[webdev] Web Design Update: January 1, 2006

[Laura Carlson]

+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE.
- Volume 4, Issue 28, January 1, 2006.

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

++ISSUE 28 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: DREAMWEAVER.
04: EVALUATION & TESTING.
05: EVENTS.
06: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE.
07: JAVASCRIPT.
08: MISCELLANEOUS.
09: NAVIGATION.
10: PHP.
11: TOOLS.
12: USABILITY.
13: XML.

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

[Contents ends.]


++ SECTION ONE: New references.

+01: ACCESSIBILITY.

Using WAVE 3.5
By WebAIM.
"This tutorial steps users through the process of evaluating web content for accessibility using WAVE 3.5. The WAVE (Web Accessibility Versatile Evaluator) is a Web-based tool to help Web developers make their Web content more accessible. WAVE facilitates evaluation by exposing many kinds of accessibility errors in the content, as well as possible errors, accessibility features, semantic elements, and structural elements."
http://www.webaim.org/techniques/articles/wave/

User-Defined Access Keys
By Gez Lemon.
"Access keys are a contentious area of accessibility, as they can sometimes clash with the shortcut keys used by user agents. One method to get around this problem is to allow users to define their own access 
keys. This post suggests a PHP class that allows users to define their own access keys."
http://juicystudio.com/article/user-defined-accesskeys.php

Naughty or Nice? CSS Background Images
By Derek Featherstone.
Derek Featherstone considers the difference between decorative and informational graphics and how each is best approached, particularly with regard to accessibility. Make sure you know what you're doing next 
time you decide to deck the halls.
http://24ways.org/advent/naughty-or-nice-css-background-images

Beware the Automated Accessibility Tool Trap
By Trenton Moss.
If you've been happily using automated accessibility checking tools to ensure the accessiblity of your site, listen up! As Trenton explains, these tools should never be used as a sole solution to accessibility. They're often inaccurate, unspecific, outdated -- and in some cases, they're simply incorrect!
http://www.sitepoint.com/article/automated-accessibility-trap


+02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.

Tables with Style
By Jonathan Snook.
"Jonathan Snook investigates combining a full range of table elements and CSS to create more attractive data tables. Forget about decorating the dinner table for a week, and get styling those data tables."
http://24ways.org/advent/tables-with-style

Broader Border Corners
By Patrick Griffiths.
"Patrick Griffiths experiments with a straightforward method of adding rounded corners to a CSS-based box. Everyone loves rounded corners, so if this doesn't put a partridge in your pear tree, then nothing will."
http://24ways.org/advent/broader-border-corners

Z's not dead baby, Z's not dead
By Andy Clarke.
"Andy Clarke dusts off the CSS z-index property to take control of the depth of his positioned elements. Why not try it out for yourself and see how it all stacks up. Santa's not the only thing in your stack this 
Christmas. Erm ... ok, I'm outta puns."
http://24ways.org/advent/zs-not-dead-baby-zs-not-dead

Swooshy Curly Quotes Without Images
By Simon Collison.
"Simon Collison questions the use of quote-mark images for the aesthetic styling of blockquotes. In doing so, he demonstrates a method 
of achieving the same purely with CSS. A worthy thing in my estimation."
http://24ways.org/advent/swooshy-curly-quotes-without-images

Debugging CSS with the DOM Inspector
By Jon Hicks.
Jon Hicks demonstrates how to use the Firefox DOM Inspector to debug problems in your CSS. It may not be the ideal time of year for seek and 
destroy missions, but I'd be prepared to overlook that. It's the season 
of goodwill, after all."
http://24ways.org/advent/debugging-css-with-the-dom-inspector

Adium: Chatting With Style
By Eric Meyer.
"Adium, a chat client for OS X, uses XHTML and CSS for its chat windows, so creating your own message theme is no harder than styling a 
web page. In many ways, it's easier."
http://meyerweb.com/eric/thoughts/2005/12/19/adium-chatting-with-style/

Thinking Outside the Grid
By Molly E. Holzschlag.
"CSS has broken the manacles that kept us chained to grid-based design...so why do so few sites deviate from the grid? Molly E. Holzschlag can tell us that the answer has something to do with airplanes, urban planning, and British cab drivers."
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/outsidethegrid

Star HTML and Microsoft IE7
By Molly E. Holzschlag.
"...Hacks for browsers typically do one of two things. They exploit a bug (a flawed implementation) or they exploit the complete lack of an implementation..."
http://www.molly.com/2005/12/22/star-html-and-microsoft-ie7/

Debugging CSS with the DOM Inspector
By Jon Hicks.
Jon Hicks demonstrates how to use the Firefox DOM Inspector to debug problems in your CSS. It may not be the ideal time of year for seek and 
destroy missions, but I'd be prepared to overlook that. It's the season 
of goodwill, after all.
http://24ways.org/advent/debugging-css-with-the-dom-inspector


+03: DREAMWEAVER.

Applying CSS from Screen to Print to Handheld Ð Part 1: Preparation and Groundwork
By Adrian Senior.
"Prior to the release of Dreamweaver 8, creating handheld and print media style sheets wasn't easy-not unless you were very familiar with the CSS concepts that these media types utilize. Dreamweaver 8 changed all that by providing us with design views for both of these media types. It is in these areas that I focus the first two parts of this tutorial. You'll begin with your screen layout CSS and look at the all-important concept of separating content from presentation."
http://www.macromedia.com/devnet/dreamweaver/articles/designing_css.html


+04: EVALUATION & TESTING.

Creating Tasks for Usability Tests
By Free Usability Advice.
"Question: When evaluating a web site, what is the correct process to create tasks for a user test?"
http://tinyurl.com/cg3uw


+05: EVENTS.

The Ajax Experience 2006
May 10-12, 2006.
San Francisco, California U.S.A.
http://ajaxian.com/archives/2005/12/announcing_the.html


+06: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE.

The End is Nigh
By Andrew Dillon.
"IA is real, it's here and it has a history. Everything else is just hair-splitting. While deriving a definition might be really important to the academics among us, I no longer see it as essential to success of the field."
http://www.asis.org/Bulletin/Dec-05/dillon.html


+07: JAVASCRIPT.

Splintered Striper
By Patrick H. Lauke.
"Patrick H. Lauke concocts a rather handy little JavaScript function to 
help you stripe your tables, lists, bathroom, you name it. And there you were thinking the only stripy thing you were getting for Christmas was a sweater. How little do you know..."
http://24ways.org/advent/splintered-striper

Top 10 Custom JavaScript Functions of All Time
By Dustin Diaz.
"If there was ever a universal common.js shared among the entire develosphere, you'd fine these ten (plus one bonus) functions. It would 
be the swiss army knife no developer would go into production without. They have no doubt been tested tried and true and have proven usefulness and helpfulness to all those who've used them. So without further ado, here are what I believe to the top ten greatest custom JavaScript functions in use today..."
http://www.dustindiaz.com/top-ten-javascript/

Edit-in-Place with Ajax
By Drew McLellan.
"Drew McLellan follows on from Day 1's simple Ajax tutorial by taking the next steps and building a Flickr-style text edit-in-place system. Crank your Ajax dial up to 11 and get stuck in. Ding dong!"
http://24ways.org/advent/edit-in-place-with-ajax

Have Your DOM and Script It Too
By Shaun Inman.
Shaun Inman concludes our series by detailing a technique for executing 
JavaScript returned by an Ajax call without using eval(). Remember kids, Christmas Eve is when Ajax comes calling, so leave out some sherry and mince pies. Tonight we feast.
http://24ways.org/advent/have-your-dom-and-script-it-too


+08: MISCELLANEOUS.

Client vs. Developer Wars
Chapter One: A Woeful Tale
By Eric Holter.
"The following narrative (from Client vs. Developer Wars) is, unfortunately, typical of many web development projects. Almost every development project has at least some aspects of these frustrations. Any developer can share many horror stories about these kinds of projects. The rest of the book goes on to describe how we achieved peace in our time."
http://www.newfangled.com/contentmgr/showdetails.php/id/7171


+09: NAVIGATION.

The ABCs of the BBC: A Case Study and Checklist
By Helen Lippell.
"Can A-Z indexes hold their own against other popular navigational elements like search and sitemaps? Helen Lippell guides us through how the BBC online, a site with over two million pages, handled their own A-Z index."
http://tinyurl.com/84on2


+10: PHP.

Top 7 PHP Security Blunders
By Pax Dickinson.
PHP's availability, ease of use, and support makes it the first choice for many budding developers. Yet the potential for the unwary coder to overlook certain key aspects of security lands countless developers in hot water. Pax explores the key security holes, common issues, and typical oversights in this hands-on primer.
http://www.sitepoint.com/article/php-security-blunders

Introducing UDASSS (Unobtrusive Degradable Ajax Style Sheet Switcher)
By Dustin Diaz.
Unobtrusive Degradable Ajax Style Sheet Switcher powered on the backend 
by PHP.
http://24ways.org/advent/introducing-udasss


+11: TOOLS.

Content-Type Proxy
By Ian Hickson.
"A script to serve a remote resource with a different content type."
http://tinyurl.com/dtgfk


+12: USABILITY.

 Fewer Templates, More User Experience
By Frederico Oliveira.
"One of the things that needs to change in 2006 (which will undoubtedly 
be the year of the web-application) is the care for user experience and 
usability. Many managers and business-people need to change their perspective and hire the right people to take their web-businesses to a 
new level. We are no longer in 1999, age of Photoshop-designed templates and lens flare effects on homepages, cut into place in Dreamweaver MX."
http://tinyurl.com/cxsm5

Sensible Forms: A Form Usability Checklist
By Brian Crescimanno.
"Sometimes it's the little things that drive you nuts. As many of us have probably noticed during this season of holiday shopping, usability 
problems in online forms can be infuriating. Brian Crescimanno helps solve the problem with a checklist of form-usability recommendations."
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/sensibleforms

But Is It Memorable?
By Kathy Sierra.
"If you can help your users trick their brains into thinking that something is important enough to store, you can help your users learn more quickly. Learning = getting past the suck threshold faster. And learning also means gaining the kind of skill and expertise that can meet the challenges needed to reach the flow state. And that's where you hit the passion threshold."
http://tinyurl.com/9bykk

Intranet Portals and Scent are Made for Each Other
By Jared M. Spool.
"...As we observed employees using their organization's intranet, we saw a stark trend: Almost always, users only fire up their browser when 
they have something to do. They have a mission in mind before they even 
bring up the portal's initial page. The design of the portal's initial page has to service that mission, whatever it is. Well-designed portal's do this by putting links to important content and functions (such as registering someone as a building visitor -- a common "important" function we've seen at many security-conscious clients) right on the initial page..."
http://tinyurl.com/dl5x6

Does Scent Apply The Same to Intranets? Yes. And No.
By Jared Spool.
"Whenever we start talking about the scent of information (which we do a lot-- have you noticed?), a question we always hear is, 'Does this apply to intranets the same way?' The answer? Yes. And No. Jared explains."
http://tinyurl.com/ao7u6

Usability Redefined: Howability, Taskability, Recommendability, Profitability
By John Rhodes.
"OLD Ease of Learning: How fast can a user who has never seen the user interface before learn it sufficiently well to accomplish basic tasks?...NEW Ease of Doing: How fast can a user accomplish the desired task? How much time? How much energy applied per unit of measured time?..."
http://tinyurl.com/c3662


+13: XML.

SMIL a Mess?
By Anne van Kesteren.
"I have not actually read the entire SMIL 2.1 Recommendation, but I do want to make a statement about it based on what I have read and seen..."
http://annevankesteren.nl/2005/12/smil

Transitional vs. Strict Markup
By Roger Johansson.
"Roger Johansson returns to first principles and considers the fundamental differences between Transitional and Strict DOCTYPEs, as well as some of the common mistakes made when dealing with each. A timely reminder of the fundamentals can never go amiss."
http://24ways.org/advent/transitional-vs-strict-markup


[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.

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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.]