[webdev] Web Design Update: February 1, 2008

Fri Feb 1 06:17:24 CST 2008

+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE.
- Volume 6, Issue 32, February 1, 2008.

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

++ISSUE 32 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: EVALUATION & TESTING.
04: EVENTS.
05: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE.
06: JAVASCRIPT.
07: PHP.
08: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.
09: TOOLS.
10: TYPOGRAPHY.
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.

Microsoft Versioning: Accessibility Implications
By Bruce Lawson.
"...there's one practical problem with the suggestion that pages 
without the MMM (Magic Microsoft Metatag) become ossified under IE7 for 
all time. IE7 (and its predecessors) makes some in-page links entirely 
inaccessible to keyboard users. Yes-completely unreachable to blind 
people and those with motor impairments..."
http://tinyurl.com/2bv7gg

Social Networking - Not For Everyone?
By Mel Pedley.
"AbilityNet's latest State of the eNation Report focuses on social 
networking websites which, the report claims, are locking out disabled 
users..."
http://accessites.org/site/2008/01/social-networking-not-for-everyone/

Creating Accessible PDFs from Word 2007
By Ability Net.
"This article explains how you can use the 'Save as PDF' plugin for 
Microsoft Office 2007 to create accessible PDFs from Word 2007 
documents..."
http://www.abilitynet.org.uk/webarticle87

A How To Guide for Accessible Web Design
By Jen Rohrig.
"Accessible Design is intended to help web designers create accessible 
web sites, so that they are fully accessible to users with 
disabilities. It is expected that web designers using this web site 
already know the basics of designing with XHTML, CSS, and JavaScript..."
http://jenrweb.com/aDesign/index.php

Promote and Make Your Site Sticky with HTML ALT Text Tags
By Kevin Onesko.
"Here is one simple tact that can improve your search engine ranking, 
make your site sticky, and increase the accessibility of your site to 
disabled visitors..."
http://tinyurl.com/274ego

GSA to Grade Agencies on 508 Compliance
By Jason Miller.
"The General Services Administration is borrowing a page from the 
Office of Management and Budget's playbook and will start grading 
agencies on how well they comply with Section 508 accessibility 
requirements..."
http://www.fcw.com/online/news/151454-1.html

+02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.

CSS Syntax as a Railroad Diagram
By Rikkert Koppes.
"Rikkert Koppes uses railroad diagrams to capture the rather abstract 
descriptions of CSS Syntax into drawings that should make it slightly 
easier for you to understand."
http://www.rikkertkoppes.com/thoughts/css-syntax/

Em Based Layouts - Vertical Rhythm Calculator
By James Whittaker.
"One of the key concepts that we can use within our sites is consistent 
line-height in CSS terms. If you think of a ruled notebook, the lines 
are all equal heights. The concept is fairly straight forward but in 
practice can be confusing especially for a CSS newcomer."The concept is 
fairly straight forward but in practice can be confusing especially for 
a CSS newcomer. All sizing needs to be relative to the base size. This 
allows for easy scaling up or down while keeping the required spacing 
and layout consistent, this can be refereed to as an elastic layout. To 
allow this we need to specify measurements in percent or em."
http://tinyurl.com/23ftke

+03: EVALUATION & TESTING.

Personas are NOT a Document
By Jared Spool.
"...Personas are not a document. Persona descriptions can be a document 
(or a movie or any other practical rendering). But, those are just 
renderings of what happened during the persona creation process..."
http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2008/01/24/personas-are-not-a-document/

+04: EVENTS.

Advanced CSS Training
February 29, April 4, and May 2, 2008.
London, United Kingdom.
http://www.webcredible.co.uk/services/css-training.shtml

A Very Practical Guide To Testing Against WCAG1.0 and 2.0
March 5, 2008.
London, United Kingdom.
http://www.abilitynet.org.uk/webpracticaltesting

Mix 08
March 5-7, 2008.
Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S.A.
http://visitmix.com/2008/default.aspx

Web Form Design Best Practices
March 15, 2008.
Sunnyvale, California, U.S.A.
http://involutionstudios.com/?p=113&cat=8

Site Search Analytics for a Better User Experience
March 18, 2008.
Sunnyvale, California, U.S.A.
http://involutionstudios.com/?p=111&cat=8

Usability Testing Training
April 2, 2008.
London, United Kingdom.
http://www.webcredible.co.uk/services/usability-testing-training.shtml

Meeting 508 Requirements: Rules and Tools
April 8, 2008.
Washington D.C., U.S.A.
http://www.usa.gov/webcontent/wmu/spring2008/meeting508.shtml

+05: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE.

Paper Prototyping with Morae
By David Travis.
"Morae makes it easy to log usability tests, create video highlights 
and allow observers to view a test in progress. But Morae is designed 
to support usability tests of software, not paper prototypes. This 
how-to article shows you how to exploit the full functionality of Morae 
when carrying out a paper prototype test."
http://www.userfocus.co.uk/articles/morae-pp.html

+06: JAVASCRIPT.

JavaScript Objects: Finishing Strings
By James Payne.
"In the last tutorial we continued our discussion on String Objects in 
JavaScript. Hopefully we will wrap it up in this episode..."
http://tinyurl.com/2gkdtr

+07: PHP.

Implementing Destructors with Multiple Objects in PHP 5
By Alejandro Gervasio.
"Destructors can be used in all sorts of clever ways in the context of 
a given PHP 5 application, mostly in those cases where it's necessary 
to keep track of the status of certain objects prior to their being 
destroyed by the PHP interpreter. In this second chapter you'll learn 
how to work simultaneously with multiple classes that concretely 
implement their respective destructors."
http://tinyurl.com/2aqmym

5 Essential Development Facts Every PHP Developer Should Know
By Akash Mehta.
"There's always a bridge between textbook knowledge of programming - 
syntax, procedure etc. - and the real world knowledge that you get from 
actually developing real applications. Here are five things every PHP 
developer should be familiar with before they begin developing web 
applications in PHP"
http://tinyurl.com/36mmux

Object Oriented Programming in PHP: The Way to Large PHP Projects
By Luis Argerich.
"This article introduces Object Oriented Programming (OOP) in PHP. I 
will show you how to code less and better by using some OOP concepts 
and PHP tricks...."
http://www.phpbuilder.com/columns/luis20000420.php3

+08: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.

The First Working Draft of HTML 5 is Here
By Anne van Kesteren.
"On January 22nd 2008 the W3C published the First Public Working Draft 
of HTML 5 - this is a great step forward, as this draft has been in the 
works for several years. It was initially just being developed the 
WHATWG, with the W3C HTML Working Group coming on board to help out 
with it in March 2007. Alongside the HTML 5 draft a HTML 5 differences 
from HTML 4 document has been published, which gives a high-level 
overview of what new functionality HTML 5 brings..."
http://tinyurl.com/23mcjp

Acid 3 Browser Test Completed, Available Now
By Nicholas Shanks.
"Ian Hickson, the Google employee tasked with creating the next 
generation of acid test, has completed his work, which is now available 
for public consumption at its new home, acidtests.org. Unlike the first 
acid test, which focused on the box model, and the second acid test, 
which covered a broad variety of basic HTML and CSS features, Acid3 
covers 100 of the nooks and crannies of HTTP, HTML, CSS, ECMAScript, 
SVG and XML, all through the medium of DOM scripting, a critical 
requirement for any modern web application..."
http://www.css3.info/acid3-completed/

The IE Compatibility/Versioning Firestorm Continues at Length:

A Reasoned Response to X-UA-Compatible
By nevali.
http://nevali.net/2008/01/a-reasoned-response-to-x-ua-compatible/

Almost Precedent
By Henri Sivonen.
http://hsivonen.iki.fi/almost-precedent/

Almost Target
By Eric A. Meyer.
http://meyerweb.com/eric/thoughts/2008/01/24/almost-target/

Asymptotically Converging on Standards
By Sam Ruby.
http://intertwingly.net/blog/2008/01/28/Asymptotically-Converging-on-Standards

Compatibility and IE 8
By Jens Meiert.
http://meiert.com/en/blog/20080128/compatibility-and-ie/

HTML5 DOCTYPE
By John Resig.
http://ejohn.org/blog/html5-doctype/

IE8 and Doctype Switching
By Emil Stenstrom.
http://friendlybit.com/css/ie8-and-doctype-switching/

IE8, Version Targeting, and the Ruckus it's Causing
By Jonathan Christopher.
http://tinyurl.com/2gratv

Internet Explorer Reality
By Mike Davies.
http://www.isolani.co.uk/blog/standards/InternetExplorerReality

Me, IE8 and Microsoft Versioning
By Molly E. Holzschlag.
http://www.molly.com/2008/01/24/me-ie8-and-microsoft-versioning/

Microsoft: Fish, or Cut Bait
By Shelly Powers.
http://realtech.burningbird.net/standards/fish-or-cut-bait/

Still Broken
By Jeremy Keith.
http://adactio.com/journal/1403

So What Happens Now?
By Rachel Andrew.
http://www.rachelandrew.co.uk/archives/2008/01/26/377/

The Default Value of the Versioning Switch
By David Dorward.
http://blog.dorward.me.uk/2008/01/28/versioning-switch-default.html

The Meta Freeze IE Drops the Bomb (again)
By Niels Matthijs.
http://www.onderhond.com/blog/work/IE-meta-switch

The Versioning Switch's Default is Correct
By Peter-Paul Koch.
http://www.quirksmode.org/blog/archives/2008/01/the_versioning_1.html

The War Within Web Standards: Pragmatists Versus Purists
By Jeff Croft.
http://tinyurl.com/26kn6z

Tyranny of Microsoft
By Shelley Powers.
http://realtech.burningbird.net/standards/tyranny-of-microsoft/

Version Targeting and JavaScript Libraries
By Drew McLellan.
http://tinyurl.com/25agzx

What Should Microsoft Do Instead?
By David Baron.
http://dbaron.org/log/2008-01#e20080124a

What's Best for Web Standards?
By Mike Cherim.
http://green-beast.com/blog/?p=247

Why the DOCTYPE Switch Isn't Broken
By Joe Dolson.
http://tinyurl.com/2bj6zr

X-UA-Lemur-Compatible
By Kate Bolin.
"As portrayed by toy lemurs..."
http://www.katemonkey.co.uk/article/48/x-ua-lemur-compatible

X-UA-Compatible: Moving Past Thoughts of the Children
By Lachlan Hardy.
http://tinyurl.com/2d48k4

+09: TOOLS.

Semantic HTML Graphs
By Joe Dolson.
"The output of this Java applet has very limited accessibility. If you 
are using a screen reader or mobile device without Java support, you 
will not be able to make use of the information. If you are color 
blind, the value will be limited..."
http://www.joedolson.com/semantic-html-graph/
Also: Graph the Semantic HTML Structure of Your Web Page
http://tinyurl.com/2dzsyl

+10: TYPOGRAPHY.

Examples of Typographic Style on Commercial Web Sites
By Christian Watson.
"There's something special about opening a page that uses great 
typography and layout. The headline pops out at you, drawing you in. 
Through good use of spacing the text looks readable and inviting..."
http://www.smileycat.com/miaow/archives/000900.php

+11: USABILITY.

Gone in Sixty Seconds or Less
By Amit Gupta.
"Your most intuitive, meaningful, and devastatingly clever design is 
worthless - unless it's shallow enough to appeal in the first five 
seconds. Most of the time, that's all you'll get before they walk, 
click, or turn away..."
http://abriefmessage.com/2008/01/25/gupta/

Magnetic Websites
By Miraz Jordan.
"Does your website attract visitors or repel them? This month we 
mention a couple of website traps that can send visitors hurrying away 
before they've got to know you..."
http://mactips.info/blog/2008/01/magnetic-websites

+12: XML.

XHTML and Search Engines
By David Dorward.
"Research into what search engines do with documents served as 
application/xhtml+xml."
http://dorward.me.uk/www/xhtml/search/

[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.

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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.]