[webdev] Web Design Update: July 2, 2010

Fri Jul 2 06:11:14 CDT 2010

+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE.
- Volume 9, Issue 01, July 2, 2010.

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

++ISSUE 01 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: JAVASCRIPT.
07: MISCELLANEOUS.
08: NAVIGATION.
09: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.
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.

>From Web Accessibility to Web Adaptability
By Brian Kelly, Liddy Nevile, David Sloan, Sotiris Fanou, Ruth
Ellison, and Lisa Herrod.
"This paper asserts that current approaches to enhancing the
accessibility of Web resources fail to provide a solid foundation for
the development of a robust and future-proofed framework. In
particular, they fail to take advantage of new technologies and
technological practices."
http://opus.bath.ac.uk/14902/3/print-it.html

Future Web Accessibility Updates
By Aaron Andersen.
"It's been two months since my first Future Accessibility article, and
less than a week since my most recent one, yet several exciting new
developments have already made some of the things discussed in the
series outdated or incorrect. Here, briefly, are some of those recent
changes..."
http://webaim.org/blog/future-web-accessibility-updates/

HTML5: Techniques for Providing Useful Text Alternatives
Editor Steve Faulkner.
"This document contains author conformance requirements for use of the
alt attribute in HTML5 and best practice guidance for authors of HTML
documents on providing text alternatives for images..."
http://www.w3.org/TR/html-alt-techniques/

+02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.

CSS Validation and Vendor Extensions: Throw Warnings, Not Errors
By Jens O. Meiert.
"If you understand valid code as a quality baseline, you will validate
your code. If you validate style sheets, you will have come across
errors..."
http://meiert.com/en/blog/20100626/css-validation-and-vendor-extensions/

IE's Big Leap Forward; CSS3 Selectors Fully Supported
By Peter-Paul Koch.
"In the past few days I've been revising the CSS compatibility table
with information about the latest crop of browsers. There's no doubt
about it: this is IE9's show. It just supports nearly everything. No
hassle, no buts. Besides, CSS3 selectors are now fully supported by
all browsers but one. And that one browser is not IE. It's, curiously,
Opera..."
http://www.quirksmode.org/blog/archives/2010/06/ies_big_leap_fo.html

-o- Vendor Prefixed CSS Supported in Opera 10.50
By Bruce Lawson.
"The CSS specification allows for vendor-specific extensions. These
are usually (but not exclusively) used for experimental additions to
the CSS specification that have not yet reached Candidate
Recommendation stage."
http://my.opera.com/ODIN/blog/2010/06/25/o-vendor-prefixed-css-supported-in-opera-10-50

The Death of the Pixel As We Know It - The New DPI Web
By Dion Almaer.
"The Web used to be so simple. Browser request goes to server, where
you do some work, and return some HTML. Then we got Ajax and finally
web apps could have some semblance of UI responsiveness. Now we have
richer HTML5 technologies to change expectations of our users once
again..."
http://ajaxian.com/archives/the-death-of-the-pixel-as-we-know-it-the-new-dpi-web

+03: EVALUATION & TESTING.

Five Ways to Make Any Usability Test More Credible
By Jeff Sauro.
"Whether you're conducting an early stage test of a website design or
a validation of a live site, these five tips can make any usability
test more credible. The tips both temper skepticism about small
samples and help you avoid overstating your findings..."
http://www.usabilitynews.com/news/article6663.asp

+04: EVENTS.

Open Web Camp
July 17, 2010.
Palo Alto, California, U.S.A.
http://openwebcamp.org/

WebAIM Training
September 22-23, 2010.
Logan, Utah, U.S.A.
http://webaim.org/training/

+05: FLASH.

Flash Techniques for WCAG 2.0
By W3C.
"This Web page lists Flash Techniques from Techniques for WCAG 2.0:
Techniques and Failures for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0.
http://www.w3.org/WAI/GL/WCAG20-TECHS/flash.html

Flash and the Quest for Accessibility - Part 1
By Sandro Ducceschi.
"The greater part of last year i was heads-down-busy developing the
EventManager Game which i had the pleasure to build at Liip for
Postfinance. EventManager is an educational but fun game, that
approaches topics such as budgeting, financing and investing in a
modern way (read: not boring you to death). Today i want to talk to
you about the new iteration of the game that we just released a couple
of weeks ago. What is new you ask? How about: Accessibility! And not
just any form of accessibility - the Game has earned the AA+..."
http://blog.swfjunkie.com/2010/06/flash-accessibility-quest-part1/

Flash and the Quest for Accessibility - Part 2
By Sandro Ducceschi.
"This second part will cover all the technically nitty-gritty, blood
and tears that went into implementing accessibility for this
project..."
http://blog.swfjunkie.com/2010/06/flash-accessibility-quest-part2/

Flash and the HTML5 Video Tag
By John Harding.
" While HTML5's video support enables us to bring most of the content
and features of YouTube to computers and other devices that don't
support Flash Player, it does not yet meet all of our needs. Today,
Adobe Flash provides the best platform for YouTube's video
distribution requirements, which is why our primary video player is
built with it."
http://apiblog.youtube.com/2010/06/flash-and-html5-tag.html

+06: JAVASCRIPT.

AJAX and the Problem of Web Accessibility
By Joseph C. Dolson.
"Websites with features described as AJAX have become incredibly
common in the last few years. Many of these sites are even using
AJAX-and a few of them are even using AJAX well. Many, however, have
significant problems in their implementation, especially where web
accessibility is concerned..."
http://developer.practicalecommerce.com/articles/1998-AJAX-and-the-Problem-of-Web-Accessibility

JavaScript Tip: Use a for-loop to Reveal Properties and Methods
By Tiffany B. Brown.
"I've been tinkering with the HTML5 video  element quite a bit lately.
However, it's not the best-documented thing in the world. There are
very useful properties in the video element's events that aren't so
clearly explained in the spec. Developing a media player means you
have to uncover these properties using a little bit of scripting
know-how. Luckily for us, there is a very easy way to reveal the
methods and properties of just about any element in the DOM..."
http://tiffanybbrown.com/2010/06/29/javascript-tip-use-a-for-loop-to-reveal-properties-and-methods/

+07: MISCELLANEOUS.

InterACT Summit Video Now Available
By Virginia DeBolt.
"...Every presentation was excellent. A few high points. Glenda Sims
presentation on Content Strategy featured innovative slides that set a
new standard in what is possible with Powerpoint. Derek Featherstone's
talk garnered the most interest and questions from educators who want
specifics about teaching accessibility. Leslie Jensen-Inman knocked it
out of the park by explaining how busy and overworked teachers can
save themselves time and work with the InterACT book and
curriculum..."
http://www.webteacher.ws/2010/06/25/interact-summit-video-now-available/

Eric Meyer Interview
By The Geek Talk.
"Who is Eric Meyer?..."
http://thegeektalk.com/interviews/eric-meyer/

+08: NAVIGATION.

Skip Navigation Links (Updated 6/19/2009)
By Jim Thatcher.
"I first wrote about skip links here in 2004 prompted by an
'assignment' related to techniques for the Web Content Accessibility
Guidelines, Version 2. Here's what it is all about..."
http://jimthatcher.com/skipnav.htm

Topic Maps
By Lars Johnsen.
"Topic Maps is a standards-based technology and model for organizing
and integrating digital information in a range of applications and
domains. Drawing on notions adapted from current discourse theory,
this article focuses on the communicative, or explanatory, potential
of topic maps..."
http://journalofia.org/volume2/issue1/02-johnsen/

Beyond Findability
By Luigi Spagnolo, Davide Bolchini, Paolo Paolini, and Nicoletta Di Blas.
"This paper details a way to extend classic information architecture
for web-based applications. The goal is to enhance traditional user
experiences, mainly based on navigation or search, to new ones (also
relevant for stakeholders’ requirements)..."
http://journalofia.org/volume2/issue1/03-spagnolo/

+09: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.

HTML5 Input Attributes and Browser Support
By Estelle Weyl.
"I have updated the HTML5 Web Form Browser support grid to include the
various input attributes, for what input type each is relevant, and
which browsers support each attribute for each type."
http://www.standardista.com/html5-input-attributes-browser-support

Growing Pains Afflict HTML5 Standardization
By Stephen Shankland.
"Listening to marketing messages from companies such as Apple and
Google, one might think HTML5, the next-generation Web page standard,
is ready to take the Net by storm. But the words of those producing
the specification show an HTML governance process that can be stormy,
fractious, and far from settled down..."
http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-20008935-264.html

CNet Story on HTML5
By Shelley Powers.
"Stephen Shankland of CNet published an article, Growing pains afflict
HTML5 standardization. He sent me an interview email and quoted a
small portion of the response. I believe he quoted me fairly. However,
I wanted to publish the entire interview, so you can see the material
not included..."
http://burningbird.net/node/113

Canvas is Coming to IE9
By Craig Buckler.
"IE9 may be vaporware for a while yet, but that hasn't stopped
Microsoft announcing new features with a fanfare. The latest offering
is canvas; an HTML5 image technology introduced by Apple."
http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2010/06/29/canvas-support-ie9/

+10: USABILITY.

Top Tasks Versus Tiny Tasks
By Gerry McGovern.
"Separating the top tasks from the tiny tasks is one of a web
manager's most important responsibilities."
http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/nt/2010/nt-2010-06-28-Top-tiny.htm

5 Task-Centered Design Patterns Competitors are Employing to Out-gun Your Design
By Frank Spillers.
"Task-Centered Design is important because usability is measured by
how well user's are able to successfully complete their tasks.
Usability testing measures how well user's complete their tasks.
Usability reviews (expert reviews aka Heuristic Evaluations) evaluate
how well user's are likely to complete their tasks based on guidelines
and known issues..."
http://www.demystifyingusability.com/2010/06/5-competitive-hallmarks-of-taskoriented-design.html

Perception and the Design of Forms - Part 2 Size
By Jessica Enders.
"This is the second in our 6-part series on human visual perception
and its influence on the design of forms. Nicely related to our
previous concept of shape is this article's topic: size."
http://formulate.com.au/articles/padf-part2-size/

People are Inherently Lazy
By Susan Weinschenk.
"Ok, I'll admit it, I am exaggerating a little bit when I say people
are inherently lazy. What I really mean is that people will do the
least amount of work possible to get a task done..."
http://www.whatmakesthemclick.net/2010/06/28/100-things-you-should-know-about-people-36-people-are-inherently-lazy/

Anatomy of a Noob - Why your Mom Suck at Computers
By Thomas Petersen.
"The words metaphor and intuitive are often used in UX. They are the
metrics that we use to judge the quality of a solution. But is this
quality really as universal as we might like to believe? (...)
Understanding something intuitively really means that you understand
it holistically. If you understand it holistically you can fill in the
gaps. This doesn't mean you shouldn't make your design intuitive or
improve on it, not at all. Just understand that you are doing it for
the natives not for the noobs."
http://000fff.org/anatomy-of-a-noob-why-your-mom-suck-at-computers/

People Can Tell You What They Want
By Zoltan Gocza and Zoltan Kollin.
"Many organizations still rely on asking people what changes they’d
like to see in their website or service, neglecting historical
research failures like the new Coke or the Aeron chair..."
http://uxmyths.com/post/746610684/myth-21-people-can-tell-you-what-they-want

World Cup Websites - All to Play For
By Webcredible.
"The World Cup usability report evaluates the World Cup-focused
websites of FIFA and 4 major broadcasters - the BBC, Sky, ITV and
Eurosport - against 10 best practice usability guidelines. The
guidelines focused on homepage priorities, supporting key user tasks,
user engagement, and navigation and orientation."
http://www.webcredible.co.uk/user-friendly-resources/white-papers/world-cup-report.shtml

+11: XML.

Polyglot Markup: HTML-Compatible XHTML Documents
Editor: Eliot Graff.
"A document that uses polyglot markup is an HTML5 document which is at
the same time an XML document and an HTML document, and which meets a
well defined set of constraints. Polyglot markup that meets these
constraints as interpreted as compatible, regardless of whether they
are processed as HTML or as XHTML, per the HTML5 specification.
Polyglot markup uses a specific doctype, namespace declarations, and a
specific case—normally lower case but occasionally camel case—for
element and attribute names. Polyglot markup uses lower case for
certain attribute values. Further constraints include those on empty
elements, named entity references, and the use of scripts and
style..."
http://www.w3.org/TR/html-polyglot/

[Section one ends.]

++ SECTION TWO:

+12: 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.]