[webdev] Web Design Update: September 18, 2010

Laura Carlson lcarlson at d.umn.edu
Sat Sep 18 03:53:47 CDT 2010 

+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE.
- Volume 9, Issue 12, September 18, 2010.

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

++ISSUE 12 CONTENTS.

SECTION ONE: New references.
What's new at the Web Design Reference site?
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/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.

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

[Contents ends.]


++ SECTION ONE: New references.

+01: ACCESSIBILITY.

Web Accessibility, Structured Negotiations and DOJ Rulemaking
By Lainey Feingold.
"...This post provides information, resources and examples of large
commercial websites that have been designed to meet accessibility
standards. These sites are operated by some of the largest entities in
the United States, including Bank of America, Major League Baseball
and CVS. These entities and the others referenced here have made their
websites accessible without litigation as a result of Structured
Negotiations and other advocacy efforts..."
http://lflegal.com/2010/09/doj-anprm-web/

Accessibility and the Law: How good UX Can Keep You Out of Court
By Gregory P. Care.
"Website accessibility  is obviously an integral part of user
experience; a negative user experience is certain to occur when a
consumer cannot access a commercial website, which, in turn, almost
always carries negative business consequences. To make matters worse,
an inaccessible website may also expose the site owner and/or designer
to legal liability."
http://www.uxmag.com/strategy/accessibility-and-the-law

6 Myths About E-Commerce Accessibility
By Ryan Slight.
"Our guest blogger Ryan Slight, from eSSENTIAL Accessibility Inc.,
explains some common misconceptions about making a website for people
with physical disabilities..."
http://blog.vortx.com/ecommerce/6-myths-about-e-commerce-accessibility/


+02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.

Combining Meta Viewport and Media Queries
Peter-Paul Koch.
"If you want to make your websites ready form mobile, it's best to
combine <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width"> with width
 media queries. That will give your site the optimal width (as
determined by the device vendor, who really ought to know), and your
site will look the better for it."
http://www.quirksmode.org/blog/archives/2010/09/combining_meta.html

Parts of CSS3 in Internet Explorer now with CSS3 PIE
By Roger Johansson.
"One great thing about several CSS3 properties is that they let you
save bandwidth and write cleaner markup. All those extra meaningless
div and span  elements you used to be forced to add to create rounded
corners? Not needed. The images used for the same rounded corners, for
dropshadows, and for gradients? Not needed either..."
http://www.456bereastreet.com/archive/201009/parts_of_css3_in_internet_explorer_now_with_css3_pie/


+03: COLOR.

Making Websites Accessible for People with Colour Recognition Deficiencies
By Irene Lizarrag.
"Colours on a website make a great impact on how visitors can use it,
and how they perceive the message the website is trying to convey..."
http://www.helium.com/items/1671376-colour-sight-dissabilities-colour-blindness-color-blindness-web-design-for-the-color-blind


+04: EVALUATION & TESTING.

Survey Respondents Prefer the Left Side of a Rating Scale
By Jeff Sauro.
"Subtle changes to response items in surveys and questionnaires can
affect responses..."
http://www.measuringusability.com/blog/left-side-bias.php

97 Things to Know about Usability
By Jeff Sauro.
"1. You are ultimately measuring an interface not users..."
http://www.measuringusability.com/blog/usability.php


+05: EVENTS.

Understanding Accessibility
September 30, 2010.
Ottawa, Canada
http://furtherahead.com/courses/understandingaccessibility/

Future of Web Apps
October 4-6, 2010.
London, United Kingdom
http://futureofwebapps.com/london-2010/

Real World Accessibility for HTML5, CSS3 and ARIA
October 7, 2010.
Ottawa, Canada
http://furtherahead.com/courses/realworldhtml5/

Do-It-Yourself Usability Testing
October 20, 2010
Washington, DC, U.S.A.
http://www.sensible.com/workshops.html

Letting Go of the Words - Writing Web Content that Works
October 21, 2010.
Washington, DC, U.S.A.
http://www.redish.net/content/DCworkshop2010.html

Real World Accessibility for Ajax and Web Apps
October 21, 2010.
Ottawa, Canada
http://furtherahead.com/courses/realworldajax/

Front-Trends
October 21-22, 2010.
Warsaw, Poland
http://front-trends.com/


+06: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.

Review and Comment on the W3C HTML5 Specification
By Shelley Powers.
"I join with the IE Blog team in recommending that everyone take some
time to review HTML5. However, I also realize that the HTML5
specification isn't a document for the faint of heart, or those short
of time. In order to encourage wider review, I'm posting this as a
guide through the labyrinth of processing algorithms, new elements,
and cat-featured examples that we know as HTML5..."
http://realtech.burningbird.net/reviewcomment-w3c-html5-specification

How to Comment and When (HTML5)
By Shelley Powers.
http://realtech.burningbird.net/how-comment-and-when

The HTML5 Document Structure
By Shelley Powers.
http://realtech.burningbird.net/reviewcomment-w3c-html5-specification/html5-document-structure

Web Standards: from Working Draft to Recommendation
By Adrian Bateman.
"...Last Call is the signal that the working group believes the spec
is functionally complete and is ready for broad review from both other
working groups and the public at large. The working group must respond
to all the comments received during Last Call and this often results
in changes to the specification. A further Last Call could be
necessary if the changes are substantial..."
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ie/archive/2010/09/13/web-standards-from-working-draft-to-recommendation.aspx

An Example of HTML5 Markup
By Virginia DeBolt.
"From the doctype to new elements, HTML5 in many ways is a
simplification as well as an addition to what can be done with HTML.
Here's an example HTML5 page..."
http://www.webteacher.ws/2010/09/17/an-example-of-html5-markup/


+07: TOOLS

Longdesc FireFox Extension
By Patrick H. Lauke.
This FireFox extension adds a "View Image Longdesc" option to the
image context menu. The Opera browser has this same type of Longdesc
feature built in.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/273/


+08: USABILITY.

10 Usability Tips Based on Research Studies
By Cameron Chapman.
"This article discusses usability findings of research results such as
eye-tracking studies, reports, analytics, and usability surveys
pertaining to website usability and improvements. You'll discover that
many of these usability tips will be common sense but are further
supported with numbers; however, some might surprise you and change
your outlook on your current design processes."
http://sixrevisions.com/usabilityaccessibility/10-usability-tips-based-on-research-studies/

Recommendations for Usability in Practice - Final Version
By Jasper van Kuik.
"This is the final version of my recommendations for usability in
product development practice, based on a PhD research project at the
Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering of TU Delft..."
http://www.uselog.com/2010/09/recommendations-for-usability-in.html

On the Web, Sell the Sausage, Not the Sizzle
By Gerry McGovern.
"...Customers who want to hire a van want van sizes, they want prices,
and they want to do it all really fast. Traditional marketing and
communication just gets in the way on the Web..."
http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/nt/2010/nt-2010-09-13-Web-bacon.htm

Simplicity is Not Overrated, Just Misunderstood
By UX Movement.
"This article is a response to 'Simplicity is Highly Overrated' by Don
Norman...Usability and user experience design is all about making
things simple and easy to use. I never would've expected such a
contradictory statement coming from some one who co-founded the
Nielsen and Norman group, a firm that offers usability consulting,
training seminars and research reports. This statement puts a dagger
into the back of usability and user experience design."
http://uxmovement.com/design-articles/simplicity-not-overrated

Children's Websites: Usability Issues in Designing for Kids
By Jakob Nielsen.
"New research with users aged 3-12 shows that older kids have gained
substantial Web proficiency since our last studies, while younger kids
still face many problems. Designing for children requires distinct
usability approaches, including targeting content narrowly for
different ages of kids."
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/children.html

Usability Study Shows Kids Don't Search
By Liz Gannes.
"While adult Internet users are increasingly 'search dominant,' kids
navigate the web using bookmarks, remembering their favorite sites,
and accessing paid subscription content and games. That's one of the
findings from a new qualitative usability study  on how children use
the web by human-computer interaction researcher Jakob Nielsen of the
Nielsen Norman Group. His report makes it seem as if kids have more of
an app mentality than a search mentality when compared to adults..."
http://gigaom.com/2010/09/13/usability-study-shows-kids-dont-search/


[Section one ends.]


++ SECTION TWO:

+09: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site?

Accessibility Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/accessibility.html

Association Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/associations.html

Book Listings.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/books.html

Cascading Style Sheets Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/css.html

Color Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/color.html

Dreamweaver Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/dreamweaver.html

Evaluation & Testing Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/testing.html

Event Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/events.html

Flash Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/flash.html

Information Architecture Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/architecture.html

JavaScript Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/javascript.html

Miscellaneous Web Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/misc.html

Navigation Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/navigation.html

PHP Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/php.html

Sites & Blogs Listing.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/sites.html

Standards, Guidelines & Pattern Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/standards.html

Tool Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/tools.html

Typography Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/type.html

Usability Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/usability.html

XML Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/xml.html

[Section two ends.]


++END NOTES.


+ SUBSCRIPTION INFO.

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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.]

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