[webdev] Web Design Update: July 26, 2012

Thu Jul 26 06:26:36 CDT 2012

+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE.
- Volume 10, Issue 05, July 26, 2012.

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

++ISSUE 05 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: PHP.
07: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.
09: TYPOGRAPHY.
10: USABILITY.
11: XML.

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

[Contents ends.]

++ SECTION ONE: New references.

+01: ACCESSIBILITY.

W3C HTML and WHATWG HTML 'Split' Affect on HTML Accessibility?
By Steve Faulkner.
"The WHATWG have never shown any interest in specifying the level of
detail required for the interoperable implementation of accessible
HTML. This work is being carried out at the in the W3C HTML WG as part
of the ongoing HTML standardization effort..."
http://www.paciellogroup.com/blog/2012/07/w3c-html-and-whatwg-html-split-affect-on-html-accessibility/

Understanding How to Use CSS for Accessibility (Hiding Stuff)
By Donald Evans.
"For the most part screen readers don't care about CSS. After all if
you are a blind user, why do you want to know what color something is
or where it is placed on the screen. This goes back to using HTML to
mark up content, and using CSS to style the page. The screen reader
generally only cares about the content. There are a few exceptions.
display: and invisible: are the two that stand out..."
http://websiteaccessibility.donaldevans.com/2011/05/19/understanding-how-to-use-css-for-accessibility-hidding-stuff/

Making Accessibility Part of Culture Change - It's All in the Attitude
By Accessiq.
"...Once people know why accessibility is important, they inherently
want to do the right thing. They often don't have the time or energy
to figure out what they need to do, so this is where you can help by
providing encouragement and support, and put processes in place for
them to make their road ahead easier..."
http://www.accessiq.org/news/features/2012/07/making-accessibility-part-of-culture-change-its-all-in-the-attitude

+02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.

Using CSS3 Attribute Selectors
By Sue Smith.
"...In this tutorial we will outline how to use these new substring
matching attribute selectors. You are most likely to find attribute
selectors of this kind useful when styling links, so that is what we
will focus on here. There are three main attribute matching additions
to CSS3, allowing you to specify substrings to match at the beginning
or end of an attribute string, or anywhere within the entire
string..."
http://www.developerdrive.com/2012/07/using-css3-attribute-selectors/

Shoot to Kill; CSS Selector Intent
By Harry Roberts.
"One type of CSS in particular makes me cringe every time I see it;
poor selector intent..."
http://csswizardry.com/2012/07/shoot-to-kill-css-selector-intent/

W3C Looks to Improve Responsive Design with New Media Queries
By Scott Gilbertson.
"...Now that the Media Queries Level 3 spec has been finalized, work
has started on CSS 4 Media Queries, or more formally, Media Queries
Level 4..."
http://www.webmonkey.com/2012/07/w3c-looking-to-improve-responsive-design-with-new-media-queries/

+03: EVALUATION & TESTING.

Usability Evaluation
By Gilbert Cockton.
"Put simply, usability evaluation assesses the extent to which an
interactive system is easy and pleasant to use. Things aren't this
simple at all though, but let's start by considering the following
propositions about usability evaluation..."
http://www.interaction-design.org/encyclopedia/usability_evaluation.html

Research Questions for Enterprise Mobility
By James Robertson.
"This week I ran my new enterprise mobility workshop in Australia for
the first time. We had a great group of participants, and there were
some intense discussions about this rapidly evolving space..."
http://www.steptwo.com.au/columntwo/research-questions-for-enterprise-mobility/

+04: EVENTS.

Converge
October 5, 2012.
Tallahassee, Florida, U.S.A.
http://convergefl.com/

True North PHP Conference
November 2-3, 2012.
Toronto, Canada
http://truenorthphp.com/

In Control
December 2-4, 2012.
Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S.A.
http://incontrolconference.com/

+05: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE.

Card Sorting
By William Hudson.
"The term card sorting applies to a wide variety of activities
involving the grouping and/or naming of objects or concepts. These may
be represented on physical cards; virtual cards on computer screens;
or photos in either physical or computer form. Occasionally, objects
themselves may be sorted. The results can be expressed in a number of
ways, with the primary focus being which items were most frequently
grouped together by participants and the names given to the resulting
categories..."
http://www.interaction-design.org/encyclopedia/card_sorting.html

Card Sorting + Tree Testing : The Science of Great Site Navigation
By Jeff Sauro.
"Card sorting is a popular method for understanding the mental model
of the user..."
http://www.measuringusability.com/blog/cardsort-tree-test.php

+06: PHP.

PHP The Right Way
By Josh Lockhart, et al.
"There's a lot of outdated information on the Web that leads new PHP
users astray, propagating bad practices and bad code. This must stop.
PHP: The Right Way is an easy-to-read, quick reference for PHP best
practices, accepted coding standards, and links to authoritative
tutorials around the Web."
http://www.phptherightway.com/

+07: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.

Fake HTML is Always Semantic
By Virginia DeBolt.
Geek Mom recently published a post by Sarah Pinault called Using HTML
in Your Daily Life: The Rise of Fake Code. In this interesting essay,
Sarah discussed the use of fake HTML tags in everyday communication.
She cites examples like <rant></rant> and <giggle></giggle>.
http://www.webteacher.ws/2012/07/23/fake-html-is-always-semantic/

HTML5 Gets the Splits
By Craig Grannell.
"...Powers wasn't convinced fragmentation wouldn't be a problem: 'Yes
and no. Yes, if the promises given were actually adhered to. No,
because the promises given are never adhered to.' Indeed, she
suggested browsers using different versions of the spec as a baseline
could be causing problems now....Both the W3C and the WHATWG have
abrogated any interest in serving the end user community. It used to
be HTML was a foundation on which we can build. Now, it's quicksand."
http://www.netmagazine.com/news/html5-gets-splits-122102

About the Latest WHATWG vs W3C Non-News
By Michael Smith.
"The following are just my own personal comments about the recent
non-news regarding HTML and the W3C and WHATWG that seems to have
caused the peanut gallery on twitter and elsewhere to think there's
some kind of bad new thing that's happened. I'm not writing it in any
kind of official W3C capacity, nor in any attempt to represent the
views of the WHATWG  (in which I'm also been involved for years)..."
https://plus.google.com/111991826926222544385/posts/QdGfrgtP6Eg

+08: TOOLS.

Favelets for Checking Web Accessibility
By Jim Thatcher.
Favelets for Checking Web Accessibility - Jim Thatcher. Favelets,
small snippets of JavaScript embedded in a bookmark URL, allow
bookmarks in browsers to do various advanced things. Jim has a great
assortment for evaluating accessibility.
http://jimthatcher.com/favelets/

+09: TYPOGRAPHY.

How We Learned to Leave Default Font-Size Alone and Embrace the Em
By Filament Group.
"...using contemporary responsive design principles is convincing us
to leave global font-size alone and embrace the standard em..."
http://filamentgroup.com/lab/how_we_learned_to_leave_body_font_size_alone/

One More Time: Typography Is The Foundation Of Web Design
By Paul Scrivens.
"...A tough question and one that might not have an answer. In 2006,
Oliver Reichenstein wrote Web Design is 95% Typography. Some people
loved it, others were not so amused. If Web design was based that much
on typography, then what was the point of learning anything else? All
you needed to do is understand the elements of typography and you were
good to go..."
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2012/07/24/one-more-time-typography-is-the-foundation-of-web-design/

+10: USABILITY.

4 Ways to Support an Older Website User
By James Coston.
"Sometimes no matter how perfect you think your design is, it doesn't
work out in usability testing. All of us know how frustrating this can
be. To the point you are sat on your hands and chewing your lips to
stop you from screaming at your participant: 'It's right in front of
you! Just click the call to action!'"
http://www.nomensa.com/blog/2012/4-ways-to-support-an-older-website-user/

Google's Take on 'Change Aversion' Misses the Point
By Jared Spool.
"...hard doesn't mean it's impossible. Especially if you understand
that users don't hate change. They just hate when the experience of
change is poorly designed."
http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2012/07/16/googles-take-on-change-aversion-misses-the-point/

Do Mobile And Desktop Interfaces Belong Together?
By Mike Sierra.
"The term 'responsive design' has gathered a lot of well-deserved buzz
among Web designers. As you probably know, it refers to an easy way to
dynamically customize interfaces for different devices and to serve
them all from the same website, with no need for a separate mobile
domain."
http://mobile.smashingmagazine.com/2012/07/19/do-mobile-desktop-interfaces-belong-together/

+11: XML.

How To Create Simple Shapes With Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG)
By Steven Bradley.
"The last few weeks we've been looking at images in the context of
responsive design. First I talked about the techniques for serving
different images to different devices. Then we looked at using icon
fonts to replace images where possible. This week I want to consider
another potential solution to some of our image issues. I want to
offer a brief overview of scalable vector graphics (SVG)..."
http://www.vanseodesign.com/web-design/scalable-vector-graphics/

[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.]