[webdev] Web Design Update: September 29, 2011

Thu Sep 29 06:21:46 CDT 2011

+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE.
- Volume 10, Issue 14, September 29, 2011.

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

++ISSUE 14 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: JAVASCRIPT.
07: MISCELLANEOUS.
08: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.
09: TOOLS.
10: USABILITY.

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

[Contents ends.]

++ SECTION ONE: New references.

+01: ACCESSIBILITY.

Rocket Surgery and Accessibility User Testing
By Jared Smith.
"...When users with disabilities are involved in effective usability
testing, such as the basic, low-cost approach Steve recommends, they
will help address the overall accessibility and usability of a site,
and will still be able to identify specific accessibility issues..."
http://webaim.org/blog/accessibility-user-testing/

Accessibility Summit - Integrating Accessibility Across Devices
By Deborah Edwards-Onoro.
"The second annual Accessibility Summit online conference didn't
disappoint, bringing together experts from around the world to share
their latest research, tips and development. In her Integrating
Accessibility Across Devices presentation, Henny Swan provided a lot
of detailed information about mobile APIS, tools, testing and
resources. Here are my notes and key takeaways from her talk..."
http://deboraheo.posterous.com/accessibility-summit-integrating-accessibilit

Testing Web Content for Screen Readers without a Screen Reader
By Henny Swan.
"We can't all get access to a screen reader better yet find the time
to tame them so here is a quick tip on how to test how well your web
content supports screen reader users. All you need is a browser, a
plugin and 5 minutes."
http://www.iheni.com/quick-tip-testing-web-content-for-screen-readers-without-a-screen-reader/

Site Owners Ignore Requests to 'Fix The Web'
By Dan Jellinek.
"Some 60% of website owners contacted about accessibility problems by
the national 'FixTheWeb' project either ignore the contact or 'duck
the issue', according to the project's director. And just 10% take
action immediately to fix the problem..."
http://www.headstar.com/eablive/?p=624

The National Dialogue on Improving Federal Websites
By web-reform-dialogue.
"What can we do to improve universal access to government content
online, regardless of device, technology or disability? "
http://web-reform-dialogue.ideascale.com/a/ideafactory.do?id=4097&mode=recent&discussionFilter=byids&discussionID=11755

Google Chrome Frame - Still an Accessibility Black Hole?
By Steve Faulkner.
"Back in 2009 I wrote Google Chrome Frame - accessibility black hole,
now 2 years on what has changed?..."
http://www.paciellogroup.com/blog/2011/09/google-chrome-frame-still-an-accessibility-black-hole/

+02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.

Scalable and Modular Architecture for CSS
By Jonathan Snook.
"SMACSS (pronounced "smacks") is more style guide than rigid
framework. There's no library within here for you to download or
install. SMACSS is a way to examine your design process and as a way
to fit those rigid frameworks into a flexible thought process. It's an
attempt to document a consistent approach to site development when
using CSS. And really, who isn't building a site with CSS these days?!
Feel free to take this in its entirety or use only the parts that work
best for you. Or don't use it at all. I understand that this won't be
everybody's cup of tea. When it comes to web development, the answer
to most questions is 'it depends'."
http://smacss.com/book/

How To Use Structural Pseudo Classes and Pseudo Element Selectors
By Steven Bradley.
"The last couple of weeks we've been looking at different types of css
selectors. First we looked at the simple and attribute selectors and
then we looked at combinators and some pseudo class selectors..."
http://www.vanseodesign.com/css/pseudo-elements-classes/

Help Lower the Cost of CSS Validation
By Jens O. Meiert.
"Validation is a baseline quality attribute. I have emphasized this in
the past and recently shared a bit more about the reasons and how you
can use validation on Google's Webmaster Central blog. There are
several things you can validate, way beyond HTML and CSS..."
http://meiert.com/en/blog/20110922/cost-of-css-validation/

The Long Way to a Reset Stylesheet
By Christian Krammer.
"The opinions on reset/normalize stylesheets are deeply divided..."
http://www.css3files.com/2011/09/21/the-long-way-to-a-reset-stylesheet/

CSS Modules' Timelines
By Eric A. Meyer.
"For very little reason other than I was curious to see what resulted,
I've compiled a list of various CSS modules' version histories, and
then used CSS to turn it into a set of timelines. It's kind of a
low-cost way to visualize the life cycle of and energy going into
various CSS modules..."
http://meyerweb.com/eric/thoughts/2011/09/27/css-modules-timelines/

+03: EVALUATION & TESTING.

The Optimism Bias, or Don't Believe Satisfaction Surveys
By Gerry McGovern.
"We need to move to an evidence-based model of understanding people's
needs based on what they actually do, not what they say they do..."
http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/nt/2011/nt-2011-09-26-Optimism-bias.htm

5 Benefits of Remote Usability Testing
By Jeff Sauro.
"Remote usability testing has become increasingly popular among user
researchers and grew by 19% since 2009. Even though I have easy access
to a brick and mortal usability lab, I particularly like remote
testing  for at least 5 reasons..."
http://www.measuringusability.com/blog/remote-testing.php

+04: EVENTS.

Mobilism 2012
May 10-11, 2012.
Amsterdam, Netherlands
http://mobilism.nl/2012

Inclusive Learning Technologies Conference 2012
May 22-25, 2012.
Queensland, Australia
http://www.spectronicsinoz.com/conference/2012/

An Event Apart Austin
July 9-11, 2012.
Austin, Texas, U.S.A.
http://aneventapart.com/2012/austin/

+05: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE.

Content Prototyping In Responsive Web Design
By Ben Callahan.
"A content prototype is an HTML-and-CSS-based fluid-grid prototype,
consisting of layout and typography, that consists of the project's
actual content. Its greatest usefulness may be in determining where to
apply media queries to make the Web design responsive..."
http://uxdesign.smashingmagazine.com/2011/09/26/content-prototyping-in-responsive-web-design/

Speed Up CSS Prototyping
By  Thierry Koblentz.
This is a simple trick to overlay a grid or a mock-up over a page
you're styling. It will also allow you to edit content directly in the
browser to see how your layout behaves depending on various lines of
text.
http://www.css-101.org/articles/trick-for-rapid-prototyping/

+06: JAVASCRIPT.

The Best Way to Learn JavaScript
By Andrew Burgess.
"Learning something new is scary. For me, the biggest issue with
picking up a new skill is that I don't know what I don't know. Given
that, it's often useful to find a plan for learning whatever you're
interested in. That's what this post is: your blueprint, your roadmap,
your plan of action for learning JavaScript! You don't have to worry
about finding the best resources, sorting out the bad ones, and
figuring out what to learn next. It's all here. Just follow it, step
by step..."
http://net.tutsplus.com/tutorials/javascript-ajax/the-best-way-to-learn-javascript/

Practices to Avoid
By Microsoft.
"This topic lists practices that you should avoid if you want to
create an accessible Metro style app using JavaScript..."
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/hh452715

+07: MISCELLANEOUS.

Future Friendly, or Forward to Yesterday?
By Bruce Lawson.
"...Once you remove the fluffiness from the manifesto, it boils down
to a useful reminder to design with progressive enhancement; to use
structured, semantic markup; to test across software and hardware
platforms and to understand that things won't look the same
everywhere. Future friendly or Forward to Yesterday? I know which I
choose."
http://www.brucelawson.co.uk/2011/future-friendly-or-forward-to-yesterday/

The Web is For the People
By Robert Nyman.
"The web is for the people, and I believe the web is the most
important medium we have. Recently, there has been some discussion
about the web vs. other platforms, so I'd like to present my
thoughts..."
http://robertnyman.com/2011/09/22/the-web-is-for-the-people/

+08: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.

Presentation - HTML5 and Accessibility Sitting in a Tree
By Bruce Lawson.
"Bruce went to down to London to present at the Accessibility London
unconference. His theme was that, contrary to the belief of some
accessibility consultants, HTML5 doesn't hate accessibility (or
disabled people), but that it attempts to build accessibility in
rather than bolt in on as an afterthought with extra special markup or
WAI-ARIA."
http://my.opera.com/ODIN/blog/2011/09/22/presentation-html5-and-accessibility-sitting-in-a-tree-4

3rd W3C Web and TV Workshop, Hollywood
By Silvia Pfeiffer.
"Curious about any new requirements that the TV community may have for
HTML5 video, I attended the W3C Web and TV Workshop in Hollywood last
week. It's already the third of its kind and was also the largest to
date showing an increasing interest of the TV community to converge
with the Web community..."
http://blog.gingertech.net/2011/09/26/3rd-w3c-web-and-tv-workshop-hollywood/

+09: TOOLS.

iPad2 Simulator
By alexw.
http://alexw.me/ipad2/#!safari

HTML Escape Tool
By htmlescape.
"Use our online tool, for escaping all the special characters, which
can create problems on a web page. The HTML Escape tool escapes all
special html characters, and replaces them with the correct entities."
http://www.htmlescape.net/htmlescape_tool.html

+10: USABILITY.

Mobile Usability Update
By Jakob Nielsen.
"The user experience of mobile websites and apps has improved since
our last research, but we still have far to go. A dedicated mobile
site is a must, and apps get even higher usability scores."
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/mobile-usability.html

Responsive IMGs - Part 1
By Jason Grigsby.
"Responsive IMGs are images delivered using the HTML IMG tag that come
from different sources depending the screen size. There are many
different techniques for accomplishing Responsive IMGs..."
http://www.cloudfour.com/responsive-imgs/

[Section one ends.]

++ SECTION TWO:

+11: 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.]