[webdev] Web Design Update: February 5, 2010

[Laura Carlson]

+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE.
- Volume 8, Issue 32, February 5, 2010.

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: FLASH.
06: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE.
07: NAVIGATION.
08: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.
09: TOOLS.
10: USABILITY.
11: XML.

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

[Contents ends.]


++ SECTION ONE: New references.

+01: ACCESSIBILITY.

Simple Steps Towards Building an Accessible Site (part 2)
By Henny Swan.
"Not all types of content can be accessed by all of people, hardware or 
software so alternative formats are needed..."
http://tinyurl.com/yko7wwt

How Should Web Browsers Render Alternative Text?
By Vlad Alexander.
"...If there is agreement that textual alternative content for an image 
is an equivalent replacement for the visual content of an image, then 
the textual alternative content alone should replace visual content when 
it is not rendered."
http://rebuildingtheweb.com/en/how-should-browsers-render-alt-text/

Who is Required to Close-Caption?
By closedcaptioning.
"...There is currently a movement to pass legislation that will define 
and regulate accessibility for developing technology.  H.R. 3101 was 
introduced in June 2009 by Edward Markey (D-MA).  Called the 
'Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 
2009,' this legislation will, if enacted, amend the nation's 
Communications Act.  With more than 240 national, state, and 
community-based organizations supporting the legislation, and with 
telecommunications becoming more essential to our daily lives all the 
time, it looks like it won't be long before captions will be required 
across all forms of visual media."
http://tinyurl.com/yfqqhc8

Common Accessibility Mistakes
By Mark Aplet.
"So here is my general list of accessibility mistakes and a few ways to 
improve the overall accessibility of your site for everyone and not just 
disabled users..."
http://www.visual28.com/articles/common-accessibility-mistakes

My Web My Way
By British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This site provides accessibility help, enabling computer users to make 
the most of the internet whatever their ability or disability."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/accessibility/accessibility_beta/


+02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.

Multiple Backgrounds and CSS Gradients
By Jonathan Snook.
"CSS3 features are making their way into the various browsers and while 
many are holding off on implementing them, there are those who are 
venturing ahead and likely running into a world of interesting quirks 
across the various platforms..."
http://snook.ca/archives/html_and_css/multiple-bg-css-gradients

The CSS Background Property
By Virginia DeBolt.
"Several CSS properties are involved in understanding how to use 
background images.  As you probably know, a background image can be 
added to any element on a page of HTML using a CSS rule for 
background-image which points to a URL for the image you are using. The 
CSS syntax looks like this.."
http://www.webteacher.ws/2010/02/04/the-css-background-property/

Adding Focus to Form Fields
By Virginia DeBolt.
"You can highlight the form field a user is in. It's a small visual cue 
as to where the cursor is in the form. Here's a simple example..."
http://www.webteacher.ws/2010/02/02/adding-focus-to-form-fields/


+03: EVALUATION & TESTING.

Analytics - The Usability Lab of the New Decade
By Peter Morville.
"...if you're not embracing analytics, do so, now. Google Analytics is 
free. Use it. But don't go crazy. Identify a few key measures. Allow a 
little while for the data to be dependable. Develop some hypotheses as 
to what's happening, and make some small changes to test those 
hypotheses. Lather, rinse, and repeat. You'll grow more confident, and 
as you do, you'll get more sophisticated. Always remember that analytics 
are not 'the answer' - but they are an input into a continually 
improving and iterating development process."
http://tinyurl.com/ygd77l8


+04: EVENTS.

European Joint Conferences on Theory and Practice of Software (ETAPS)
March 20-28, 2010.
Paphos, Cyprus
http://www.etaps10.cs.ucy.ac.cy/

CSS3 Online Conference
Online
March 22, 2010.
http://carsonified.com/online-conferences/css3/

Information Architecture Summit
April 9-11, 2010.
Phoenix, Arizona , U.S.A.
http://2010.iasummit.org/

Web APP Masters Tour
April 27-28, 2010.
Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.A.
http://www.uie.com/events/web_app_masters/


+05: FLASH.

Flash, iPad, Standards
By Jeffrey Zeldman.
"Lack of Flash in the iPad (and before that, in the iPhone) is a win for 
accessible, standards-based design..."
http://www.zeldman.com/2010/02/01/flash-ipad-standards/

Ahem
By Jeffrey Zeldman.
"The first part of my post of 1 February was not an attack on Flash. It 
described a way of working with Flash that also supports users who don't 
have access to Flash. I've followed and advocated that approach for 10 
years. It has nothing to do with Apple's recent decisions and everything 
to do with making content available to people and search engines..."
http://www.zeldman.com/2010/02/03/ahem/

Lack of Flash Support by the iPad - Bad News or Good?
By Brian Kelly.
"A post I wrote in November 2008 entitled 'Why Did SMIL and SVG Fail?' 
has been referenced by the Stevie 5 is Alive blog. The post on the lack 
of Flash support for the iPad device says 'Apple: Thank You for Leaving 
Flash Out..."
http://tinyurl.com/yz77ew2


+06: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE.

Attending to Performance
By Thom Haller.
"As information architects, we have the opportunity to learn when our 
constituents are thwarted by information structure. If possible, we 
should observe actual performers doing actual work in actual work 
contexts. We should understand what performers need to know, what is 
better referenced and what is best supported. We should understand the 
pressures, activities, accountabilities, interruptions, relationships 
and consequences of good and flawed performance. And we should measure."
http://www.asis.org/Bulletin/Feb-10/FebMar10_Haller.html


+07: NAVIGATION.

Search Patterns
By Peter Morville and Jeffery Callender.
""Search is among the most disruptive innovations of our time. It 
influences what we buy and where we go. It shapes how we learn and what 
we believe. This provocative and inspiring book explores design patterns 
that apply across the categories of web, e-commerce, enterprise, 
desktop, mobile, social, and real time search and discovery. Using 
colorful illustrations and examples, the authors bring modern 
information retrieval to life, covering such diverse topics as relevance 
ranking, faceted navigation, multi-touch, and mixed reality. Search 
Patterns challenges us to invent the future of discovery while serving 
as a practical guide to help us make search applications better today..."
http://www.searchpatterns.org/


+08: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.

HTML5 Change Proposal: Replace img Guidance for Conformance Checkers
Editor Laura Carlson.
"This change proposal modifies the HTML5 Specification so that automatic 
validators can programmatically detect the presence or absence of text 
alternatives on the img element..."
http://esw.w3.org/topic/HTML/ChangeProposals/ImgElement20090126

Hello, summary and figcaption Elements
By Bruce Lawson.
"This weekend saw the minting of not one but two new elements. The 
summary element (not the summary attribute on the table element) goes 
inside the details element.."
http://html5doctor.com/summary-figcaption-element/

Bet Against HTML and You Lose
By Joe Clark.
"The more your online content diverges from a traditional Web page, the 
less likely a format that isn't HTML is going to work. The less your 
content resembles a Web site, the greater the need to use HTML, at least 
if you intend to distribute it online. Any format that is not HTML in 
some guise has a short life expectancy..."
http://blog.fawny.org/2010/01/29/backtherighthorse/


+09: TOOLS.

WAVE Dreamweaver Extension
By WebAIM.
WebAIM has released a beta version of a WAVE Dreamweaver Extension.
http://wave.webaim.org/dwextension


+10: USABILITY.

The Last Road Block for Your Customers - Web Forms
By Gary Barber.
"You have built the perfect web site, the colours invoke the right 
emotional response, the visual imagery leads customers to the relevant 
information while allowing the audience to personally relate to the 
site. The content is ideal for the web, not to much but enough to 
convince people of the service. The major call to actions are in the 
right locations, and easy to find. Everything is set, the web site is 
ready to take on the world..."
http://tinyurl.com/ybokbyd

When Do You Have Too Much Information?
By Gerry McGovern.
"There is no greater skill a web professional needs to develop than the 
ability to create quality links. Many websites do not need more 
publishing. Rather, they need more linking of content in appropriate 
task journeys. Linking is a complex skill because it requires you to see 
the task through your customer's eyes."
http://tinyurl.com/y89akcl

Content Is King
By Paul Boag.
"Just because content is king doesn't mean, however, that the designer's 
job is any less important. How seriously would people take the King if 
his suit was poorly made? It has to look good..."
http://boagworld.com/site-content/content-is-king

The Battle Between Usability and User-Experience
By Thomas Baekdal.
"The main reasons why it is so hard to create usable products is that 
there is a conflict between a high-usability level and great 
user-experience. You might think this as strange, but there is a 
important difference between the two..."
http://tinyurl.com/rcg5l


+11: XML.

W3C Launches RDFa Working Group
By W3C.
"W3C launched today the RDFa Working Group, whose mission is to support 
the use of RDFa, a format for embedding structured data in Web documents..."
http://www.w3.org/News/2010.html#entry-8711

SVG or Canvas? Choosing Between the Two
By Mihai Sucan.
"In this article Mihai Sucan explores the differences between SVG and 
Canvas and presents a few examples to help you decide which one is best 
for the functionality you are trying to implement."
http://tinyurl.com/yb8cohx


[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.


+ 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 
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.]