[webdev] Web Design Update: March 28, 2008

Fri Mar 28 06:15:58 CDT 2008

+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE.
- Volume 6, Issue 40, March 28, 2008.

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

++ISSUE 40 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: MISCELLANEOUS.
08: NAVIGATION.
09: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.
10: TYPOGRAPHY.
11: USABILITY.

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

[Contents ends.]

++ SECTION ONE: New references.

+01: ACCESSIBILITY.

Understanding How JAWS Reads Text
By Steve Faulkner.
"Making public statements based on limited knowledge of an assistive 
technology and with little understanding of how it is used, can lead to 
incorrect conclusions and poor implementations..."
http://www.paciellogroup.com/blog/?p=50

Views From a Screen Reader User
By Mike Cherim.
"As it concerns using lists and other non-form structural elements to 
lay out web forms, my feelings have been known. They haven't changed, 
but after interviewing an experienced screen reader user about this 
very subject recently, I do have new insights into it -- his 
perspective anyway. It was a revealing interview. Offering without a 
doubt relief to some, and probably disappointment to others. Any earned 
responses will likely determine that."
http://green-beast.com/blog/?p=262

Using titles on Form Fields
By Mike Davies.
"Form elements provide a decent range of accessibility options: label 
elements match up label text with their corresponding field elements, 
fieldsets group together similar input elements and the legend provides 
a succinct title for these groupings of fields. With those elements 
alone, forms are fairly simple to mark up in an accessible manner..."
http://www.accessibilitytips.com/2008/03/25/using-titles-on-form-fields/

HTML/XHTML Accessibility Features
By Ian Lloyd.
"The topic of web accessibility is a long and complicated one and 
cannot be covered fully in this reference. However, many of the HTML 
elements covered in this reference are there for the purposes of 
improving the accessibility of the content, or may have specific 
attributes that do the same. Where these occur, we mention in the 
reference for that element or attribute that it's an accessibility 
feature..."
http://reference.sitepoint.com/html/accessibility

Reference Card for Accessible PDF Creation from Word
By Andrew Kirkpatrick.
"There is a lot of PDF that is generated though Adobe's PDFMaker 
plug-in for Microsoft Word. You can quite easily create PDF documents 
that meet the majority of accessibility needs with very little effort, 
if you know how. For the CSUN conference, we created a one-page 
document that helps guide users who may not know much about 
accessibility so that they can more easily address accessibility in 
their documents..."
http://tinyurl.com/2dmphx

+02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.

How and Why: Styling Text Links
By Andy Rutledge.
"Poorly styled text links can detract from or ruin an otherwise 
well-designed page, while appropriately styled text links can add 
significant support to the brand and enhance the user experience. Since 
text links are a significant feature of the online experience, it's an 
element of design worth getting right..."
http://www.andyrutledge.com/styling-text-links.php

CSS Positioning
By Fabian van Luyn.
"There are many ways to position your elements in CSS. Relative 
positioning, absolute positioning or a combination of both. I'll 
explain those ways with some clear examples..."
http://www.onyx-design.net/weblog2/css/css-positioning/

Shorthand CSS - not only because it is shorter
By Niels Matthijs.
"CSS is tricky, no doubt about that. And when working on a big site, 
keeping a clean css file is pretty hard to manage. Time constraints, 
browser bugs and change requests can make a downright mess of your 
nicely tailored css. As time passes, things will only get worse. That's 
why it is important to keep your css as clean as possible from the 
start."
http://www.onderhond.com/blog/work/css-shorthands

+03: EVALUATION & TESTING.

Results of Online Usability Study of Apollo Program Websites
By Tom Tullis.
"An online usability study of two websites about the Apollo Space 
Program (NASA and Wikipedia) was conducted. Each participant attempted 
four tasks from a full set of nine using one of the sites. A total of 
130 people completed the study. Task completion status and task time 
were automatically recorded, as were responses to a variety of 
post-study rating scales and open-ended questions, including the System 
Usability Scale (SUS). All performance metrics (task completion, task 
time, task efficiency) showed that the participants performed 
significantly better using the Wikipedia site. Similarly, all but one 
of the self-reported metrics showed that the Wikipedia site was 
perceived as being significantly easier to use. The one exception was 
that the NASA site was rated as marginally more visually appealing. 
Extensive comments on both sites are consistent with these findings and 
give additional insight into aspects of the sites that could be 
improved."
http://www.measuringuserexperience.com/Apollo/

The Persona Non Grata Article is a Gift. Really.
By Tamara Adlin.
"Here's the deal... he's got a great point, and I actually kinda 
furiously like the article because it reflects what annoys me about 
persona efforts (not personas themselves)."
http://www.adlininc.com/corporate_underpants/?p=28

Extreme User Research
By Daniel Lafreniere.
"What is the biggest problem I face almost every time a client hires me 
to do something about a web project going awry? They don't know a thing 
about their users. They don't have a clue, whatsoever. Unbelievable but 
true!..."
http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/extreme-user

+04: EVENTS.

On-Line Web 2.0 Accessibility Course using the W3C ARIA Specifications
April 15 - May 8, 2008.
http://web20online.cita.uiuc.edu/

Higher Education Web Symposium
July 15-16, 2008.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.
http://www.med.upenn.edu/uiconf/

+05: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE.

We Tried To Warn You: The Organizational Architecture of Failure
By Peter Jones.
"There are many kinds of failure in large, complex organizations - 
breakdowns occur at every level of interaction, from interpersonal 
communication to enterprise finance. Some of these failures are 
everyday and even helpful, allowing us to safely and iteratively learn 
and improve communications and practices. Other failures - what I call 
large-scale - result from accumulated bad decisions, organizational 
defensiveness, and embedded organizational values that prevent people 
from confronting these issues in real time as they occur."
http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/we-tried-to-warn-you

+06: JAVASCRIPT.

aria-templateid Explained
By David Bolter.
"I wondered when an aria-templateid might be used so I asked Richard 
Schwerdtfeger..."
http://mindforks.blogspot.com/2008/03/aria-templateid-explained.html

Easy ARIA Tip #1: Using aria-required
By Marco Zehe.
"...The first attribute I'd like to cover is called aria-required. It 
is one of the universal aria attributes, which means, as stated, that 
it can be used on any conventional HTML element such as input or 
select...."
http://www.marcozehe.de/2008/02/29/easy-aria-tip-1-using-aria-required/

Easy ARIA tip #2: aria-labelledby and aria-describedby
By Marco Zehe.
"...The solution is in an ARIA attribute called aria-labelledby. Its 
parameter is a string that consists of the IDs of the HTML or XUL 
elements you want to concatenate into a single accessible name. Yes, 
you read right, this not only works in HTML, but in XUL, too! A second 
attribute that works very similarly is called aria-describedby..."
http://tinyurl.com/yugml5

ARIA in HTML5 Integration: Document Conformance (Draft)
By Henri Sivonen.
"This is a draft written by Henri Sivonen. This is not a spec and has 
not been endorsed by anyone. For context, please refer to this 
companion email."
http://hsivonen.iki.fi/aria-html5/

Simple JavaScript Inheritance
By John Resig.
"I've been doing a lot of work, lately, with JavaScript inheritance - 
namely for my work-in-progress JavaScript book - and in doing so have 
examined a number of different JavaScript 
classical-inheritance-simulating techniques..."
http://ejohn.org/blog/simple-javascript-inheritance/

+07: MISCELLANEOUS.

Webstock Recordings
"Here are all the recordings from Webstock 08 and Webstock 06. These 
recordings will be permanently archived at the following links. Where 
there is no recording for a particular session, that was the decision 
of the speaker and we fully respect that. (...) We'd love to hear from 
you if you find these recordings useful. Please drop us a line and let 
us know, especially if you weren't at Webstock and/or are from 
locations other than New Zealand. Enjoy!"
http://webstock.org.nz/past/recordings.php

+08: NAVIGATION.

Tap is the New Click: Designing Gestural Interfaces
By Dan Saffer.
"Even though the technology has been around for decades, only now are 
we starting to see mass production and adoption of touchscreen and 
gestural devices for the public. Jeff Han's influential 2006 TED 
demonstration of his multitouch system, followed by the launches of 
Nintendo's Wii, Apple's iPhone, and Microsoft Surface, have announced a 
new era of interaction design, one where gestures in space and touches 
on a screen will be as prominent as pointing and clicking."
http://en.oreilly.com/et2008/public/schedule/detail/1801

The Externalities of Search 2.0
By Michael Zimmer.
"Web search engines have emerged as ubiquitous and vital tools for the 
successful navigation of the growing online informational sphere. As 
Google puts it, the goal is to 'organize the world's information and 
make it universally accessible and useful' and to create the 'perfect 
search engine' that provides only intuitive, personalized, and relevant 
results. Meanwhile, the so-called Web 2.0 phenomenon has blossomed 
based, largely, on the faith in the power of the networked masses to 
capture, process, and mashup one's personal information flows in order 
to make them more useful, social, and meaningful. The (inevitable) 
combining of Google's suite of information-seeking products with Web 
2.0 infrastructures  - what I call Search 2.0 - intends to capture the 
best of both technical systems for the touted benefit of users. By 
capturing the information flowing across Web 2.0, search engines can 
better predict users' needs and wants, and deliver more relevant and 
meaningful results. While intended to enhance mobility in the online 
sphere, this paper argues that the drive for Search 2.0 necessarily 
requires the widespread monitoring and aggregation of a users' online 
personal and intellectual activities, bringing with it particular 
externalities, such as threats to informational privacy while online."
http://tinyurl.com/2bqng9

Findability, Orphan of the Web Design Industry
By Aarron Walter.
"Findability is to Search Engine Optimization (SEO) as "web standards" 
is to 'table layouts.' In a web whose vastness exceeds comprehension, 
sites with findable content win. The good news is that everyone on your 
team can help make your site findable. Get a taste for this essential 
discipline from Aarron Walter, author of Building Findable Websites: 
Web Standards, SEO, and Beyond."
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/findabilityorphan

+09: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.

Specifications, Standards, Guidelines and Recommendations
By Mel Pedley.
"...Don't be a slave to a standard. Following a standard simply because 
it is a standard isn't enough. That kind of single-minded approach can 
create more problems than it cures..."
http://tinyurl.com/26jlal

+10: TYPOGRAPHY.

Should We Continue To Use Relative Units Vs. Relying On Page Zooming?
By Robert Nyman.
"Looking at the upcoming releases of different web browsers I started 
to wonder whether specifying fonts in relative units, such as ems etc, 
will be a common approach in the future."
http://tinyurl.com/2q27wq

+11: USABILITY.

Resist Redesign
By Gerry McGovern.
"Redesign is classic organization-centric thinking. It rarely has much 
to do with making things better for the customer."
http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/nt/2008/nt-2008-03-24-redesign.htm

Cues, The Golden Retriever
By Jamie Owen.
"How our natural responses to stimuli can inform the design process..."
http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/cues-the-golden

Warning: Third-party Usability is Bad for your Health
By Frank Spillers.
"There is a huge problem in the software and web services industry: 3rd 
party applications, widgets, dashboards or site add-ons can kill your 
usability efforts. Poor user experiences with 3rd-party applications 
can undermine or make your usability efforts look bad. Vendors such as 
PeopleSoft, Vignette and many others are notorious for providing 
"clunk-ware", 'vapor-ware' or 'sneaker-ware' as one of our clients at 
Experience Dynamics put it. Let's explore why this is a major problem 
that..."
http://tinyurl.com/2dhuc5

Sign Up Forms Must Die
By Luke Wroblewski.
"You load a new web service, eager to dive in and start engaging, and 
what's the first thing that greets you? A sign-up form. We can do 
better, says Luke Wroblewski, author of Web Form Design: Filling in the 
Blanks. Via a technique of "gradual engagement," we can get people 
using and caring about our web services instead of frustrating them (or 
sending them to a competitor's site) by forcing them to fill out a 
sign-up form first."
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/signupforms

Form Follows Function and Achieving Thereof
By Govert Adriaan Kolbach.
"Forms can be dreadfully tricky to style and structure properly. 
Several articles that are out there focus on best practices for 
building forms using HTML en CSS. This article focuses in a non 
technical fashion on the use of meaningful nomenclature and how form 
semantics relate to elements that current markup standards have to 
offer. It may help you recognize structural patterns and to compose 
forms properly."
http://www.cornae.org/articles/form-follows-function

[Section one ends.]

++ SECTION TWO:

+12: 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.]