[webdev] Web Design Update: July 8, 2011

Fri Jul 8 06:28:32 CDT 2011

+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE.
- Volume 10, Issue 02, July 8, 2011.

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

++ISSUE 02 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: EVALUATION & TESTING.
04: EVENTS.
05: JAVASCRIPT.
06: MISCELLANEOUS.
07: PHP.
08: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.
09: TOOLS.
10: TYPOGRAPHY.
11: USABILITY.

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

[Contents ends.]

++ SECTION ONE: New references.

+01: ACCESSIBILITY.

HTML5 Accessibility Chops - Form Control Labeling
By Steve Faulkner.
"There are 2 methods of labelling a form control using the HTML label
element. You can wrap the control inside the label element or you can
include the for attribute on the label element, which has a value
matching the id value of the control it is intended to label..."
http://www.paciellogroup.com/blog/2011/07/html5-accessibility-chops-form-control-labeling/

Is ARIA for Content Doomed to Failure?
By Vlad Alexander.
"ARIA adds hidden information to HTML to make widgets accessible. Some
believe that ARIA can also replace existing HTML accessibility
features to make content accessible. Is it worth the effort to remove
specialized built-in HTML accessibility features in favor of this
generic add-on technology, or is ARIA for content doomed to
failure?..."
http://rebuildingtheweb.com/en/aria-for-content-doomed/

Court to Hear Argument in JetBlue Accessibility Case
By The Law Office of Lainey Feingold.
"JetBlue has asked Judge to throw the case out of court, arguing that
California's disability civil rights laws do not apply to JetBlue's
website or kiosks."
http://lflegal.com/2011/06/jetblue-hearing/

+02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.

CSS Background Images and Accessibility
By SSB Bart Group.
"In conclusion, the only method that is truly accessible and supported
by nearly all browsers is to use inline images instead of background
CSS images to display non-decorative content. If sprite maps are
required then consider using inline positioned sprite maps."
https://www.ssbbartgroup.com/blog/2011/06/14/css-background-images-and-accessibility/

CSS Support in HTML Emails
By Campaign Monitor.
Campaign Monitor hpdated its Guide to CSS Support in Email.
http://www.campaignmonitor.com/css/

Microsoft Dropping Support for Conditional Comments
By Jonathan Christopher.
"There's a bunch of information about how IE10 will be handling HTML5,
but the bit that sticks out to me is that IE will no longer support
Conditional Comments as of version 10..."
http://mondaybynoon.com/2011/07/07/microsoft-dropping-support-for-conditional-comments/

What Are You Telling Students About DOCTYPES?
By Virginia DeBolt.
"...In my mind, the seemingly more modern XHTML has two drawbacks.
First, it's been abandoned by the W3C and won't been updated. Second,
the syntax for HTML 4 Strict seems a much better choice when working
in HTML 5 because there's no need to talk about XML and trailing
slashes in empty elements and other things that don't apply to HTML5.
And HTML 4 Strict syntax rules match up with what was recommended as a
best practice for writing under the new anything-goes rules of
HTML5..."
http://www.webteacher.ws/2011/07/05/what-are-you-telling-students-about-doctypes/

Responsive Design. I Don't Think That Word Means What You Think It Means.
By Jeffrey Zeldman.
"...the purpose behind 'responsive design' - the concept of what it
strives to achieve-should be separated from the specific techniques
used to achieve it..."
http://www.zeldman.com/2011/07/06/responsive-design-i-dont-think-that-word-means-what-you-think-it-means/

+03: EVALUATION & TESTING.

Tree Testing - An Important Step Early in the Web Design Process
By Martin Rosenmejer.
"...Tree testing is a simple, cheap and very powerful tool for testing
site structure. The method will improve the results of card sorting
and benefit the later stages in the process. Some might think that
this is just an additional step to the already long design process.
But remember, the site structure of a website will always be tested at
some point; via tree testing, in later usability testing or via its
performance when the site is live (e.g. reflected in web analytics).
Get it right early in the process and changes are cheaper and easier
to implement."
http://www.webcredible.co.uk/user-friendly-resources/web-usability/tree-testing.shtml

Five Factors for Successful Persona Projects
By Jared M. Spool.
"...we sat down to research why persona projects fail so often. We
investigated what strategies teams should employ to ensure successful
projects. After talking with dozens of team, some whose projects
succeeded and many whose projects failed, here's what we found out..."
http://www.uie.com/articles/successful_persona_projects

+04: EVENTS.

eduWEB Conference
August 1-3, 2011.
San Antonio, Texas, U.S.A.
http://www.eduwebconference.com/index.php/overview/

dConstruct 2011
September 2, 2011.
Brighton, United Kingdom
http://2011.dconstruct.org/

Boston Accessibility Unconference
September 17, 2011.
Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
http://www.a11ybos.org/

HighEdWeb
Ocrtober 23-26, 2011.
Austin, Texas, U.S.A.
http://2011.highedweb.org/

+05: JAVASCRIPT.

JavaScript is Dead. Long Live JavaScript!
By Peter Michaux.
"For 16 years, JavaScript has been being the language of the web
browser. This language has enabled the building of compelling web
applications and contributed to the success of the web. Other
scripting languages could have filled the role JavaScript does but
JavaScript was in the right place at the right time. Microsoft added
Basic to Internet Explorer a long time ago but JavaScript was the
language in all the browsers and so it won. Since JavaScript has been
cross-browser and at least good enough, the browser makers have not
needed to add other language interpreters to the browsers
themselves..."
http://peter.michaux.ca/articles/javascript-is-dead-long-live-javascript

+06: MISCELLANEOUS.

A Modest Proposal
By Nathan Peretic.
"Proposals are difficult. They take too long. They're usually an
exercise in unrequited love. Is it any surprise creative professionals
cringe when it's time to put one together? Proposals are, however,
often vital to being in business. Whether you're running a solo shop
or keeping a team of 25 busy, they lead directly to that next
paycheck, enable us to keep the gears of business turning, and,
ultimately, to make wonderful stuff..."
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/a-modest-proposal/

+07: PHP.

Object-Oriented PHP - Autoloading, Serializing, and Querying Objects
By Matt Doyle.
"In this object-oriented PHP tutorial, you learn how to automatically
load classes, convert objects to strings, and inspect objects,
properties and methods."
http://www.elated.com/articles/object-oriented-php-autoloading-serializing-and-querying-objects/

+08: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.

Real World Accessibility - HTML5, ARIA and the Modern Web
By Derek Featherstone.
"Web designers and developers need techniques that work now while
keeping an eye on what lies ahead..."
http://www.sitepoint.com/real-world-accessibility-html5-aria-and-the-modern-web/

The HTML Progress Element in Firefox
By Mounir Lamouri.
"...In this article, I'm going to do an overview of this new element.
If you want an exhaustive documentation..."
http://blog.oldworld.fr/index.php?post/2011/07/The-HTML5-progress-element-in-Firefox

+09: TOOLS.

Mobilizer
"Preview mobile websites, design mockups, and local HTML on Mac or
PC." Requires Adobe Air.
http://www.springbox.com/mobilizer/

Longdesk 0.1, FireFox Extension
By Anthony Ricaud.
"A simple add-on that adds a link to the longdesc under images that
provides one..."
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/longdesk/

+10: TYPOGRAPHY.

Project Dyslexie
By Christian Boer.
"The font for people with dyslexia..."
http://www.studiostudio.nl/en/project-dyslexie/

+11: USABILITY.

Mobile-First Responsive Web Design
By Brad Frost.
"Mobile-First Responsive Web Design is a combination of
philosophies/strategies, and ultimately boils down to a broader
application of good ol' web best practices. As the digital landscape
gets increasingly complex, we need to design experiences that work
across the entire spectrum of digital devices. Sounds like fun,
right?"
http://bradfrostweb.com/blog/web/mobile-first-responsive-web-design/

Rethinking the Mobile Web
By Bryan Rieger.
"...we began to wonder if it was now time to rethink the way we've
been designing mobile websites. Could there be a straight-forward
approach, simply building upon existing knowledge, rather than
requiring designers and developers to learn entirely new and unique
methods of working--specifically for the mobile web?..."
http://yiibu.com/articles/rethinking-the-mobile-web/

The Book of Speed
By Stoyan Stefanov.
"No one likes to wait and we all hate slow pages. These are obvious,
easily observable facts that don't need any proof..."
http://www.bookofspeed.com/

Use Strong Verbs - Not Just 'Is' and 'Was'
By Rachel McAlpine.
"...Strong verbs make things happen. By contrast, the various forms of
the verb to be produce no action: they merely suggest a state of
existence, or a condition. Being verbs are static..."
http://contented.com/contented/2011/writing-tip-use-strong-verbs%E2%80%94not-just-is-and-was/

How Cognitive Fluency Affects Decision Making
By Colleen Roller.
"Cognitive fluency-or disfluency-plays a subtle, yet influential role
in judgment and decision making. Research has shown that many aspects
of design can impact fluency, or the feeling of mental
effort-including the style and size of fonts, figure-to-ground
contrast, wording and terminology, pronunciation, and others. In
general, anything that affects the feeling of the ease or difficulty
of mental processing can-and does-affect people's judgments and
decisions."
http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2011/07/how-cognitive-fluency-affects-decision-making.php

[Section one ends.]

++ SECTION TWO:

+12: 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.

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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.]