[webdev] Web Design Update: July 10, 2008

[Laura Carlson]

+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE.
- Volume 7, Issue 02, July 10, 2008.

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

++ISSUE 02 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: COLOR.
04: EVALUATION & TESTING.
05: EVENTS.
06: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.
07: TOOLS.
08: USABILITY.
09: XML.

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

[Contents ends.]


++ SECTION ONE: New references.

+01: ACCESSIBILITY.

Review of the WebVisum Firefox Extension
By Marco Zehe.
"Today, a post announcing the WebVisum Firefox extension was posted to 
the mozilla.dev.accessibility newsgroup. The things talked about in 
this post and on the WebVisum homepage almost sound too good to be 
true..."
http://tinyurl.com/5l62yv


+02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.

Browser Bugs
By westciv.
"Browser bugs driving you mad? Then, hopefully, we have the cure. At 
this browser guide, you can find (and contribute) detailed information 
about browser bugs in CSS, HTML and the DOM from Internet Explorer, 
Netscape 4 and up!..."
http://westciv.com/browsers/index.php/Main_Page

Level 3 Features in the Wild
By James Hopkins.
"The beauty about working on a site that is specifically targeted for 
one the most popular mobile devices around (aka the iPhone) is that the 
vendor with the least CSS support (*cough* IE *cough*) doesn't exist on 
it (purely because of its inadequate CSS support in this case)..."
http://www.css3.info/level-3-features-in-the-wild/

All About Floats
By Chris Coyier.
"Float is a CSS positioning property. If you are familiar with print 
design, you can think of it like an image in a layout where the text 
wraps around it as necessary..."
http://css-tricks.com/all-about-floats/

Multiple CSS Classes
By Ben Counsel.
" Applying multiple CSS classes allows you to create reusable classes 
that can easily be mixed together on any HTML element without adding 
additional markup, thus saving you time and making your CSS more 
efficient and easier for your work colleagues to understand. It's a 
method I've been using for a while, but one I wish I'd adopted long 
ago..."
http://tinyurl.com/5ow3zg


+03: COLOR.

Colour Theory
By Linda Goin.
"In this article, I'll cover colour basics and three simple colour 
schemes so that you can feel confident about choosing colours for your 
site. I'll follow up this article with another piece on how to simplify 
these colour choices. After all, it's more fun to enjoy the compliments 
on your Web site design than it is to sweat over the colour choices."
http://dev.opera.com/articles/view/8-colour-theory/

Colour Schemes and Design Mockups
By Linda Goin.
"After a web designer presents a site's architecture, or wireframe, to 
a client for approval, the next step is to determine the look and feel 
of the site through colour and graphics. In this article, I'll 
demonstrate how I keep this process as simple as possible..."
http://dev.opera.com/articles/view/10-colour-schemes-and-design-mockups/


+04: EVALUATION & TESTING.

Avoiding Demographics When Recruiting Participants
By Jared Spool.
"User research is now a critical tool in the toolbox of design teams. 
However, it only works well if you involve the right participants in 
the study. Having the participants that match the design's audience 
will give the team feedback on what works well and where the design 
needs rethinking. By learning from the participants, the team can make 
informed design decisions on all aspects of the user's experience..."
http://tinyurl.com/4axa37


+05: EVENTS.

Type Camp Galiano
August 3-8, 2008.
Galiano Island, Canada
http://www.typecamp.org/galiano.html

10th Annual Conference On World Wide Web Applications
September 3-5, 2008.
Cape Town, South Africa.
http://active.cput.ac.za/ZAW3/public/index.asp?pageid=546


+06: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.

Circumventing Hegemony in the HTML WG
By Steve Faulkner.
"Raising Issues: In order to raise an issue or proposal in regards to 
the HTML5 specification you do not have to be a member of the W3C HTML 
Working Group (HTML WG). Anyone can simply enter a bug into the HTML 
Bugzilla. If the proposal or issue is rejected by those that control 
the specification and the issue is related to accessibility, you can 
refer the issue to the W3C Protocols and Formats Working Group (PF WG). 
Probably the best method is to subscribe to and send an email to the 
WAI-XTECH mailing list..."
http://www.paciellogroup.com/blog/?p=80

Microsoft Credible as Blushing Debutante at the Standards Ball?
By Rick Jelliffe.
"Effective participation in standards bodies involves quite specific 
commitment and development of expertise, it is not a generic capability 
that can be instantly redeployed, Rumsfield-style, to trouble spots..."
http://tinyurl.com/5pp6od

Introduction to The Web Standards Curriculum
By Chris Mills.
"...a course designed to give anyone a solid grounding in web 
design/development, no matter who they are-it is completely free to 
use, accessible, and assumes no previous knowledge..."
http://tinyurl.com/68t9pl

Yes, You Can Use HTML 5
Jens Meiert.
"For those who weren't aware of that so far, you can already use HTML 
5: Just use <!DOCTYPE html> as your HTML documents' document type..."
http://meiert.com/en/blog/20080708/you-can-use-html-5/


+07: TOOLS.

The Pencil Project
By Duong Thanh.
Firefox 3 wireframing tool extension.
http://www.evolus.vn/Pencil/


+08: USABILITY.

Web Form Design Patterns: Sign-Up Forms
By Vitaly Friedman and Sven Lennartz.
"Below we present findings of our survey of current web form design 
patterns - the results of an analysis of 100 popular web-sites where 
web-forms (should) matter. We have decided to start with sign-up forms 
first. We present the first part of our findings below; the second part 
of the survey results will be published next week..."
http://tinyurl.com/59je2h


+09: XML.

HTML or XHTML: Does It Really Matter?
By James Edwards.
"I could say that HTML has come a long way since its first standard 
specification, HTML 2.0, was published in 1995. I would like to say 
that-but it wouldn't be true..."
http://www.sitepoint.com/article/html-or-xhtml-does-it-matter


[Section one ends.]


++ SECTION TWO:

+10: 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.

WEB DESIGN UPDATE is available by subscription. For information on how 
to subscribe and unsubscribe please visit:
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/webdevlist
The Web Design Reference Site also has a RSS 2.0 feed for site updates.


+ 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.]