[webdev] Web Design Update: December 24, 2010

Laura Carlson lcarlson at d.umn.edu
Fri Dec 24 14:32:15 CST 2010 

+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE.
- Volume 9, Issue 26, December 24, 2010.

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

++ISSUE 26 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: DREAMWEAVER.
05: EVENTS.
06: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE.
07: NAVIGATION.
08: PHP.
09: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.
10: TOOLS.
11: TYPOGRAPHY.
12: XML.

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

[Contents ends.]


++ SECTION ONE: New references.

+01: ACCESSIBILITY.

Missouri State University (MSU) Website Recognized for Accessibility to Blind
By Didi Tang.
"The official website of Missouri State University gained special
...The key is to make the web pages text-based, Clark said. That
allows the visually impaired students to use a reader -- a device that
translates text into sound. If the university web site has a photo, it
has a description of the image in text so the blind can learn about
the photo, Clark said. The university is making its web pages not only
accessible to the visually impaired but also those with other
disabilities, Clark said. For example, video clips posted online for
the public have captions for the hearing impaired, she said. The web
site also is designed to allow for navigation through a keyboard, so
those challenged to use a mouse can still use the site, Clark
said...."
http://www.news-leader.com/article/20101218/NEWS04/12180353/1007/NEWS01/MSU-website-recognized-for-accessibility-to-blind

Accessibility First-for a Better User Experience for All
By Whitney Quesenbery.
"Focusing an application's user experience on users' key tasks is good
advice for design on any platform. It's also good advice for usable
accessibility."
http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2010/12/accessibility-firstfor-a-better-user-experience-for-all.php

HTML Accessible Emails
By Royal National Institute of Blind People.
"The following is a guide to techniques that can be used to make HTML
emails as accessible as possible..."
http://www.rnib.org.uk/professionals/webaccessibility/articles/Pages/html_emails.aspx


+02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.

Vendor Prefixes and Web Standards
By Alen Grakalic.
"...In it's original idea, standards should be a unique set of rules
and coding recommendations applicable to all platforms, devices,
browsers... Vendor prefixes couldn't be further away from that.
Applying a vendor prefix you target specific browser, so if you want
to target another one, you either can't or have to use another line of
code with another 'vendor prefixed' CSS property..."
http://cssglobe.com/post/9364/vendor-prefixes-and-web-standards

CSS Railroad Diagrams
By Stoyan Stefanov.
"...railroad diagrams to help visualize how/when the tokens make sense
forming valid CSS code..."
http://www.phpied.com/css-railroad-diagrams/

Everything You Wanted To Know About Gradients (And a Few Things You Didn't)
By Ethan Marcotte.
"Let's take a quick look at how to create CSS gradients—hopefully we
can make them seem a bit more accessible, and bring a bit more art
into the browser..."
http://24ways.org/2010/everything-you-wanted-to-know-about-gradients


+03: COLOR.

Calculating Color Contrast
By Brian Suda.
"...In this article I will walk you through two simple equations to
determine if you should be using white or black text depending on the
color of the background. The equations are both easy to implement and
produce similar results. It isn’t a matter of which is better, but
more the fact that you are using one at all! That way, even with the
craziest of Geocities color schemes that your customers choose, at
least your text will still be readable..."
http://24ways.org/2010/calculating-color-contrast

Color Contrast Tests for System Color FieldText with Opacity:0.54
By Steve Faulkner.
"All text/background combinations have a default contrast ratio that
passes the minimum threshold of 4.5:1..."
http://www.html5accessibility.com/tests/placeholder-color.html


+04: DREAMWEAVER.

Video and HTML5 Part 2
By Stephanie Sullivan Rewis.
"Learn the ins and outs of embedding video on the web." (Video 10:31)
http://tv.adobe.com/watch/adc-presents/videoandhtml5part2gettingstarted/


+05: EVENTS.

Webstock 2011
February 14-18, 2011.
Wellington, New Zealand
http://www.webstock.org.nz/

Breaking Development 2011: Design and Development for the Mobile Web
April 11-12, 2011.
Dallas, Texas U.S.A.
http://www.breakingdc.com


+06: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE.

>From Wireframes to Code, Part I
By Bill Schmidt.
"This first part in a two-part series takes an in-depth look at the
process of converting wireframes to code."
http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2010/12/from-wireframes-to-code-part-i.php


+07: NAVIGATION.

SEO - Keep it Simple Stupid!
By Blake Acheson.
"...Sometimes you need to step back and just focus on the basics.
Keeping tabs on all these abstract, "flavor of the week" techniques
will drive you crazy. The basics worked in '98 and still work
today..."
http://thinkvitamin.com/design/seo-keep-it-simple-stupid/


+08: PHP.

The New PHP 5 Features for Constructors and Destructors
By Octavia Andreea Anghel.
"The article starts with a short overview of PHP 5 constructors,
compared with the old fashion PHP 4. It continues with an explanation
of writing constructors with or without parameters, restrictive
constructors, overloading and PHP 5 destructors. At the end, you will
be able to write almost any kind of constructor for your PHP 5
classes."
http://www.phpbuilder.com/columns/PHP5-constructors-destructors/Octavia_Anghel122110.php3


+09: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.

<video>, Accessibility and HTML5 Today
By John Foliot.
"...Accessibility in Video and Audio is tricky - we are dealing with
multi-media content here, so 'full' accessibility becomes
significantly more complex, as 'accessibility' for one user/user-group
is not the same as the requirements for all user-groups: obvious when
stated, but best kept in mind as we discuss media in HTML5. The
following is *my* understanding of where things currently stand..."
http://john.foliot.ca/accessibility-and-html5-today/

HTML5: I Couldn't (Quite) Do It
By Peter Wilson.
"...For most of my career as a web developer I've produced websites
that work without JavaScript. For the JavaScript impaired the sites
may be missing a minor visual feature or be a little clunky in places,
but they work and the meaning remains clear. It doesn't bother me
that, sometimes, the cost of allowing for sites to load without
JavaScript can mean missing out on the latest web fashion. I'm not a
big fan of fashion. Currently, web development is undergoing some
major transitions: the HTML5 spec is being developed and CSS3 is being
implemented. The browser wars have returned, although this time
around, it's a battle to win developers' hearts by implementing the
newest standards..."
http://bigredtin.com/behind-the-websites/html5-couldnt-do-it/


+10: TOOLS.

JSLint The Javascript Code Quality Tool
By Douglas Crockford.
December 12, 2010 edition.
http://jslint.com/


+11: TYPOGRAPHY.

Controlling Text sSize in Safari for iOS Without Disabling User Zoom
By Roger Johansson.
"The default viewport settings - the size and scale of the viewport -
in Mobile Safari/Safari for iOS are optimised for websites with a
width of 980 pixels. This means that if you use a fluid/elastic layout
or media queries to make your layout adaptable, Safari on iOS doesn't
take advantage of the flexibility that offers but shows the site
zoomed out as if it had a fixed width..."
http://www.456bereastreet.com/archive/201012/controlling_text_size_in_safari_for_ios_without_disabling_user_zoom/

@font-face Tip: Define Font-Weight and Font-Style to Keep Your CSS Simple
By Roger Johansson.
"When using @font-face to embed a typeface that has several weights
and styles, your CSS can become a bit of a mess unless you define
those weights and styles in the @font-face declarations. Unfortunately
some tutorials and font embedding services do not do this..."
http://www.456bereastreet.com/archive/201012/font-face_tip_define_font-weight_and_font-style_to_keep_your_css_simple/


+12: XML.

Introducing the W3C HTML/XML Task Force
By Norman Walsh.
"Apropos of the recent discussions of all things vis-a-vis HTML and XML
here and on other lists, tweets, and blogs, I'd like to introduce the
W3C HTML/XML Task Force..."
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html/2010Dec/0182.html


[Section one ends.]


++ SECTION TWO:

+13: 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.

WEB DESIGN UPDATE is available by subscription. For information on how
to subscribe and unsubscribe please visit:
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/webdev_listserv.html
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.]

More information about the Webdev mailing list