[webdev] Web Design Update: October 6, 2011

Thu Oct 6 06:57:58 CDT 2011

+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE.
- Volume 10, Issue 15, October 6, 2011.

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

++ISSUE 15 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: JAVASCRIPT.
05: NAVIGATION.
06: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.
07: USABILITY.

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

[Contents ends.]

++ SECTION ONE: New references.

+01: ACCESSIBILITY.

Accessibility Updates for Docs, Sites and Calendar (Video)
By Google.
"Webinar recorded September 21, 2011. A demo and discussion of
recently enhanced accessibility features in Google Apps for
businesses, governments and schools."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cc7EHIc2TUE

Dyslexia Style Guide
By bdadyslexia.
"This Guide is in three parts: Dyslexia Friendly Text; Accessible
Formats; Website design"
http://www.bdadyslexia.org.uk/about-dyslexia/further-information/dyslexia-style-guide.html

Brief History of Browser Accessibility Support
By Steve Faulkner.
"The development of a 'Brief history of browser accessibility support'
was prompted by Googles' Evolution of the Web interactive infographic.
I was dazzled by its coolness, but noticed that amongst all the web
technologies ARIA 1.0 was not to be found. ARIA is included in the
makeup of the open web stack..."
http://www.paciellogroup.com/blog/2011/10/brief-history-of-browser-accessibility-support/

Response to: Deprecate Longdesc Change Proposal
By John Foliot.
"...The Accessibility Task Force endorsed retention of @longdesc
proposal preserves what support we have in the 3 key areas of
Discoverability & User choice, Preservation of HTML Semantics and
Richness, and (the limited but existing) User-Agent Support. Jonas'
Change Proposal does not address these concerns, while at the same
time undoing any gains already made with existing authoring tools,
authoring-base and user agents."
http://www.w3.org/wiki/A11yTF/longdescresponse

+02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.

CSS Spec Terms, for Future Reference
By Tab Atkins.
"I accidentally use some CSS terms interchangeably sometimes. I try to
maintain discipline here, but not everyone even knows what the correct
terms are, so they can't make themselves do it right..."
http://www.xanthir.com/blog/b4E50

CSS Selectors: Should You Optimize Them To Perform Better?
By Steven Bradley.
"For the last few weeks I've been looking at different css selector
patterns. One thing I haven't mention is the efficiency of the
selectors, something Chad commented about on the very first post in
the series..."
http://www.vanseodesign.com/css/css-selector-performance/

Position Text Labels on Forms Using CSS
By Cameron Adams.
"In this post, I'll explain three common approaches to positioning
text labels on web forms using CSS: 1. top-positioned text labels; 2.
left-aligned text labels, 3. right-aligned text labels"
http://designfestival.com/position-text-labels-on-forms-using%C2%A0css/

+03: EVALUATION & TESTING.

How to Study Mobile Behaviour - An Ethnographic Perspective
By Webcredible.
"...A study of mobile behaviour is best carried out as close to the
mobile context as possible. By using a mixture of observation,
recording and interviewing techniques, we were able to paint a
complete picture of how smartphones are used in relation to shopping.
Although each technique on its own has a few drawbacks, combining them
all together allows us to triangulate and validate results...."
http://www.webcredible.co.uk/user-friendly-resources/web-usability/mobile-behaviour.shtml

The Essential Elements of a Successful Website
By Jeff Sauro.
"...I examined the customer experience research in the Marketing and
Usability literature and found some consistent themes. A successful
website needs to be usable, credible and visually appealing. This will
generate positive word of mouth, repeat visitors and ultimately a more
successful website. The trick is effectively measuring these
concepts..."
http://www.measuringusability.com/suprq.php

+04: JAVASCRIPT.

JavaScript Design Patterns Deconstructed
By James Edwards.
"All sophisticated design patterns throw up the same fundamental
question - is there a concrete advantage to using it in the first
place? Without understanding the benefits, it could be very easy to
think that it's just a pointlessly verbose and over-engineered
solution, or that it's only following some kind of fashion. But there
are real and important benefits to using this kind of pattern, and it
isn't an attempt to make JavaScript 'more like' any other language, or
to mimic classical inheritance.'
http://designfestival.com/javascript-design%C2%A0patterns-deconstructed/

+05: NAVIGATION.

Why In-Page Navigation Links Matter More Than Menus
By uxmovement.
"Before you spend hours debating with your colleagues and clients on
how your menus should look, there's something you should know. Users
spend more time with in-page navigation links than they do with menus.
In fact, some users don't even look at menus. What users look at is
page content. And that's where they often go to navigate..."
http://uxmovement.com/navigation/why-in-page-navigation-links-matter-more-than-menus

+06: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.

How to Choose Between Canvas and SVG
By Patrick Dengler.
"Canvas and SVG are two exciting graphics features introduced in
Internet Explorer 9 and are hardware accelerated. These technologies
can be used to address a range of graphic scenarios on the modern Web.
With a lot of excitement around Canvas, there has been a tendency to
ignore SVG, which, in many cases, is the better choice. Here I offer
some thoughts on when to choose Canvas, SVG, or a combination of the
two..."
http://www.sitepoint.com/how-to-choose-between-canvas-and-svg/

+07: USABILITY.

The Mouse Dies. Touch and Gesture Take Center Stage.
By Jonathan Reichental.
"The shift toward more natural interfaces requires new thinking and skills..."
http://radar.oreilly.com/2011/09/touch-gesture-mouse-interface.html

Responsive Web Design is Boring!
By Jonathan Longnecker.
"Jonathan Longnecker, co-founder of web and graphic design agency
FortySeven Media, argues that most responsive sites are boring and
comes up with a few starting points to help us create designs that
break the mould..."
http://www.netmagazine.com/node/1435

Designing to Overcome Behaviour Barriers
By Caroline Jones.
"...I frequently see examples of well-designed tools, services,
systems, and processes that fail to achieve 'lift-off' because people
are creatures of habit and their behaviour barriers have not been
taken into consideration...."
http://www.optimalusability.com/2011/09/designing-to-overcome-behaviour-barriers/

[Section one ends.]

++ SECTION TWO:

+08: 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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+ TEXT EMAIL NEWSLETTER (TEN).

As a navigation aid for screen readers we do our best to conform to
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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.]