[webdev] Web Design Update: March 23, 2012

Fri Mar 23 06:11:54 CDT 2012

+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE.
- Volume 10, Issue 39, March 23, 2012.

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

++ISSUE 39 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: NAVIGATION.
08: PHP.
09: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.
10: USABILITY.

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

[Contents ends.]

++ SECTION ONE: New references.

+01: ACCESSIBILITY.

Screen Readers and details/summary
By Jason Kiss.
"The HTML5 details and summary elements can be used to create a
disclosure widget for showing and hiding content, something that
typically has been done with JavaScript. For example, this type of
interaction has often been used for things like FAQs: a list of
questions is provided, but the answers hidden; clicking on any one of
the questions toggles the display of the answer below it in
accordion-like fashion..."
http://www.accessibleculture.org/articles/2012/03/screen-readers-and-details-summary/

Response to Blog Web Accessibility Initiative
By Dennis E. Lembree.
"This is a response to the blog Web Accessibility Initiative by Nathan
Crause. Contrary to the title, the article attempts to disclaim the
need for web accessibility, particularly for visual impairments. I
submitted a comment but it wasn't posted. So here it is..."
http://webaxe.blogspot.com/2012/03/response-to-blog-web-accessibility.html

Feds Look To Boost Web Accessibility
By Shaun Heasley.
"The Obama administration is asking for the public to weigh in on how
to make government websites and other information technology more
accessible for people with disabilities..."
http://www.disabilityscoop.com/2012/03/20/feds-boost-accessibility/15216/

+02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.

How to Create Stunning Effects With 165 Media Queries or Less!
By Arley McBlain.
"Arley recently redesigned his site and it has some pretty neat CSS
effects on it. I asked him if he'd like to share some of them and this
article is his kind oblige..."
http://css-tricks.com/lark-queries/

CSS Regions: One Year In
By Vincent Hardy and Alan Stearns.
"Almost a year ago, Adobe began an effort to allow high quality,
magazine style content to be displayed on the Web using the Open Web
Platform (HTML5, CSS)..."
http://blogs.adobe.com/webplatform/2012/03/16/css-regions-one-year-in/

Flexibility - A Foundation for Responsive Design
By Emily P. Lewis.
"If you haven't been living under a rock for the past year or so, you
know that responsive Web design is one of the biggest trends these
days. Introduced by Ethan Marcotte, the concept is simple: develop a
site using methods that enable it to adapt and respond to different
devices and resolutions..."
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/hh912616.aspx

+03: EVALUATION & TESTING.

Talking Out Loud Is Not the Same as Thinking Aloud
By Mike Hughes.
"...get your participants to think aloud, but encourage comments that
illuminate the problem space - because that's what usability testing
is all about..."
http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2012/03/talking-out-loud-is-not-the-same-as-thinking-aloud.php

+04: EVENTS.

Breaking Development 2012: Design and Development for the Mobile Web
April 16-18, 2012.
Orlando, Florida, U.S.A.
http://2012.bdconf.com/

UX London
April 18-20, 2012.
London, United Kingdom
http://2012.uxlondon.com/

Essentials of Accessibility/Section 508
April 24-25, 2012.
Washington, DC, U.S.A.
http://www.howto.gov/training/classes/essentials-of-accessibility

WebDU
May 2-4, 2012.
Sydney, Australia
http://www.webdu.com.au/

WebAIM Training
May 23-24, 2012.
Logan, Utah, U.S.A.
http://webaim.org/training/

+05: JAVASCRIPT.

The 10 Best JavaScript Development and Design Habits
By Larry Ullman.
"JavaScript is an easy language to use, and a necessary one in today's
web. So much so that many developers come to JavaScript without any
formal programming education. Hence, it's not uncommon for developers
to have years of JavaScript practice (or experimentation) under their
belts without ever having established some best development and design
habits. In this article, Larry Ullmans explains the 10 best ones..."
http://www.peachpit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1847299

How to Work with Simple Variable Types in JavaScript
By Larry Ullman.
"This chapter starts with the basics of variables in JavaScript, and
then covers number, string, and Boolean variables. Along the way
you'll find plenty of real-world code, representing some of the
actions you will take with these simple variable types..."
http://www.peachpit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1847297

+06: MISCELLANEOUS.

Stop Obsessing over Native Mobile Apps
By Paul Boag.
"Stop obsessing over native mobile apps: you don't need one. How's
that for a controversial sweeping statement to grab your attention?
Although almost certainly the perfect definition of link bait, it also
happens to be true for the majority of organisations..."
http://boagworld.com/talks/mobile/

Vector Images for Mobile
By Luke Wroblewski.
"As higher resolution screens continue to make their way to popular
and increasingly affordable devices, the need for resolution-indendent
(vector) graphics on the Web becomes more apparent. So I've been
looking into what's possible on mobile browsers today..."
http://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?1515

Responsive Web Design - Missing the Point
By Brad Frost.
"Don't feel like you need to include 750 media queries and jump
through 100,000 hoops just so you can proclaim 'Yes! My site is Grade
A, Grass-fed, 100% Responsive Certified.' Instead, do whatever is
necessary to create a great user experience. Responsive design is the
real deal. It is not a fad. It's a legitimate attempt to address the
massive challenge of delivering great experiences to this explosion of
devices and browsers."
http://bradfrostweb.com/blog/web/responsive-web-design-missing-the-point/

Device-Agnostic Approach To Responsive Web Design
By Thierry Koblentz.
"This is a different take on Responsive Web design. This article
discusses how we can better embrace what the Web is about by ignoring
the big elephant in the room; that is, how we can rely on media
queries and breakpoints without any concern for devices..."
http://coding.smashingmagazine.com/2012/03/22/device-agnostic-approach-to-responsive-web-design/

+07: NAVIGATION.

The Elements Of Navigation
By Petter Silfver.
"When users look for information, they have a goal and are on a
mission. Even before you started to read this article, chances are you
did because you either had the implicit goal of checking what's new on
Smashing Magazine, or had the explicit goal of finding information
about 'Navigation Design'..."
http://uxdesign.smashingmagazine.com/2012/03/20/the-elements-of-navigation/

+08: PHP.

PHP's Source Code For PHP Developers - Part 1 - The Structure
By Anthony Ferraara.
"...In this post, we'll walk through the basics of the PHP
application: where to find it, the general structure of the codebase
and a few really fundamental concepts about the C language.  To be
clear, the goal of the series is to get a reading comprehension of the
source code.  So that means that at some points in the series, some
simplifications will be made to concepts to get the point across
without over-complicating things.  It won't make a significant
difference for reading, but if you're trying to write for the core,
there is more that will be needed.  I'll try to point out these
simplifications when I make them... "
http://blog.ircmaxell.com/2012/03/phps-source-code-for-php-developers.html

Understanding PHP's Internal Function Definitions (PHP's Source Code
for PHP Developers - Part 2)
By Anthony Ferraara.
"...What we'll cover in this article is locating the definitions of
internal functions in the PHP codebase, as well as understanding
them..."
http://nikic.github.com/2012/03/16/Understanding-PHPs-internal-function-definitions

+09: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.

About HTML Semantics and Front-end Architecture
By Nicolas Gallagher.
A collection of thoughts, experiences, ideas that I like, and ideas
that I have been experimenting with over the last year. It covers HTML
semantics, components and approaches to front-end architecture, class
naming patterns, and HTTP compression.
http://nicolasgallagher.com/about-html-semantics-front-end-architecture/

+10: USABILITY.

The Usability Principles, Accessibility Style
By Steve Grobschmidt.
"...Clear paths and clear content benefit everyone. The drum we keep
beating is that accessibility makes things easier for everyone,
regardless of whether they are disabled or not. These first three
principles certainly reaffirm that. Whether you're a person with
cognitive challenges, a visually-impaired person relying on screen
readers, or none of the above - you want and need to be able to see
where you are in an interactive experience, where you've been and
where you need to go. Next time, we'll tackle a few more usability
principles."
http://www.theaccessibility.com/2012/03/usability/

The Usability Principles, Accessibility Style: Part 2
By Steve Grobschmidt.
"Last week, we began looking at the time-honored 10 Usability
Principles, and made parallels between them and accessibility.
Because, at their root, these heuristics call for clear, clean
experiences, it's not a stretch making that connection. In fact, it
only exemplifies how accessibility is deeply-rooted in user
experience."
http://www.theaccessibility.com/2012/03/usability-2/

Making Sense of Mobile Within the Enterprise
By James Robertson.
"Mobile is huge in the consumer space, and it's starting to have a big
impact within organizations. Very rapidly, senior management are
demanding iPhones and iPads, and trends such as BYOD ('bring your own
device') are raising questions about the line between corporate and
home tools..."
http://www.uie.com/articles/mobile_enterprise

The iPad 3 and Moore's Law
By Peter-Paul Koch.
"...be very careful in including Retina-optimised graphics on your
site. It means the end user has to wait longer for a site to load, and
that goes contrary to the current trend of faster, faster, faster. I'm
very afraid that exactly because of its excellence the Retina display
will be a severe set-back for the mobile web, and maybe also for
native iOS apps. Apple shouldn't have ignored the fact that Moore's
Law doesn't go for data connections."
http://www.quirksmode.org/blog/archives/2012/03/the_ipad_3_and.html

[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.]