[webdev] Web Design Update: August 31, 2005
Laura Carlson
lcarlson at d.umn.edu
Wed Aug 31 06:23:42 CDT 2005
+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE.
- Volume 4, Issue 10, August 31, 2005.
An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design
and development.
++ISSUE 10 CONTENTS.
SECTION ONE: New references.
What's new at the Web Design Reference site?
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/webdesign/
New links in these categories:
01: ACCESSIBILITY.
02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.
03: COLOR.
04: EVALUATION & TESTING.
05: EVENTS.
06: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE.
07: JAVASCRIPT.
08: MISCELLANEOUS.
09: NAVIGATION.
10: PHP.
11: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.
12: TOOLS.
13: USABILITY.
SECTION TWO:
14: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site?
[Contents ends.]
++ SECTION ONE: New references.
+01: ACCESSIBILITY.
Testing Invalid Content with Accessibility Validators
By Gez Lemon.
"I've created a document with over 33 obvious priority 1 and priority 2
errors according to WCAG 1.0, and ran them through the leading
accessibility validators, and the W3C's markup validation service. None
of them successfully found any of the errors, with one of them
reporting an error that didn't exist."
http://tinyurl.com/dsx98
An Exploding Myth
By James W. Thatcher.
"Gez Lemon of Juicy Studios has written an article, Testing Invalid
Content with Accessibility Validators, about accessibility testing
tools and what they can do - well more accurately, what they can't do.
Joe Clark characterizes this article as "Exploding the myth of
automated accessibility checking" on the Web Accessibility Imitative
Interest Group mailing list. The mailing lists I normally watch are
buzzing with comments about Joe's assertion and about Gez' article."
http://jimthatcher.com/news.htm#myth
Don't Use the Statistics Defense as a Reason to Exclude People From
Your Content
By Jim Byrne.
"I was recently involved in a discussion about whether website
designers should be expected to accommodate Netscape 4 users. The case
against accommodating Netscape 4 users is invariably backed up with
statistics about how few people now use this, admittedly flawed,
browser. I've heard 'the statistics defense' (as I will call it) so
often over the years that this latest evocation prompted me to think
about why I don't agree with this approach."
http://www.gawds.org/show.php?contentid=107
A Beginners Introduction to Standard Markup and Accessibility
By Jim Byrne.
"There have been many different versions of HTML since the World Wide
Web was invented in the early 90s by Tim Berners-Lee. The 'rules' for
using each version are encapsulated in the standards published by the
World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The standards dictate the tags
publishers are allowed to use (and in what order), and how those tags
should be interpreted by browsers and 'user agents'. For example, text
within header tags are interpreted as headings, text within paragraph
tags are interpreted as paragraphs. How else would your web browser
know the <h1> tag around a particular piece of text means, 'display
this as a headings', if it didn't have a set of rules to follow? ..."
http://www.gawds.org/show.php?contentid=104
+02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.
Alternate Approaches to Styling a 'You are Here' Button
By Michael Meadhra.
"I once ran across an article that prompted me to reconsider the
approach I had been using to styling a "You Are Here" button. The
result is that I now have two viable techniques to choose from, and I
can use whichever one is easier to implement in a given situation.
Let's look at how these two techniques compare and when you might want
to use each one."
http://builder.com.com/5100-6371_14-5810530.html
+03: COLOR.
Color Theory
By Meryl Evans.
"Common sense doesn't always prevail in working with colors on a Web
site especially since we don't all see color exactly the same way. Even
two monitors don't show identical colors no matter how hard a person
tries to adjust the settings to get them to look the same. So what do
you do? First, accept that a Web site won't look the same on all
computers and monitors."
http://www.informit.com/guides/content.asp?g=webdesign&seqNum=216&rl=1
+04: EVALUATION & TESTING.
Usability Testing for e-Learning
By Shailesh Shilwant and Amy Haggarty.
"Usability testing has long been a part of the software and product
design world. Jakob Nielsen brought the concept of usability to the
Web, making Web pages simple to navigate and intuitively organized so
that users can easily find the information they're looking for. While
this definition may be considered sufficient in the world of software,
the definition of usability in the e-learning world should encompass a
few more components than simply good user interface design."
http://tinyurl.com/7cg96
Usability Testing with Morae
By Joel Spolsky.
"The great thing about usability tests is with a day of usability
testing and handful of subjects, even if you're as senile as I am, you
can find the biggest areas where you didn't realize where the
program's behavior diverges from the user's expected behavior."
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/UsabilityTestingwithMorae.html
Making Use of User Research
By Gretchen Anderson.
"Designing or redesigning a product often feels like a risky
proposition, especially in today's business climate. Those responsible
for defining the product offering and marketing want reliable,
measurable data to define success both incrementally and overall."
http://tinyurl.com/cj7jp
+05: EVENTS.
EDUCAUSE 2005 Annual Conference
October 18-21, 2005.
Orlando, Florida U.S.A.
http://www.educause.edu/e05
About, With, and For
advancing the practice of user-centered design research
October 28-29, 2005.
Chicago Illinois, U.S.A.
http://www.id.iit.edu/events/awf/
+06: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE.
Balancing Fidelity in Prototyping
By Henrik Olsen.
"Deceived by their ideas of what clients will accept, many web
development teams build prototypes that are too costly and doesn't
serve the purpose prototypes are supposed to. To exploit the full
potential of prototyping, it's critical to choose the appropriate level
of fidelity."
http://www.guuui.com/issues/03_05.php
+07: JAVASCRIPT.
nerd.newburyportion
By Jeff Watkins.
Ajax blog.
http://metrocat.org/nerd/
+08: MISCELLANEOUS.
An Interview with Ludicorp's Eric Costello
By Jesse James Garrett.
"At User Experience Week, August 22-25 in Washington, D.C., Eric
Costello of Ludicorp will join us for a talk on the evolution of
Flickr, the wildly successful photo sharing site that has become one of
the most talked-about examples of the next generation of Web
applications. Adaptive Path's Jesse James Garrett recently talked with
Eric about Flickr's past, present, and future."
http://www.adaptivepath.com/publications/essays/archives/000519.php
Christopher Schmitt Interview
By Krista Stevens.
"...Digital Web Magazine sits down for coffee with Christopher
Schmitt, the lead author and project manager of Professional CSS. Draw
up a chair and join our conversation as Christopher talks about
Professional CSS, online collaboration and what it might take to get
the tables 'n' spacer .gif crowd to change their heathen ways."
http://www.digital-web.com/articles/christopher_schmitt_2/
Tim Berners-Lee On the Read/Write Web
By Mark Lawson.
"In August 1991, Sir Tim Berners-Lee created the first website.
Fourteen years on, he tells BBC Newsnight's Mark Lawson how blogging is
closer to his original idea about a read/write web."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4132752.stm
+09: NAVIGATION.
Improper Link Text
By Julian Rickards.
"One of the tenets of semantic HTML is that link text describes, even
if only briefly, the destination of the link. You would expect that the
link text tenet would take you to a page that, in some way, is related
to the word tenet (in this case, it is). Unfortunately, this principle
has been broken many times?I am not referring to the Click Here
syndrome?by people who should know better; leaders and visionaries in
the field of semantic HTML, accessibility and usability."
http://pen-and-ink.ca/?p=31
+10: PHP.
PHP 5 and Design Patterns: An Introduction
By Matt Zandstra.
"This article is intended for experienced PHP programmers with at least
a basic understanding of objects, classes and inheritance. The typical
reader will want to learn more about techniques for deploying
components in object-oriented systems."
http://www.zend.com/php/design/patterns1.php
PHP 5 and Design Patterns: The Observer
By Matt Zandstra.
"The Observer pattern is perhaps most often encountered in traditional
graphical user interface desktop applications. It is an excellent way
of ensuring that disparate display components reflect changes at a
system's core. As we shall see, though, it remains a powerful technique
in a Web-oriented environment. In this article I show you how to use
the Observer pattern to build a flexible broadcast-style relationship
between a central component and the objects that care about it. First
though, in preparation for a running example, I take a look at object
mocking - a great technique for test-driving code. "
http://www.zend.com/php/design/patterns2.php
+11: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.
@Media 2005: Lunch with Douglas Bowman
By Frank Ates.
"After Douglas Bowman's first presentation at @media 2005 ended, I was
left with the feeling that something was missing. I slowly approached
him at his presentation booth while trying to put words to this. What
followed was a series of events with a very interesting lunch with Mr.
Bowman."
http://kurafire.net/log/archive/2005/08/06/atmedia-lunch-with-bowman
+12: TOOLS.
Accessibility Color Wheel
By Giacomo Mazzocato.
"This is a tool I realized for personal use which might help in the
choice of a color pair, for instance to write a web page. For the sake
of accessibility the text and background color of a site should be
clear also to people who have not a perfect vision. The page with this
tool helps to achieve that by analyzing the contrast of a color pair
and showing how color-blind people see it. It simulates three kinds of
vision deficiencies. One of them, tritanopia, is anyway very rare. If
the contrast between the colors is good, a big OK! appears. It's also
possible to analyze whether the colors are good in single cases."
http://gmazzocato.altervista.org/colorwheel/wheel.php
+13: USABILITY.
Fitts at 50: For Link Design, Size Does Matter
By William Hudson.
"I missed the 50th anniversary of Paul Fitts’ paper "The information
capacity of the human motor system in controlling the amplitude of
movements". I wasn't exactly expecting street parties, but June 2004
slipped by without even a celebratory cup of tea. The title of the
paper may not mean much on its own, but I end up discussing Fitts’ law
with interaction designers at least once a week, so I would count it as
one of the more robust works in our field. The conversations usually go
something like this..."
http://www.syntagm.co.uk/design/articles/fitts50.htm
[Section one ends.]
++ SECTION TWO:
+14: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site?
Accessibility Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/accessibility
Association Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/associations
Book Listings.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/books
Cascading Style Sheets Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/css
Color Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/color
Dreamweaver Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/dreamweaver
Evaluation & Testing Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/testing
Event Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/events
Flash Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/flash
Information Architecture Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/architecture
JavaScript Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/javascript
Miscellaneous Web Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/misc
Navigation Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/navigation
PHP Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/php
Sites & Blogs Listing.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/sites
Standards, Guidelines & Pattern Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/standards
Tool Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/tools
Typography Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/type
Usability Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/usability
XML Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/xml
[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/goto/webdevlist
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