[webdev] Web Design Update: September 1, 2011

Laura Carlson lcarlson at d.umn.edu
Thu Sep 1 06:49:36 CDT 2011 

+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE.
- Volume 10, Issue 10, September 1, 2011.

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

++ISSUE 10 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: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE.
06: MISCELLANEOUS.
07: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.
08: USABILITY.


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

[Contents ends.]


++ SECTION ONE: New references.

+01: ACCESSIBILITY.

Infographic - Web Accessibility for Designers
By Jon Whiting.
"The focus of web accessibility is often on web development - the
things that happen in HTML, CSS, or JavaScript after a site has been
designed visually. Optimal accessibility should start much earlier, as
part of the visual design process. We have created an infographic that
highlights a few important principles of accessible design..."
http://webaim.org/resources/designers/

Autistic Spectrum, Captions and Audio Description
By Judith Garman.
"You may be thinking what have captions and audio description (AD) got
to do with autistic spectrum. Aren't captions for D/deaf and hard of
hearing people and audio description for visually impaired people? In
this last couple of years research I've conducted has revealed that
audio description and captions can be of benefit and are used by
people on the autistic spectrum..."
http://mindfulresearch.co.uk/2011/08/autistic-spectrum-captions-and-audio-description

Making Web Content More Accessible With iOS VoiceOver
By Alex Gibson.
"...This article gives an introduction to using VoiceOver on iOS,
followed by some basic tips to help improve the accessibility of your
web content. While covering iOS specifically for example's sake, many
of these tips are also applicable to improving accessibility for
screen reader users in general..."
http://miniapps.co.uk/blog/post/making-web-content-more-accessible-with-ios-voiceover/


+02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.

The Latest on Using border-radius to Make Rounded Corners
By Virginia DeBolt.
"...modern browsers now work with border-radius."
http://www.webteacher.ws/2011/08/30/the-latest-on-using-border-radius-to-make-rounded-corners/

Writing CSS For Others
By Harry Roberts.
"...Recently, I have begun to think that CSS authors could take a leaf
from the programmers' book. We need to write CSS that others can
understand and use with ease. Programmers have been writing sharable
code since day one, and it's high time that CSS be written with as
much organization and openness..."
http://coding.smashingmagazine.com/2011/08/26/writing-css-for-others/

How to Validate CSS3
By Louis Lazaris.
"The other day someone on another post asked a question about
validating your stylesheets. This person is concerned with the fact
that the validator views vendor prefixes as errors. Here are my
thoughts on this subject, with some tips on using the CSS validator,
if you decide that you're still concerned about validation to some
degree..."
http://www.impressivewebs.com/css3-validation/


+03: EVALUATION & TESTING.

Testing on Mobile Devices Without the Hardware
By Roger Johansson.
"One problem with mobile web development is testing, which I mentioned
a few months ago in a post about Opera Mobile emulator and Opera Mini
simulator. Emulating or simulating a specific browser is definitely
better than nothing, but what about entire mobile devices? Many
developers don't have physical access to a whole lot of different
mobile devices, and buying a load of phones and tablets just for
browser checking can be hard to justify. But another option is using a
simulator or an emulator for browser checking. It's not exactly the
same as using the real thing, but it beats not testing at all."
http://www.456bereastreet.com/archive/201108/testing_on_mobile_devices_without_the_hardware/

Personas - Putting the Focus Back on the User
By James Costa.
"In the art that user experience has become, we talk a lot about not
letting our client's personal preferences get in the way of what would
be best for the user. Yet no matter how often we remind our clients
and teams of this throughout the design process, we still find that
users are unpredictable, and some changes need to be made post-launch
to reflect how they actually use the product..."
http://www.uxbooth.com/blog/personas-putting-the-focus-back-on-the-user/


+04: EVENTS.

Web Accessibility Training Day
September 19, 2011.
Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A.
https://www.nfb.org/nfb/web_accessibility_day.asp

Introduction to Usability and User Experience
November 30, 2011.
London, England, United Kingdom
http://www.spotlessinteractive.com/services/training-courses/web-usability-training.php

Codeworks
January 10, 2012 in Seattle, Washington, U.S.A.
January 12, 2012 in Portland, Oregon, U.S.A.
January 14, 2012 in San Francisco, California, U.S.A.
January 16, 2012 in Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.
January 18, 2012 in Austin, Texas, U.S.A.
http://codeworks.phparch.com/

New Adventures in Web Design 2012
January 18-19, 2012.
Nottingham, England, United Kingdom
http://2012.newadventuresconf.com/conference/


+05: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE.

Card Sorting - Online Versus Offline
By Alex Manchester.
"There are many articles and blog posts out there that measure the
value of this UCD technique. This article focuses on a more specific
aspect of the technique, which comes out of experience conducting a
number of projects using card sorting - the use of offline and online
card sorting methods."
http://www.steptwo.com.au/papers/kmc_cardsortingoptions/index.html


+06: MISCELLANEOUS.

Derek Featherstone Interview - Web Accessibility in the Real World (Podcast)
By Paul Boag.
"The accessibility of our websites is not something many of us like to
think about. However, we have a legal and morale obligation to do so.
I have agonised over how to approach this week's subject. I wanted to
take the accessibility of boagworld seriously and demonstrate best
practice. However, I also wanted to be honest about how hard this can
be in the real world. As a starting point I decided to talk with
accessibility expert Derek Featherstone. This proved to be a
challenging conversation as you will discover..."
http://boagworld.com/season/2/episode/s2e6/

Podcast #92: Frustrated
By Dennis Lembree.
"Dennis vents about frustrations around web accessibility and revisit
the 'game plan'. He and Ross also discuss some great recent articles
and review several upcoming web accessibility events..."
http://webaxe.blogspot.com/2011/08/podcast-92-frustrated.html

People of HTML5 - John Allsopp (Video)
By Chris Heilmann.
"HTML5 needs spokespeople to work...Today we are featuring John
Allsopp, author of Developing with Web Standards and organiser of the
Webdirections conferences. As you will see in the video, John is
neither mincing his words nor does he hold back in spreading good
messages about the web as a whole and independent of technology..."
http://hacks.mozilla.org/2011/08/people-of-html5-john-allsopp/

People of HTML5 - Divya Manian (Video)
By Chris Heilmann.
"Today we are featuring Divya Manian, Web Opener at Opera Software.
Most likely you came across Divya because of her involvement in HTML5
readiness and HTML5 Boilerplate. She is available on Twitter as @divya
and is very much involved in the CSS standards working group. As you
will see in the interview, Divya is a very pragmatic person when it
comes to web standards and has a big passion for educating developers
instead of woo-ing them."
http://hacks.mozilla.org/2011/08/people-of-html5-divya-manian/


+07: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.

HTML5 and Accessibilty (Video)
By John Foliot.
John Foliot's a11yMTL presentation.
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/16882854
Slides:
http://stanford.edu/group/accessibility/cgi-bin/presentations/html5_a11y/

Microdata in HTML5 and What it Means for Technology
By Chris Jason.
"Microdata is essentially 5 new attributes of the proposed HTML5
specification that, when used in conjunction with a Microdata schema,
give semantic meaning of HTML code to a computer application (like a
search engine)..."
http://www.christopherjason.com/web-design/microdata-html5-technology/


+08: USABILITY.

Introduction to Human-Computer Interaction Design
By Scott Klemmer, Stanford Open Classroom.
"Through lectures and a project, learn the fundamentals of
human-computer interaction and design thinking. Work together in teams
of three on a quarter-long project. Each week, in small design
studios, present and discuss work with peers. The setting for the
course is mobile web applications. The constraints of this small form
factor make this an exciting challenge. At the end of the course,
present to a jury of IT and design leaders."
http://openclassroom.stanford.edu/MainFolder/CoursePage.php?course=HCI

Are Media Queries the Answer to the Fold?
By Paul Boag.
"The fold is still one of the hottest topics on the web. Clients are
concerned users will miss key content and web designers denying the
fold exists. Could responsive design hold the answer to this
debate?..."
http://boagworld.com/technology/are-media-queries-the-answer-to-the-fold/

Build Faster Mobile Websites with 'Adaptive Images'
By Scott Gilbertson.
"Responsive design is no longer just something you'll find on the
portfolio websites of the designers and developers who pioneered the
idea. These days using media queries to adapt to varying screen sizes
is well on its way to being a mainstream design goal..."
http://www.webmonkey.com/2011/08/speed-up-your-responsive-designs-with-adaptive-images/

Transmedia Design for the 3 Screens (Make That 5)
By Jakob Nielsen.
"Mobile use will rise, but desktop computers will remain important,
forcing companies to design for multiple platforms, requiring
continuity in visual design, features, user data, and tone of voice."
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/3-screens-transmedia.html



[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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