[webdev] Web Design Update: May 6, 2010

Thu May 6 06:20:30 CDT 2010

+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE.
- Volume 8, Issue 45, May 6, 2010.

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

++ISSUE 45 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: DREAMWEAVER.
03: EVENTS.
04: FLASH.
05: MISCELLANEOUS.
06: NAVIGATION.
07: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.
08: TYPOGRAPHY.
09: USABILITY.

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

[Contents ends.]

++ SECTION ONE: New references.

+01: ACCESSIBILITY.

Future Web Accessibility - HTML5 Semantic Elements
By Aaron Andersen.
"This is the second in a multipost series about the immediate and likely 
future of web accessibility. Each week or so I’ll discuss a different 
upcoming technology, tag, platform, or system from an accessibility 
perspective. Additions, corrections, or further thoughts are welcome in 
the comments."
http://webaim.org/blog/future-web-accessibility-html5-semantic-tags/

WCAG 2.0 Audio Audio Contrast Tool Help For Success Criteria 1.4.7.
By eramp.
"WCAG 2.0, Success Criteria 1.4.7 is a guideline for accessible audio 
files on the internet. The goal is to help people who are hard of 
hearing understand the speech (foreground). This is done by making sure 
that any background music or noise is very quiet. Background music (or 
sound) should be at least 20dB lower than the foreground speech..."
http://www.eramp.com/WCAG_2_audio_contrast_tool_help.htm

Captioning - It's Easier Than You Sync, Ahem, Think.
By Liz Giorgi.
"Captioning video content should be a priority for any one who is 
producing video..."
http://tinyurl.com/29ph3vp

What are Transcripts?
By Leonie Watson.
"...Transcripts are text based alternatives to multimedia content. They 
include the spoken dialogue from the soundtrack, as well as descriptions 
of important sound effects..."
http://www.nomensa.com/blog/2010/what-are-transcripts/

What is Audio Description?
By Leonie Watson.
"Audio description is an extra narrative that’s mixed in with the 
original soundtrack. In the gaps between the existing dialogue and sound 
effects, someone describes the important visual action taking place on 
screen..."
http://www.nomensa.com/blog/2010/what-is-audio-description/

What is an Accessibility Audit?
By Leonie Watson.
"An accessibility audit is a thorough evaluation of your website using 
recognized guidelines and metrics. There are a lot of different 
approaches to doing an accessibility audit; this article gives you the 
low-down on exactly what you need to know..."
http://www.nomensa.com/blog/2010/what-is-an-accessibility-audit/

+02: DREAMWEAVER.

Creating Your First Website - Part 1
By David Powers.
"This tutorial introduces you to the concept of an Adobe Dreamweaver CS5 
site and shows you how to set up the project files for the Check 
Magazine sample website..."
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/dreamweaver/articles/first_website_pt1.html

+03: EVENTS.

Boston Accessibility Unconference
May 15, 2010.
Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
http://a11y-bos.org/

Two Apps Per Day
June 4, 2010.
Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.A.
http://www.twoappsperday.com/

Voices That Matter - Web Design Conference
June 28-29, 2010.
San Francisco, California, U.S.A.
http://www.voicesthatmatter.com/webdesign2010/index.aspx

EuroIA 2010
September 23-25, 2010.
Paris, France
http://www.euroia.org

+04: FLASH.

Thoughts on Flash
By Steve Jobs.
"...I wanted to jot down some of our thoughts on Adobe's Flash products 
so that customers and critics may better understand why we do not allow 
Flash on iPhones, iPods and iPads..."
http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/

HTML5 vs. Adobe Flash
By Bill Cullifer.
"The controversy for the 'hearts and minds' of Web professionals heats 
up as press reports reflect that Steve Jobs goes public with a statement 
that Adobe's Flash software has fallen short as a mobile technology. At 
issue is the public debate between the companies over the program used 
to create online video. Clearly, the case for HTML5 vs. Adobe Flash is 
sure to intensify in the weeks and months to come..."
http://webprofessionals.org/blog/html5-vs-adobe-flash/

+05: MISCELLANEOUS.

Minnewebcon Presentation Material
Via Kristofer D. Layon.
Presentation materials are becoming available from the Minnewebcon 
conference. They include videos of Wendy Chisholm and Kristina Halvorson 
keynotes.
http://www.minnewebcon.umn.edu/schedule.php

A Brief History of Markup
by Jeremy Keith.
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/a-brief-history-of-markup/

+06: NAVIGATION.

WAI-ARIA Document Landmark Roles
By Leonie Watson.
"There are eight document landmark roles in the specification. Their 
purpose is to help screen reader users navigate through content, and to 
identify the purpose of content in different areas of the page."
http://www.nomensa.com/blog/2010/wai-aria-document-landmark-roles/

+07: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.

Is HTML5 Ready for eLearning Development?
By Yogesh Agarwal.
"I think HTML5 still has some real constraints and it may not replace 
Flash for eLearning/mLearning development in near future. In fact I 
believe it may not replace Flash at all. Here are a few reasons why..."
http://tinyurl.com/25d9hw2

Understand The Web
By Ben Ward.
"Perceptions of the web is changing. People are advocating that we treat 
the web like another application framework. An open, cross-platform, 
multi-device rival to Flash and Cocoa and everything else. I'm all for 
making the web richer, and exposing new functionality, but I value what 
makes the web web like much, much more."
http://benward.me/blog/understand-the-web

HTML5 Video
By Dean Hachamovitch.
"Today, video on the web is predominantly Flash-based. While video may 
be available in other formats, the ease of accessing video using just a 
browser on a particular website without using Flash is a challenge for 
typical consumers. Flash does have some issues, particularly around 
reliability, security, and performance. We work closely with engineers 
at Adobe, sharing information about the issues we know of in ongoing 
technical discussions. Despite these issues, Flash remains an important 
part of delivering a good consumer experience on today's web."
http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2010/04/29/html5-video.aspx

Microsoft Agrees With Apple And Google - The Future Of The Web Is HTML5
By Erick Schonfeld.
"Did we mention that 2010 would be a big year for HTML5? Apple and 
Google are pushing it big time, and now so is Microsoft. When Internet 
Explorer 9 comes out, it will support HTML5 and help make it more common 
across the Web..."
http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/30/microsoft-html5/

IE9 HTML5 Video Will Be H264 Only
By Kroc Camen.
"I am almost flabbergasted by the spin and blunt-face upon which this 
news is delivered. We were just discussing the pot calling the kettle 
black with Apple / Adobe and now Microsoft have also come out in favor 
of a closed video format for an open web--IE9's HTML5 video support will 
allow H264 only. Update Now that the initial shock is over, I've 
rewritten the article to actually represent news rather than something 
on Twitter..."
http://www.osnews.com/story/23229/IE9_HTML5_Video_Will_Be_H264_Only

Microsoft Says Web Video in IE9 Is All About H.264
By Michael Calore.
"...Microsoft and Apple are supporting H.264, Mozilla and Opera are 
supporting Ogg Theora and Google, for the time being, is supporting both..."
http://tinyurl.com/24fzfaw

Distributed, Extensibility, and Other Fancy Words
By Mark Pilgrim.
"There are over 100 elements in HTML5. Some are purely semantic, others 
are just containers for scripted APIs..."
http://diveintohtml5.org/extensibility.html

Your Questions Answered Number 8
By Richard Clark.
"...In this article, we'll discuss using a <footer> at the top of your 
markup, how to skip to certain parts of a video, styling form elements 
and attributes, and more..."
http://html5doctor.com/your-questions-answered-8/

+08: TYPOGRAPHY.

Episode 1 - Web Fonts
By Jeffrey Zeldman.
"Jeffrey Zeldman and Dan Benjamin grill Ethan Dunham of Fontspring and 
Font Squirrel and Jeffrey Veen of Typekit (and other sites, too numerous 
to name) about one of your favorite subjects, 'real fonts on your 
website' in this, our inaugural episode."
http://tinyurl.com/2cgydt7

+09: USABILITY.

Touch Target Sizes
By Luke Wroblewski.
"People interact with touch-based user interfaces with their fingers. So 
user interface controls have to be big enough to capture fingertip 
actions without frustrating users with erroneous actions and tiny 
targets. Ok, so how big?..."
http://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?1085

What Is Link Rot and How to Prevent It
By Alyssa Gregory.
"Link rot occurs when links on a web site break..."
http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2010/05/05/how-to-prevent-link-rot/

[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.

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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.]