[webdev] Web Design Update: August 23, 2008

Sat Aug 23 06:47:40 CDT 2008

+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE.
- Volume 7, Issue 08, August 23, 2008.

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

++ISSUE 08 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: NAVIGATION
05: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.
06: TYPOGRAPHY.

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

[Contents ends.]

++ SECTION ONE: New references.

+01: ACCESSIBILITY.

Response to Article in A List Apart
By Open & Closed Project.
"Lisa Herrod's article for A List Apart, 'Deafness and the User 
Experience' (ALA 265, 2008.08.12), makes incorrect attributions about 
the Open & Closed Project. The Open & Closed Project isn't doing what 
the article claims we are..."
http://openandclosed.org/docs/ALA265/

Web Accessibility - Beijing Olympics: Revisiting The Errors Of The Past
By Majeed Saleh.
"The Olympic Games are currently being followed avidly by sports fans, 
journalists and politicians worldwide, many of them using the official 
Beijing 2008 website (http://en.beijing2008.cn/), the most 
comprehensive source of information on events..."
http://www.headstar.com/eablive/?p=201

State of the eNation Reports: Beijing Olympics Special
By AbilityNet.
"The owners of the Sydney Olympics Game site (SOCOG) were successfully 
prosecuted by Blind Australian Bruce Maguire in 2000. In this special 
report we invited disabled web users to test out the Beijing Olympics 
website."
http://www.abilitynet.org.uk/enation99

Assistive Technology: a video tour of accessibility
By Jon Gibbins.
"...if you're just starting out building websites, these videos will 
hopefully lead you to consider accessibility in your work, which tends 
to provide a solid foundation for using best practices....
http://lab.dotjay.co.uk/notes/assistive-technology/videos/

+02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.

Best Practice for ID and Class Names
By Jens Meiert.
"I'm currently working on yet another article for German Dr. Web mag, 
this time covering recommendations for IDs and classes, an issue likely 
as old as the Web. Taking a different approach than usual I'm feeling 
free to publish a 'guerrilla sneak preview' in this place..."
http://meiert.com/en/blog/20080812/best-practice-ids-and-classes/

CSS 3 attribute Selectors
By Christopher Schmitt.
"In this article, Christopher Schmitt carries on his detailed 
exploration of what CSS3 has to offer us, looking at CSS3 attribute 
selectors that allow us to write selectors matching strings of text 
inside attribute values..."
http://dev.opera.com/articles/view/css-3-attribute-selectors/

CSS 3 Image Replacement on the ODiN blog
By Bruce Lawson.
After a question about image replacement on accessify forums, I began 
to explore the image replacement options that CSS 3 will offer us. 
There is a potentially a mechanism using the content property that 
requires no extra markup and which degrades well even with CSS on and 
images off, because it doesn't hide the text it replaces."
http://tinyurl.com/5vx9av

CSS and Opacity: methods for creating translucent elements
By Christopher Schmitt.
"Christopher Schmitt has been playing with the CSS opacity property a 
lot lately, and loves what he can do with it. In this article, he 
shares his findings with the world."
http://tinyurl.com/5vrvtr

+03: JAVASCRIPT.

ECMAScript Harmony
By John Resig.
John explains the outcome of the recent 'Oslo meeting' where proponents 
of ECMAScript 3.1 (incremental improvements to JS as it exists today) 
and 4 (massive, sweeping changes including many new programming 
constructs) harmonized their differences.
http://ejohn.org/blog/ecmascript-harmony/

ECMAScript Harmony: New Life for JavaScript
By Kevin Yank.
"One by one, the core standards that define the Web are getting a new 
lease on life. First, the W3C rebooted its development of HTML by 
abandoning its single-minded focus on XHTML and embracing the work of 
the WHAT-WG's HTML 5 draft as a new beginning. Now, at a meeting in 
Olso at the end of July, the long-divided standards body responsible 
for the JavaScript language has managed to find new unity through 
compromise..."
http://tinyurl.com/5fg5kp

Primitive Data Types, Arrays, Loops, and Conditions: Part 3
By Stoyan Stefanov.
"This tutorial takes a look at some of the basics of JavaScript, such 
as primitive data types, arrays, common operators and flow control 
statements. This final installment looks at arrays, conditions and 
loops."
http://www.webreference.com/programming/javascript/beginning-oojs3/

+04:NAVIGATION

Design Cop-out 2 - Breadcrumbs
By Jared Spool.
"Like site maps, breadcrumbs are hard to do well. And they are also a 
treatment of the symptom, with the real problem that the user is on the 
wrong page to begin with. Work to ensure the only place users end up is 
on the right page, and you'll no longer need to provide breadcrumbs to 
rescue them."
http://www.uie.com/articles/breadcrumbs

+05: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.

The Digital Stakhanovite
By Karl Dubost.
"...At regular cycle, there is a rage debate over alt attribute on html 
working group mailing list. I'm not sure there is a perfect solution 
and we have to find a way to accommodate the circumstances of this 
sharing. The difficulty is that the right solution is more social than 
technical. Giving meaningful alternative information for the images you 
put online, really depends on the context..."
http://www.w3.org/QA/2008/08/the-digital-stakhanovite.html

The Details of Data in documents: GRDDL, Profiles, and HTML5
By Dan Connolly.
"...I don't particularly care for the rel="profile" design, but one 
should choose ones battles and I'm not inclined to choose this one. I'm 
content for the market to choose."
http://www.w3.org/QA/2008/08/the_details_of_data_in_documen.html

This Week in HTML 5 - Episode 2
By Mark Pilgrim.
"Welcome back to "This Week in HTML 5," where I'll try to summarize the 
major activity in the ongoing standards process in the WHATWG and W3C 
HTML Working Group."
http://blog.whatwg.org/this-week-in-html5-episode-2

This Week in HTML 5 - Episode 3
By Mark Pilgrim.
http://blog.whatwg.org/this-week-in-html-5-episode-3

+06: TYPOGRAPHY.

Use the Best Available Ampersand
By Dan Cederholm.
"I love ampersands. And interest in this quirky character seems to be 
on the rise as of late. Case in point: Just last week, I purchased not 
one, but two t-shirts adorned with nothing more than an ampersand. 
That's telling, no?..."
http://www.simplebits.com/notebook/2008/08/14/ampersands.html

Ampersands With Attitude
By Huw Wilkins.
"Ampersands have long been the character in a typeface with which 
typographers can indulge themselves. Sweeping curves, flirtatious 
finishes and bold statements - these are the things that make 
ampersands an exciting character to use and, better still, to design..."
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/08/15/ampersands-with-attitude/

[Section one ends.]

++ SECTION TWO:

+07: 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 
accessible Text Email Newsletter (TEN) guidelines.  Please let me know 
if there is anything else we can do to make navigation easier. For TEN 
guideline information please visit:
http://www.headstar.com/ten

+ 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.]