[webdev] Web Design Update: March 12, 2015

[Laura Carlson]

+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE.
- Volume 13, Issue 38, March 12, 2015.

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: EVALUATION & TESTING.
04: EVENTS.
05: HTML5.
06: JAVASCRIPT.
07: MISCELLANEOUS.
08: NAVIGATION.
09: TOOLS.
10: USABILITY.

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

[Contents ends.]


++ SECTION ONE: New references.

+01: ACCESSIBILITY.

Form Elements and Accessibility
By Rakesh Paladugula.
"Hyperlinks and forms are the most commonly found interactive elements
on the web page. Providing accessibility features for forms is the
most easiest but commonly ignored part while developing a website..."
http://www.maxability.co.in/2015/03/form-elements-accessibility/

On Adding Captions to Videos
By Deborah Edwards-Onoro.
"...It's straightforward to upload the transcript for a video, I
explained. If you used a transcript for the video, simply upload the
transcript file to YouTube..."
http://www.lireo.com/on-adding-captions-to-videos/

Cognitive Accessibility 101 - Part 1: What is Cognitive Accessibility
By Jamie Knight.
"This article is based on the content of my 2015 CSUN session of the
same title. It's a very light summery of the core content. I will
split the talk up into a number of posts so that I can get it out
quicker..."
http://jkg3.com/Journal/cognitive-accessibility-101-part-1-what-is-cognitive-accessibility

WCAG 2.0 Checklist
By Paul J Adam.
http://pauljadam.com/wcag20checklist.html

Better Accessibility Needs User Research
By Whitney Quesenbery.
"An excerpt from Whitney's and Sarah's book A Web for Everyone,
provided by Rosenfeld Media..."
https://www.uie.com/articles/better_accessibility_needs_user_research/

Every Little Thing The Refresh Does For Low Vision Users...
By Denis Boudreau.
"...I say we cannot let the 508 Refresh happen without a minimum of
adjustments for low vision users. Planning provisions for efficient
word wrapping and setting a percentage to which text can still be
resized without loss of content or functionality is not rocket
science..."
http://www.denisboudreau.org/blog/2015/03/every-little-thing-the-refresh-does-for-low-vision-users/

Secret Life of an Accessible Media Player
By Henny Swan.
"Below are the slides I gave at CSUN 2015 on accessible user
experience for media player..."
http://www.iheni.com/secret-life-of-an-accessible-media-player/

Accessibility as a Framework
By David A. Kennedy.
"...Infusing accessibility patterns and best practices into your
project will get you to higher-quality products faster. It's the
framework that comes with the Web."
http://davidakennedy.com/2015/03/10/accessibility-as-a-framework/

My Testimony at the CSUN 2015 Access Board Hearing: Make Haste
By Karl Groves.
"...You must not delay this process any longer. You must make haste.
Finish what so many people have worked so hard on. Make haste toward
an actual Final Rule."
http://www.karlgroves.com/2015/03/05/my-testimony-at-the-csun-2015-access-board-hearing-make-haste/

Why Online Ed Accessibility is Not a 'When We Get to It' Issue
By Bridget McCrea.
"As several high-profile lawsuits surface around accessibility of web
content, colleges and universities must take the steps necessary to
shore up their own approaches to online accessibility of web
content..."
http://www.ecampusnews.com/top-news/online-education-accessibility-299/

The 2015 CSUN Mega Post
By Paul Schantz.
"When I come to the CSUN conference, I write about every session I
attend. When I'm all done with the conference, I make sure I gather up
all my posts into one <echo>MEGA POST</echo>. In the past, I felt
strongly pulled toward the more technical web track sessions, because
I run a web development shop. This year, I sprinkled in some legal and
compliance sessions, because the technical stuff doesn't exist in a
vacuum. That, and I find myself being asked to weigh in on
accessibility concerns in senior-level conversations more frequently
these days..."
http://paulschantz.com/2015/03/07/the-2015-csun-mega-post/


+02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.

The Truth About !important
By Jens Meiert.
"...!important is a legitimate feature of CSS, is a tool. It's a
critical tool for users, for who it's what guarantees that their rules
(when they ever put any in place) get applied. And it's an important
tool for authors, us web developers, not just to test (admit, 99% here
have used !important for debugging purposes) but also to come up..."
http://meiert.com/en/blog/20150310/important/

Sass Basics: Nesting
By Reggie Dawson.
"When you are just starting out using Sass one of the first features
you will hear about is nesting. One reason we may use a preprocessor
is to lessen the amount of typing we need to create CSS rules. Nesting
allows us to use shortcuts to create our rules. The problem with all
great tools is that the potential for misuse is always there. Nesting
is no different as overuse can create complex, unmanageable
stylesheets..."
http://www.sitepoint.com/sass-basics-nesting/

Booster Conference Slides: Making Your Site Printable
By Adrian Roselli.
"I'll fill this up with notes and other content later, but in the
meantime here are the slides from my talk this morning..."
http://blog.adrianroselli.com/2015/03/booster-conference-slides-making-your.html

CSS, Accessibility and You
By Paul Schantz.
"This is the first presentation I attended on Thursday, March 5 at the
#CSUN15 conference. I've attended a few of Derek's presentations in
the past and am looking forward to this one. I hope he covers some of
the more advanced CSS topics that have come to the forefront of web
design in the last couple years. I'm nursing a nasty headache I woke
up with, so I hope my notes are up-to-snuff! Bear with me, please..."
http://paulschantz.com/2015/03/05/css-accessibility-and-you/


+03: EVALUATION & TESTING.

Using Heatmaps to Improve Usability and Conversions
By Charles Costa.
"Traditional site analysis tools always provide you with valuable
insights into how popular your content is and the length of time users
spend on your site. However even the best analysis tools are limited
in the information they report..."
http://www.sitepoint.com/using-heatmaps-improve-usability-conversions/


+04: EVENTS.

Web Sherpa Summit
April 2, 2015.
Online.
http://environmentsforhumans.com/2015/web-sherpa-summit/


+05: HTML5.

Improving Responsive Images with the Picture Element
By Annarita Tranfici.
"...In this tutorial I'll give an overview of the picture element,
describing its main features and advantages..."
http://www.sitepoint.com/improving-responsive-images-picture-element/


+06: JAVASCRIPT.

Accessible Drag and Drop with Multiple Items
By James Edwards.
"In this article, I'd like to show you how to extend the capabilities
of HTML5 drag and drop - so it can handle multiple elements, and
support keyboard interaction, for sighted and screen reader users."
http://www.sitepoint.com/accessible-drag-drop/

Advancing JavaScript Without Breaking the Web
By Christian Heilmann.
"Current advancements in ECMAScript are a great opportunity, but also
a challenge for the web. Whilst adding new, important features we're
also running the danger of breaking backwards compatibility..."
http://christianheilmann.com/2015/03/09/advancing-javascript-without-breaking-the-web/


+07: MISCELLANEOUS.

Bridging Senior Management Disconnect with Digital
By Gerry McGovern.
"This is the age of fast, give-it-to-me-now, you-better-make-it-simple
convenience. But how do we convince senior management of this new
reality?..."
http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/new-thinking/bridging-senior-management-disconnect-digital


+08: NAVIGATION.

Beyond Blue Links - Making Clickable Elements Recognizable
By Hoa Loranger.
"Whether you adopt a flat-design style or not, interactive components
must retain sufficient cues to suggest clickability. Signaling
clickability with cues such as borders, color, size, consistency,
placement, and adherence to web standards can give interactive
components the proper look."
http://www.nngroup.com/articles/clickable-elements/


+09: TOOLS.

IBM AbilityLab Mobile Accessibility Checker
By Kim Phillips.
"IBM AbilityLab Mobile Accessibility Checker helps developers and
designers automate, document and report on accessibility standards
conformance directly within mobile hybrid and native iOS and Android
application development environments..."
http://www-03.ibm.com/able/accessibility_research_projects/mobile_accessibility_checker.html


+10: USABILITY.

How Eye Scanning Impacts Visual Hierarchy in UX Design
By Jerry Cao.
"In this article we'll briefly outline the importance of visual
organization, then explain how the findings of eye tracking can
improve the layout of web interfaces..."
http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2015/03/how-eye-scanning-impacts-visual-hierarchy-in-ux-design/


[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

Drupal Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/drupal.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

HTML Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/html.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.]