[webdev] Web Design Update: April 27, 2007

[Laura Carlson]

+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE.
- Volume 5, Issue 45, April 27, 2007.

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

++ISSUE 45 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: JAVASCRIPT.
07: MISCELLANEOUS.
08: NAVIGATION.
09: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.
10: TOOLS.
11: USABILITY.
12: XML.

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

[Contents ends.]


++ SECTION ONE: New references.

+01: ACCESSIBILITY.

NFB, Target, Amazon
By Joe Clark.
"I have never quite figured out why certain news items in the 
accessibility field get all the press. AOL's adding captioning to one 
or two snippets of video got covered 50 times. NFB suing Target for 
accessibility, ditto. That one at least is news. But Amazon and NFB 
signing an agreement to improve Web accessibility? Why did that get so 
much coverage when we know so little of the details?..."
http://blog.fawny.org/2007/04/24/fishy-nfb-amazon/

World's First Universally Inaccessible Game!
By Mel Pedley.
"The Human Computer Interaction Laboratory (HCI Lab) at the Institute 
of Computer Science (ICS) of the Foundation for Research and Technology 
(FORTH) has just announced the release of 'Game Over!', the world's 
first universally inaccessible game!..."
http://blackwidows.co.uk/blog/?p=121

Jaws Access of PDF - A Users Guide - Web Access Centre
By Royal National Institute of the Blind.
"This document provides guidance and technical advice on accessing 
PDF's if you are a screen reader user, in particular a JAWS user..."
http://tinyurl.com/2c5htb


+02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.

Reset Reasoning
By Eric Meyer.
"The reset styles are undergoing yet another overhaul, but in the 
meantime, I thought I'd answer a question several people have asked..."
http://meyerweb.com/eric/thoughts/2007/04/18/reset-reasoning/

Inherit Expression for IE?
By Eric Meyer.
"The reset styles are currently held up on a point of non-support in 
IE/Win. However, there's a decent chance we can work around it...
http://meyerweb.com/eric/thoughts/2007/04/23/inherit-expression-for-ie/

Clean Semantics
By Rob Hofker.
"As I have written before I wanted to try t get rid of all these extra 
tags, get rid of the div soup. I set out on a journey not knowing if I 
would ever reach the destination or where that destination would be..."
http://roho2003.blogspot.com/2007/04/clean-semantics.html


+03: DREAMWEAVER.

Dreamweaver CS3, Spry Widgets, and Accessibility
By Virginia DeBolt.
"...Use them if you want, but only after making sure that your decision 
to do so is based on the knowledge that you aren't making your content 
unreachable to large numbers of your visitors."
http://www.webteacher.ws/2007/04/dreamweaver-cs3-spry-widgets-and.html

Dreamweaver is Dead to Me
By Glen Lipka.
"...Dreamweaver...systematically eliminated every single good feature 
from Homesite. The advanced find/replace sucks. Takes 3x longer to do 
simple tasks. They got rid of the split view for the folders so I can't 
see anything. They added a million features that I will never use. Its 
bloated and sucks up ram..."
http://www.commadot.com/?p=512


+04: EVALUATION & TESTING.

Revitalizing SUS, the System Usability Scale
By Jens Meiert.
"About 20 years ago, John Brooke published the concept of a 'System 
Usability Scale', a reliable, low-cost usability scale that can be used 
for global assessments of systems usability. SUS is based on a Likert 
scale questionnaire with standardized content that results in an 
overall usability and user satisfaction index (ranging from 0 to 
100)..."
http://tinyurl.com/yu4hh7

Yes, You Should be Using Personas
By Leisa Reichelt.
"Personas communicate the user centered process like no other method."
http://www.disambiguity.com/yes-you-should-be-using-personas/

Five Techniques for Getting Buy-In for Usability Testing
By Christine Perfetti.
"For more than seven years, I've been teaching and coaching design 
teams on how to conduct usability tests and gather user feedback early 
on in the development process. One of the questions that comes up time 
and time again from clients is, 'How can we get buy-in for usability 
tests from management and other team members?' Through our own research 
at UIE, and in our ongoing discussions with expert usability 
practitioners, we've identified several proven techniques for getting 
stakeholders onboard..."
http://tinyurl.com/3yffax

Techsmith's Morae 2.0 Ups the Ante for Usability Testing Software
By David Travis.
"If you ever carry out web or software usability tests then you'll have 
come across Techsmith's Morae software. Techsmith has just released a 
major upgrade to the software, now at version 2.0. As we were just 
about to run a usability test for a client, we did something we'd never 
normally advise - we installed the new version of Morae on top of the 
old one the night before the test. Installation was a breeze and there 
were no hiccups during our test, allowing us to focus on what's new in 
Morae. So is it worth taking the plunge if you haven't yet invested in 
this software?"
http://www.usabilitynews.com/news/article3849.asp


+05: EVENTS.

California Web Accessibility Conference (CalWAC)
Teaser Page for their upcoming conference.
January, 2008.
California State University Campus, U.S.A.
http://www.knowbility.org/calwac/


+06: JAVASCRIPT.

Seven JavaScript Techniques You Should Be Using Today
By Dustin Diaz.
"Is your box of JavaScript tricks starting to look a little worn?
Got the feeling your functions are slacking off when you're not
watching? Never fear--JavaScript expert, Dustin Diaz, has the
lowdown on seven smart tips that should be in every coder's
toolbox."
http://www.digital-web.com/articles/seven_javascript_techniques/

Unobtrusive and Keyboard Accessible Connected Select Boxes
By Roger Johansson.
"Any web developer who has created a reasonably complex form is 
probably aware of the concept of multiple select elements that are 
connected - choosing something from one select box either makes a new 
select box appear or changes the options of one that is already 
visible..."
http://tinyurl.com/ytews4

Form Prepopulation
By Patrick H. Lauke.
"Generic DOM-based javascript to prepopulate text inputs and textarea 
on page load, based on their title attribute. In addition, the script 
also attaches onfocus/onblur behaviors to those elements..."
http://www.splintered.co.uk/experiments/22/


+07: MISCELLANEOUS.

IA (Information Architecture) Voice
By Wolf H. Noding.
"Welcome here at IA Voice, the first IA Podcast channel in 
Europe....We'll cast interviews, conference speeches and discussions 
about the field of information architecture. Our main goal is to get to 
know information architects all over the world and talk with them about 
their IA processes, methodologies and  at the same time also about 
their IA philosophy..."
http://iavoice.typepad.com/

Women in Web Design: Just the Stats
By Jeffery Zeldman.
"...An Event Apart commissioned a fact-finding mission. We hired 
researchers at The New York Public Library to find out everything that 
is actually known about the percentage of women in our field...So the 
first disclaimer is that our research covers IT, not just web design. 
The second is that we're still sifting the data we received. This is 
nothing like a final report. If a final report emerges, it will come 
from An Event Apart. All that out of the way, the picture that emerges 
is disturbing...Men outnumber women in this workforce by over three to 
one...The percentage of women employed in the field is declining 
instead of growing...Women who participate in the field may not be 
promoted as often or as high as their male colleagues..."
http://www.zeldman.com/2007/04/19/women-in-web-design/

The Web Design Survey, 2007
By An List Apart Staff.
"People who make websites have been at it for more than a dozen years, 
yet almost nothing is known, statistically, about our profession. Let's 
do something to change that. Presenting A List Apart's first annual Web 
Design Survey."
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/webdesignsurvey


+08: NAVIGATION.

Site Maps Are Not Stupid
By Meryl Evans.
"I've known of Lyle for years as he provides a great resource for Web 
designers. He believes sitemaps are stupid and that designers should 
use guides instead. I disagree and this is why..."
http://tinyurl.com/ys9mb5


+09: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.

Talk on HTML5
By Anne van Kesteren.
"I gave a talk on HTML5 ...'Evolving the Web: HTML5'..."
http://annevankesteren.nl/2007/04/html5-talk

Proposal to Adopt HTML5
By L. David Baron, Lars Erik Bolstad, Brendan Eich, Dave Hyatt, Hakon 
Wium Lie, and Maciej Stachowiak.
"...If the group is agreeable to these proposals, Apple, Mozilla and
Opera will agree to arrange a non-exclusive copyright assignment to
the W3 Consortium for HTML5 specifications."
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html/2007Apr/0429.html

My Workshop Dilemma
By Donna Maurer.
"I have been teaching for many years (like 22) and teach often (4 
workshops in the last 4 weeks). And in all that time, I have never 
resolved one particular problem. One that I have found harder as I move 
into harder work....This is my teaching challenge. Providing the 
answers I'm confident about, letting people know I can't provide an 
answer on the spot and raising awareness that much work needs thought. 
It is an incredibly hard balance, lifting people from 'give me answers' 
to 'help me think' in a short time...
http://www.maadmob.net/donna/blog/archives/000751.html

35 Designers x 5 Questions
By Smashing Magazine.
"...over 80 CSS-based tips, design ideas, suggestions, fonts, 
design-related books and online-magazines - are listed below."
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2007/04/20/35-designers-x-5-questions/


+10: TOOLS.

Deque Ramp Personal Edition Program: First Step to 'One Accessible 
World'
By Deque.
"'One Accessible World' is designed to promote accessibility for 
information technology around the world. We are extremely proud to roll 
out this free, no cost, program to people committed to World Wide Web 
accessibility outreach. Below you will find an overview of the program, 
and how to gain access to this group...Who Qualifies: Assistive 
Technology labs, Educational institutions, Non-profits, Students of web 
accessibility, Web accessibility trainers...One-time registration is 
necessary before you can download your free copy of Deque's Ramp PE, 
the Web accessibility evaluation software."
http://www.deque.com/products/ramp/rampPE.php


+11: USABILITY.

Markup's Dirty Little Secret
By Rick Jelliffe.
"Different applications on different systems use different fonts, fonts 
with the same family name but different metrics, different hyphenation 
algorithms, hyphenation setting defaults, hyphenation dictionaries, 
different size spaces, different line-breaking algorithms, different 
widow/orphan/keep together rules, and different co-ordinate space 
measures..."
http://tinyurl.com/yq4fyt

The Problem of Dirty Data
By Gerry McGovern.
"More than 25 percent of critical data in Fortune 1,000 companies is 
poor quality because organizations have little experience in managing 
content."
http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/nt/2007/nt-2007-04-23-dirty-data.htm

Usability is Design
By Mike Cherim.
"To better understand this post's curious title, you must understand 
design and recognize it for what it is -- what it really is. 
Immediately you might think of colors, images, and patterns, but design 
is so much more. Design is something that touches our lives 
continuously, day in and day out. From the subtle touches to full-out 
implementations that, if done properly, are unappreciated, taken for 
granted, and go unnoticed unless absent..."
http://green-beast.com/blog/?p=169


+12: XML.

What is RSS?
By Simon Griffin.
"Despite its popularity with the cool kids, RSS is still to break into 
the mainstream. Why? Because the average Joe just doesn't 'get it'. 
Frustrated by this, commoncraft made the video below to explain RSS in 
plain English..."
http://www.etre.com/blog/2007/04/what_is_rss_plain_english/


[Section one ends.]


++ SECTION TWO:

+13: 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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+ TEXT EMAIL NEWSLETTER (TEN).

As a navigation aid for screen readers we do our best to conform to the 
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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.]