[webdev] Web Design Update: December 6, 2012

Laura Carlson lcarlson at d.umn.edu
Thu Dec 6 06:15:55 CST 2012 

+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE.
- Volume 10, Issue 24, December 6, 2012.

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

++ISSUE 24 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: COLOR.
04: EVENTS.
05: JAVASCRIPT.
06: MISCELLANEOUS.
07: PHP.
08: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.
08: TOOLS.
10: USABILITY.

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

[Contents ends.]


++ SECTION ONE: New references.

+01: ACCESSIBILITY.

Google Apps Accessibility
By University of Minnesota Duluth.
"Google has expressed a commitment to accessibility and provided
instructions for how to use accessibility features of their products.
However, Google Apps currently possess accessibility barriers..."
http://blog.lib.umn.edu/itsshelp/news/2012/11/google-apps-accessibility.html

SSA Accessibility Best Practices Library
By Social Security Administration.
"This library was created by SSA to address various problems related
to accessibility."
http://www.ssa.gov/accessibility/bpl/default.htm

Mind the Digital Gap - It's Bigger Than You Think
By Ability Net.
"AbilityNet believes there is an urgent need to address the growing
gap between what technology enables some of us to do and the barriers
that many people face when trying to complete the same digital tasks.
We also need to recognise the significance of this gap in both social
and economic terms..."
http://www.abilitynet.org.uk/mindthegap

Personalisation Is Key To Draft E-Learning Standard
By Tristan Parker.
"Public comment is being invited on a newly updated accessibility
standard for students and learners, which focuses on personalising
digital learning resources as a method of maximising accessibility for
each learner..."
http://www.headstar.com/eablive/?p=788

IMS Access For All v3.0 Public Draft
By IMS Global.
http://www.imsglobal.org/accessibility/

Accessibility Improvements in Adobe Acrobat XI
By Jonathan Whiting.
"Our article on Abode Acrobat accessibility has recently been updated
to include accessibility improvements made in Acrobat XI, the newest
version of Acrobat Professional. While I often experience my fair
share of frustration with Acrobat, it is the only program that I am
aware of that makes accessibility improvements with each new version.
Acrobat XI is no exception-it includes several new and improved
features that make it much easier to create accessible PDF files..."
http://webaim.org/blog/acrobat-xi/

Introducing Accessibility Advent
By James Aylett.
"Recently I've noticed a particular kind of rage growing within me, a
rage that has me tweeting bile and involuntarily punching imaginary
developers sitting next to me. It is the rage caused by people who
don't think about accessibility when building (mostly) websites..."
http://tartarus.org/james/diary/2012/12/02/introducing-accessibility-advent
Accessibility Advent: Strip Leading Spaces
http://tartarus.org/james/diary/2012/12/03/accessibility-advent-strip-leading-spaces
Accessibility Advent: Support the Escape Key
http://tartarus.org/james/diary/2012/12/05/accessibility-advent-support-the-escape-key


+02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.

CSS Prefixes - It's Not That Simple
By David Storey.
"Open web advocate David Storey on the problems surrounding CSS
prefixes and what the future will bring..."
http://www.netmagazine.com/opinions/css-prefixes-it-s-not-simple

A Look at the Future of CSS
By Scott Gilbertson.
"We use the term 'CSS 3' all the time on Webmonkey, but technically
that's something of a misnomer..."
http://www.webmonkey.com/2012/12/a-look-at-the-future-of-css/


+03: COLOR.

Colour Accessibility
By Geri Coady.
Geri Coady extends goodwill to all with some insights about colour and
how it impacts everyone using our sites and apps. Full of practical
tips and tools, this gift keeps on giving."
http://24ways.org/2012/colour-accessibility/


+04: EVENTS.

IMS Access for All Version 3: Accessibility Through Personalization
Online Webinar
December 17, 2012.
http://easi.cc/clinic.htm#december

Mobile Web 2: Programming Applications
Online Class
January 21 - March 3, 2013.
http://www.w3devcampus.com/writing-great-web-applications-for-mobile/

Fluent
May 28-30, 2013.
San Francisco, California, U.S.A.
http://fluentconf.com/fluent2013/


+05: JAVASCRIPT.

HTML5 Video Bumpers
By Drew McLellan.
"Video is a bigger part of the web experience than ever before. With
native browser support for HTML5 video elements freeing us from the
tyranny of plugins, and the availability of faster internet
connections to the workplace, home and mobile networks, it's now
pretty straightforward to publish video in a way that can be consumed
in all sorts of ways on all sorts of different web devices."
http://24ways.org/2012/html5-video-bumpers/

Document Fragments are Magic
By Tiffany B. Brown.
"During a recent conversation about some code I've released, the other
party asked me why I didn't use a document fragment. I think my
reaction was more or less 'What, well, um, I don't know, so I'm just
going to bullshit and pretend I know what you're talking about or
something.'
http://tiffanybbrown.com/2012/11/30/document-fragments-are-magic/


+06: MISCELLANEOUS.

Responsive Responsive Design
By Tim Kadlec.
"Tim Kadlec broadens the scope of responsive web design to include
bandwidth and hardware capabilities. Images too big? Another JS
library? It's time to work off the seasonal weight gain from your
responsive website..."
http://24ways.org/2012/responsive-responsive-design/

Has Responsive Design Solved Mobile?
By Netbiscuits.
"Kim Siler, Head of Mobile Brand Strategy at Coca-Cola, doesn't think
so. Netbiscuits Tech Consultant Nathan Zamecnik explains why he thinks
she's right..."
http://www.netbiscuits.com/blog/-/blogs/has-responsive-design-solved-mobile

Web vs App - Longevity vs Hype
By Niels Matthijs.
"...Apps have quite a long way to go before they become close to being
a real threat to web content and currently they lack an underlying
platform to make that happen. Once the app hype dies, the web will
have other things to worry about, so unless we focus on our core
business we'll end up straying from our path. Only then will the web
be in real trouble."
http://www.onderhond.com/blog/app-hype-longevity-vs-hype


+07: PHP.

Debugging Zen
By Ben Ramsey.
Debugging is perhaps the skill that I find programmers have the
hardest time exercising. It is also the most difficult to teach.
Debugging, to me, is both a scientific discipline and an art. It often
requires you to reach beyond analytical thinking to rely upon your own
intuition in order to solve a problem..."
http://webadvent.org/2012/debugging-zen-by-ben-ramsey


+08: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.

Keep it Clean - Your Blog and Clean HTML
By Virginia DeBolt.
"...Why is Clean HTML Desirable? It moves easily from one place to
another and looks good in both places. It doesn't have a lot of inline
styles that worked on one blog, but don't make sense anywhere else. It
fits right in with the look and feel of its new location, because the
HTML is uncluttered with presentational information..."
http://www.webteacher.ws/2012/12/03/keep-it-clean-your-blog-and-clean-html/

Why I Have Given Up on Coding Standards
By Richard Rodger.
"...I expect everyone to write good clean code. You decide what that
means. You decide if you can sleep at night with random code layouts
and inconsistent variable names. But you know what, maybe they just
don’t matter for a 100 line node.js mini-server that only does one
thing. You decide. It is your responsibility, because you can code..."
http://www.richardrodger.com/2012/11/03/why-i-have-given-up-on-coding-standards/

A Multi-Device Web Layout Pattern
By Jason Weaver.
"Inspired by the observations of Luke Wroblewski, this Off Canvas
layout demo has 3 panels that display differently depending on the
viewport width. The idea here is to have the two supporting panels of
navigation and sidebar content hidden just off-screen to the left and
right for easy access on small/medium viewports. Off Canvas is a
design pattern, not a plugin or framework..."
http://jasonweaver.name/lab/offcanvas/technical/

HTML5 Datalist
By David Walsh.
"One of the most used JavaScript widgets over the past decade has been
the text box autocomplete widget.  Every JavaScript framework has
their own autocomplete widget and many of them have become quite
advanced.  Much like the placeholder attribute's introduction to
markup, a frequently used functionality has been moved from a
JavaScript-only utility to HTML via the new DATALIST element..."
http://davidwalsh.name/datalist

An Update to HTML5 For Creatives
By John Allsopp.
"This book is available for download on your iPad with iBooks or on
your computer with iTunes...."
http://www.webdirections.org/blog/an-update-to-html5-for-creatives/


+09: TOOLS.

Textise FireFox Extension
By Ian Williams.
"Creates a text-only version of the current web-page."
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/textise/


+10: USABILITY.

Planning for Homepage Content
By Georgy Cohen.
"If there's one thing that the infamous XKCD university homepage comic
reminded us, it's that we need to strike a better balance between
tasks and messaging on our homepages. And if there's one thing that
the commentary stemming from that comic reminded us, it's that our
homepage is one of the most political entities we will ever manage,
and the solutions don't come easy..."
http://meetcontent.com/blog/planning-for-homepage-content/

Contented Plain Language Objective Test
By Rachel McAlpine.
"...We've drawn up a 10-point objective test for plain language based
on guidelines that are supported by research..."
http://contented.com/contented/2012/contented-plain-language-objective-test-research-based-and-free/

Print to Web - 10 Tips for Repurposing Documents
By Dey Alexander.
"The content strategy world is abuzz with talk of adaptive
content-content that is chunked and structured for use across a range
of devices. However many organisations, particularly large government
departments, are still firmly stuck in the world of print. They create
brochures, fact sheets, reports and so on, and then republish these
online as documents. Often, this content gets no more attention than
the time it takes to upload as PDF files.  If your organisation still
takes a print-first approach to content, here are some tips to help
you repurpose it for the web..."
http://www.4syllables.com.au/2012/11/print-to-web/

Lose That Credit Card Field
by Jessica Enders.
"...for reasons that completely escape me, there's one piece of
'electronic smarts' that most web forms just don't have..."
http://uxmas.com/2012/lose-that-credit-card-field

Better Forms for Mobile Users
By James Socol.
"Mobile is a special, fun place to be a web developer. On one hand,
pretty much all of the browsers are new and support cool things. On
the other, processors, graphics, and network are all slow, and you
should care about battery life. Additionally, input on even the best
phones is still unpleasant and error-prone. But, because the browsers
are new, we can make things a lot better..."
http://webadvent.org/2012/better-forms-for-mobile-users-by-james-socol

Accessibility Advent: Hitzones Should Fill Their Visible Area
By James Aylett.
"It's probably fairly obvious how dictating text into, say, a mail
client works, and even how voice commands to invoke menu items and
keystrokes fit together. Let's look at how voice control of the
pointer works in Dragon. There are two different modes of operation,
although they can be mingled, plus commands for clicking buttons, and
pressing and releasing which enable dragging..."
http://tartarus.org/james/diary/2012/12/04/accessibility-advent-hitzones-should-fill-their-visible-area

When You Shouldn't Use Fitts's Law To Measure User Experience
By Anastasios Karafillis.
"...However, before you start applying Fitts's Law on every single
pixel you can find, consider a few problems that might arise for you
as an interaction designer..."
http://uxdesign.smashingmagazine.com/2012/12/04/fittss-law-and-user-experience/

Intranet Users Stuck at Low Productivity
By Jakob Nielsen.
"Although intranet design is improving, it hasn't kept pace with
increased complexity in enterprise requirements, so measured usability
is down slightly."
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/intranet-usability.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.]

-- 
Laura L. Carlson
Information Technology Systems and Services
University of Minnesota Duluth
Duluth, MN U.S.A. 55812-3009
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/

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