LLC et al, a private lawsuit alleging
disability discrimination by HRB Digital LLC and HRB Tax Group Inc.,
subsidiaries of H&R Block Inc.  In the memorandum and proffered
complaint filed by the United States in support of its motion to
intervene, the United States alleges that the H&R Block companies
discriminate against individuals with disabilities and that their
website, www.hrblock.com , is being operated in violation of Title III
of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), notwithstanding
well-established and readily available guidelines for delivering web
content in an accessible manner..."
http://globalaccessibilitynews.com/2013/11/26/usdoj-seeks-to-intervene-in-lawsuit-alleging-hr-blocks-tax-preparation-website-is-inaccessible-to-persons-with-disabilities/

W3C Web Accessibility Initiative: 2013 in Review
By Scott Hollier.
"Reflecting on 2013, it's been an exciting year for both mainstream
consumer devices and web accessibility..."
http://www.accessiq.org/news/w3c-column/2013/11/w3c-web-accessibility-initiative-2013-in-review

HTML5 Accessibility (Video)
By Steve Faulkner.
Steve's Paris Web Conference presentation.
http://www.paris-web.fr/2013/conferences/html5-accessibility.php


+02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.

Print Styles Are Media Queries
By Adrian Roselli.
"I have alluded to this point in the past. Usually when I get off on a
rant about print styles, I lump it into the overall process of making
responsive sites and I use media query formatting in my examples. But
I haven't just flat-out said that print styles are media queries..."
http://blog.adrianroselli.com/2013/11/print-styles-are-media-queries.html


+03: COLOR.

1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum)
By Rakesh Paladugula.
"...People who have color vision deficit will not be able to read the
text if the text and its background do not have enough contrast. Web
designers should ensure that the text and background have adequate
contrast. The intention of this guideline is to help the people with
color vision deficit read the content without the use of assistive
technologies such as screen magnifiers or make specialized settings
such as high contrast mode..."
http://www.maxability.co.in/2013/11/1-4-3-contrast-minimum/


+04: DRUPAL.

OpenPublic
By OpenPublic.
"OpenPublic is an open-source, content management system (CMS) based
on Drupal and tailored to the needs of government."
http://openpublicapp.com


+06: HTML5.

Hidden and Aria-hidden Support on the UP!
By Steve Faulkner.
"...support landscape is no longer depressing..."
http://blog.paciellogroup.com/2013/11/html5-accessibility-chops-hidden-aria-hidden-support/

HTML5 Bones
By Ian Devlin.
"HTML5 Bones is a template that goes back to basics and provides you
with the bare minimum required to get going with HTML5..."
http://html5bones.com/

HTML5 - Section or Article?
By Ian Devlin.
"One of the main questions I have seen popping up all over the place
in relation to HTML5, in forums, StackOverflow, and Twitter, is 'which
do I use: article or section?..."
http://www.iandevlin.com/blog/2011/04/html5/html5-section-or-article

The HTML5 Meter Element
By Pankaj Parashar.
"The following is a guest post by Pankaj Parashar. Pankaj has written
here before, last time about the progress element. Fitting indeed then
to write again about the very related meter element. They are
different both functionally and semantically, so read on..."
http://css-tricks.com/html5-meter-element/

No to DRM in HTML
By Jens O. Meiert.
"It's been quiet around DRM lately so I like to share my opinion, in
brief: DRM doesn't belong into nor anywhere near HTML..."
http://meiert.com/en/blog/20131122/drm-and-html/


+07: JAVASCRIPT.

Progressive Enhancement and the Content-Out Approach
By Aaron Gustafson.
"...While philosophically different, from a practical standpoint
progressive enhancement and graceful degradation can look quite
similar, which can be confusing. To bring the differences into focus,
I like to boil the relationship between the two philosophies down to
something akin to standardized testing logic: all experiences that are
created using progressive enhancement will degrade gracefully in older
browsers, but not all experiences built following graceful degradation
are progressively enhanced..."
http://www.uie.com/articles/progressive_enhancement/

Initializing an Array with Values
By Axel Rauschmayer.
"It is not a frequent use case, but it comes up occasionally:
Producing an array [1] of a given length that is filled with values.
This blog post explains how to do it and what to watch out for..."
http://www.2ality.com/2013/11/initializing-arrays.html

When JavaScript Feature Detection Fails
By James Edwards.
"...The general rule is this: reliance on automatic type conversion is
safe for objects and functions, but is not necessarily safe for
strings and numbers, or values which might be null..."
http://www.sitepoint.com/javascript-feature-detection-fails/

An Introduction To Full-Stack JavaScript
By Alejandro Hernandez.
"Nowadays, with any Web app you build, you have dozens of
architectural decisions to make. And you want to make the right ones:
You want to use technologies that allow for rapid development,
constant iteration, maximal efficiency, speed, robustness and more.
You want to be lean and you want to be agile. You want to use
technologies that will help you succeed in the short and long term.
And those technologies are not always easy to pick out."
http://coding.smashingmagazine.com/2013/11/21/introduction-to-full-stack-javascript/


+08: MISCELLANEOUS.

Devising a Strategy for Responsive Design
By Jared M. Spool.
"This year, it will be hard to find an organization that doesn't
prioritize making their web site responsive. Yet, as we talk to
organizations moving in this direction, we're finding they haven't
nailed down their strategy for getting there yet..."
http://www.uie.com/articles/strategy_for_responsive_design/

Mobile First vs Mobile-Second a Nuance
By Niels Matthijs.
"After a surprisingly short transition period, the mobile-first css
approach has become the de facto way of implementing responsive
designs. Unless you're retrofitting a responsive design on an existing
site, there really is no question about how to structure your css. But
lingering underneath the reassuring cloak of best practise comfort
there is a little nuance that is lost on some. There are basically two
ways to approach a mobile-first css setup and only one of them is
sane..."
http://www.onderhond.com/blog/mobile-first-alternative

Mobile Up, Widescreen Down, or Somewhere In-Between?
By Steven Bradley.
"Designing responsively means designing a site for several key points
based on device and conditions and then developing flexibly between
those points..."
http://www.vanseodesign.com/web-design/mobile-up-widescreen-down/

The Power Of Simplicity (Video)
By Jeremy Keith.
"We're working on increasingly complex websites. There's a tempting to
match this growth with increasingly complex solutions. But there's a
real value in keeping things simple ... or at least starting things
simple. If you can build a solid robust foundation, there's a good
chance that your work will be future-friendly..."
http://vimeo.com/79556632


+09: NAVIGATION.

A Few Tips on Accessible Links
By Gosia Mlynarczyk.
"This video gives you some tips on how to create accessible links."
http://www.nomensa.com/blog/2013/a-few-tips-on-accessible-links/


+10: USABILITY.

Usability 101 Quiz
By Jeff Sauro.
"...See how well you can answer some questions on the core concepts of
usability, with an emphasis on usability evaluation..."
http://www.measuringusability.com/blog/usability-quiz.php

Responsive Design Won't Fix Your Content Problem
By Karen McGrane.
"...Responsive design itself won't fix your content-no one ever said
it would. But the opportunity to implement a responsive redesign is
also the opportunity to fix your content and its underlying strategy.
It may seem more complicated to edit your content and fix your
processes and systems at the same time you're designing a new site-but
in fact, pretending you don't have to solve these problems just makes
the job harder. Smart organizations will see this as a benefit, not a
drawback, and will use this chance to make a better website, not just
a squishy one."
http://alistapart.com/column/responsive-design-wont-fix-your-content-problem

Seamlessness in the Cross-Channel User Experience
By Janelle Estes.
"A seamless user experience, regardless of channel or device, is one
of the 4 requirements for a usable cross-channel experience. Companies
and organizations that allow users to switch channels while completing
tasks have a competitive advantage."
http://www.nngroup.com/articles/seamless-cross-channel/

Conversion Rates
By Jakob Nielsen.
"Increased conversion is one of the strongest ROI arguments for better
user experience and more user research. Track over time, because it's
a relative metric."
http://www.nngroup.com/articles/conversion-rates/


[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.]


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