[webdev] Web Design Update: April 4, 2008
Laura Carlson
lcarlson at d.umn.edu
Fri Apr 4 06:14:38 CDT 2008
+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE.
- Volume 6, Issue 41, April 4, 2008.
An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design
and development.
++ISSUE 41 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: JAVASCRIPT.
04: MISCELLANEOUS.
05: PHP.
06: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.
07: USABILITY.
SECTION TWO:
08: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site?
[Contents ends.]
++ SECTION ONE: New references.
+01: ACCESSIBILITY.
Cognitive Accessibility Survey
By Jared Smith.
"As part of WebAIM's Steppingstones of Technology project, we have
performed an extensive literature review to identify elements that are
often cited as having an impact on users with cognitive and learning
disabilities when accessing web content. To further inform us, we
invite you to complete a short survey...."
http://webaim.org/blog/cognitive-accessibility-survey/
JAWS, Window-Eyes and Character References
By Jason Kiss.
"These test results present the spoken output from JAWS, version 8.0,
and Window-Eyes, version 6.1, when reading the 252 character references
specified in HTML 4.01. Though JAWS 9.0 was not tested, I'm assuming,
based on correspondence with Freedom Scientific, that its results would
be identical with those of JAWS 8.0..."
http://www.accessibleculture.org/characterReferences/index.html
Captioning Sucks!
By Joe Clark, Open and Closed Project.
Now let's fix it!
http://captioningsucks.com/
The John Slatin Fund Accessibility Project
By Knowbility.
"The John Slatin Accessibility Fund Project is an independent volunteer
collaborative effort of many individual and business accessibility
experts who are generously donating time..."
http://www.knowbility.org/business/john-slatin/
+02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.
IE9 to Include Alternative 'CSS.2012' Standard
By Peter Gasston.
"The Internet Explorer team announced on their blog today that they are
unhappy with the slow progress and differing implementations of the
various CSS3 modules, and will not be including any CSS3 functionality
in IE8; instead they will be producing their own, alternative standard,
which they are codenaming CSS.2012 (after the planned year of launch of
the subsequent browser)..."
http://www.css3.info/ie9-to-include-alternative-css2012-standard/
CSS: Margins and Padding
By James Payne.
We learned how to work with borders and apply them to the various
elements in our last tutorial. In this article we will go over setting
margins and working with padding to give your web pages a seamless
look. There is as always a lot of ground to cover so let s get
started....
http://www.devarticles.com/c/a/Web-Style-Sheets/CSS-Margins-and-Padding/
CSS Tutorial
By Nellie Jones.
"Comprehensive CSS course materials "
http://www.learn-css-tutorial.com
+03: JAVASCRIPT.
ARIA Toggle Button and Tri-state Checkbox Examples
By Steve Faulkner.
"It is an exciting time for proponents of WAI-ARIA (Web Accessibility
Initiative - Accessible Rich Internet Applications). With support
introduced in IE 8 (beta), better support in Firefox 3, planned in
Opera and mooted in Safari, coupled with the recent changes to the
specification making it easier to develop and deploy ARIA based
widgets..."
http://www.paciellogroup.com/blog/?p=53
SXSW Core Conversation
By Gez Lemon.
"Martin Kliehm and I were both very pleased with our core conversation
about WAI-ARIA at SXSW. The idea behind core conversations is to
formalize conversations that take place in the corridors."
http://juicystudio.com/article/sxsw-core-conversation.php
ARIA in HTML5 Integration: Document Conformance (Draft, Take Two)
By Henri Sivonen.
"Now a runnable suggestion."
http://hsivonen.iki.fi/aria-html5-bis/
+04: MISCELLANEOUS.
Chatting with Rasmus (part one)
By Lukas Kahwe Smith.
"Lukas Smith got a chance to catch up with Rasmus Lerdorf (and others
in #php.pecl) and 'talk shop' about topics including handling large
libraries and maxclients settings."
http://pooteeweet.org/blog/0/1038#m1038
Videos
By Roger Hudson.
"Before I was captured by the Web, I spent many years working in the
film and television industry. I am now combining these two areas of
interest to prepare videos about web-related issues...Interview with
Shawn Henry...Conversation with Molly Holzschlag...Wheeling in Second
Life..."
http://www.usability.com.au/resources/videos.cfm
+05: PHP.
Working With Forms
By William Steinmetz with Brian Ward.
"Forms are how your users talk to your scripts. To get the most out of
PHP, you must master forms. The first thing you need to understand is
that although PHP makes it easy to access form data, you must be
careful of how you work with the data..."
http://www.webreference.com/programming/php/working_with_forms/
PHP Tutorial
By Richard Martin.
"Learn PHP with this tutorial"
http://www.learnphp-tutorial.com/
+06: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.
The Evolving Web
By Roger Hudson.
"The Web today is very different to what it was in 1994, when the World
Wide Web Consortium was established. This article looks back at the
early history of the Web and uses Pace Layering theory to consider some
recent developments and the role of the W3C in the process of change..."
http://www.usability.com.au/resources/evolving-web.cfm
Acid (3) Drops
By Charles McCathieNevile.
"...This week's tempest in geekland was about the Acid3 test - we were
first to announce we had got to 98/98, and just afterward first to
score 100/100 on the test (with Webkit in each case hot on our heels).
Now you can get a special preview testing build (for Windows or Linux)
that gets the right rendering and 100/100 on the test. But what does
that really mean...?"
http://my.opera.com/chaals/blog/2008/03/28/acid-3-drops
Acid Redux
By Eric A. Meyer.
"...What I disagree with is the idea that if you cherry-pick enough
obscure and difficult corners of a bunch of different specifications
and mix them all together into a spicy meatball of difficulty, it
constitutes a useful test of the specifications you cherry-picked.
Because the one does not automatically follow from the other..."
http://meyerweb.com/eric/thoughts/2008/03/27/acid-redux/
Misstep
By Shelley Powers.
"It's disappointing to read the stories on Acid3 today. The whole point
of the Acid tests, at least originally, was a celebration of standards.
A friendly competition between peers who have one thing in common: an
open, strong commitment to standards."
http://realtech.burningbird.net/standards/misstep/
Grace in Winning
By Shelley Powers.
"Now, this is what I hoped to see when the Acid3 test was first
announced. Not the macho posturing I saw yesterday..."
http://realtech.burningbird.net/standards/grace-in-winning/
Why Use Semantic HTML?
By Joe Dolson.
"I've seen a lot of articles discussing the importance of HTML and
XHTML semantics. I've seen articles describing what it means for a
document to be semantic. Most of these articles, however, don't provide
a serious overview of what HTML elements actually may be considered
semantic - and what those semantic elements actually mean. And, even
more particularly, why it matters..."
http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2008/04/why-use-semantic-html/
+07: USABILITY.
Middle-Aged Users' Declining Web Performance
By Jakob Nielsen.
"Between the ages of 25 and 60, people's ability to use websites
declines by 0.8% per year - mostly because they spend more time per
page, but also because of navigation difficulties."
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/middle-aged-users.html
Aging and Accessibility
By Matt May.
"You know what I think should cause everyone to give at least some
thought to accessibility? Your thirties..."
http://www.bestkungfu.com/archive/date/2008/03/aging-and-accessibility/
Short Introductions on Web Pages
By Meryl Evans.
"...We writers have learned that we need to have an opening, body, and
conclusion. But we also know that writing for the web breaks many
standard writing rules. Whether a site should have an intro depends on
its purpose and audience (You've heard this a thousand times, I'm
sure)..."
http://meryl.net/2008/03/31/short-introductions-on-web-pages/
Expectations and Usability - Introduction
By Peter J. Meyers.
"I've been reviewing a lot of small business websites lately, and as I
see the same usability issues popping up over and over, it occurs to me
just how many of those problems are a result of violating visitors'
expectations. So, I've decided to write a short series (3-4
installments) on the role of expectations in usability, and how we can
better anticipate those expectations to help website visitors
accomplish their goals."
http://tinyurl.com/24z28t
The Web Beyond the Desktop
By Dave Shea.
"When you think of the people who use your website, where do they use
it? At work or a home office? What about a mobile phone? What about
even more diverse devices like Amazon's Kindle or the Nintendo Wii?
Dave Shea asks us to reconsider how and where people use our websites,
and how best to tackle the demands of building sites for a wide array
of devices."
http://www.digital-web.com/articles/web_beyond_the_desktop/
[Section one ends.]
++ SECTION TWO:
+08: 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.]
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