[webdev] Web Design Update: February 14, 2013

Thu Feb 14 06:09:05 CST 2013

+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE.
- Volume 10, Issue 34, February 14, 2013.

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

++ISSUE 34 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: EVENTS.
04: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE.
05: JAVASCRIPT.
06: MISCELLANEOUS.
07: NAVIGATION.
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.

Longdesc. Use it Appropriately.
By Charles McCathieNevile.
"From time to time I see advice given to avoid longdesc, because 'it's
not supported by browsers and it isn't in HTML5'. This advice is not
correct..."
http://chaals.ya.ru/replies.xml?item_no=5

Accessible HTML5 Media Players and More
By Dennis Lembree.
"Here's a list a accessible HTML5 Media Players-I have not tested them
all-and some articles on how to build one yourself. Know any others?
Please leave info in a comment..."
http://www.webaxe.org/accessible-html5-media-players-and-more/

Quick Tip - Don't Auto-Play Video, Music and More
By A11Y Project.
"Don't auto-play and it will please all of your users."
http://a11yproject.com/posts/never-use-auto-play/

Mobile Accessibility Landscape Update
By ssbbartgroup.
"This post represents an update to the mobile accessibility landscape
post from June 2012..."
https://www.ssbbartgroup.com/blog/2013/02/11/mobile-accessibility-landscape-update/

CAPTCHA - Inaccessible to Everyone
By Gian Wild.
"CAPTCHA stands for Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell
Computers and Humans Apart..."
http://www.sitepoint.com/captcha-inaccessible-to-everyone/

The End of Accessibility?
By Sandi Wassmer.
"Good design? UX? Accessibility? Can we have it all? asks Sandi Wassmer"
http://www.netmagazine.com/opinions/end-accessibility

Accessibility Information Pages Show Corporate Commitment to all Customers
By The Law Office of Lainey Feingold.
"An important component of any Structured Negotiations settlement
agreement addressing web accessibility is a company's commitment to
maintain an Accessibility Information Page, or AIP..."
http://lflegal.com/2013/02/access-info-pages/

Accessibility Issues in Digital Publishing DRM, Accessible Content,
and User Interface Control
By Janina Sajka and Judy Brewer.
"Ensuring accessibility of digital publishing systems and content for
people with disabilities requires..."
http://www.w3.org/2013/Talks/02-12_ebooks_JS/

+02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.

When to Avoid the Descendant Selector
By Louis Lazaris.
"Those of us who have started using modular or object-oriented CSS
principles have learned to avoid, as much as possible, the use of the
descendant selector (or, more accurately, the descendant
combinator)..."
http://www.impressivewebs.com/when-to-avoid-descendant-selector/

+03: EVENTS.

HighEdWeb
October 6-9, 2013.
Buffalo, New York, U.S.A.
http://2013.highedweb.org/

Fronteers
October 10-11, 2013.
Amsterdam, Netherlands
http://fronteers.nl/congres/2013

Paris Web
October 18-20, 2013.
Paris, France
http://www.paris-web.fr/

Assets 2013
October 20-23, 2013.
Bellevue, Washington, U.S.A.
http://www.sigaccess.org/assets13/

+04: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE.

Kelly Goto - Prototyping for Mobile Designs
By Sean Carmichael.
"Building a prototype is a great way to test your design early on with
users. Whether you choose to go for a high-fidelity representation, or
go lo-fi with paper, you can learn a lot about the usability of your
site. Often, teams are concerned with which technique or tool to use
because of the litany that are available..."
http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2013/02/08/kelly-goto-prototyping-for-mobile-designs/

+05: JAVASCRIPT

Making Elements Keyboard Focusable and Clickable
By Roger Johansson.
"When you want to make an element on a web page clickable in order to
trigger a JavaScript function, the best option is to use an element
that has native support for keyboard interaction. In most cases a
button (either <input type="button" /> or <button
type="button"></button>) is the most appropriate element. It lets
everybody trigger your function, whether they use a mouse or not."
http://www.456bereastreet.com/archive/201302/making_elements_keyboard_focusable_and_clickable/

ARIA Guidance
By ssbbartgroup.
"This note aims to clarify the use and requirements of using ARIA.
ARIA is a W3C specification for the creation of Accessible Rich
Internet Applications. ARIA aims to provide support to users of
assistive technology in three main areas that were not previously
addressed by the (X)HTML specifications: indicating main structural
areas of a page, creation of roles and properties of user interface
elements, and as a method to indicate alerts, page changes and
dynamically updating information..."
https://www.ssbbartgroup.com/reference/index.php/ARIA_Guidance

Using aria-describedby to Replicate Fieldset and Legend
By Ted Drake.
"This example fixes a form that included a form within a table. It
uses the aria-describedby attribute to connect the individual form
inputs with a header cell. It was inspired by DeQue's recent article
for using ARIA to replace fieldset/legend in a set of radio buttons:
ARIA-Group: a viable alternative for Fieldset / Legend?..."
http://www.last-child.com/aria-describedby-fieldset/

+06: MISCELLANEOUS.

Where to Start
By Trent Walton.
"When making the transition to building responsive websites, the
hardest part can be getting started.,,"
http://trentwalton.com/2013/02/07/where-to-start/

No More Mobile
By Jim Ramsden.
"...One term that really confuses me each time it's used is 'Mobile'..."
http://jimramsden.com/notes/no-more-mobile

A Walk with Paul Irish
By Web Design Weekly.
"Have you ever wanted to know what's inside other web developers'
heads? Have you ever wanted to catch up with someone that is an
industry leader and an all-round awesome guy? How about a walk around
the back streets of California with Paul Irish?..."
http://web-design-weekly.com/2013/02/05/a-walk-with-paul-irish/

+07: NAVIGATION.

Using WAI-ARIA Landmarks - 2013
By Steve Faulkner.
"Adding ARIA landmarks to your existing site, or to a site you are
developing, provides useful global navigation features and aids
understanding of content structure for users. Over time the necessity
of explicitly assigning landmarks will lessen as browsers build in
ARIA landmark roles to newer HTML element semantics. There is
widespread support for ARIA landmarks in browsers and screen readers."
http://www.paciellogroup.com/blog/2013/02/using-wai-aria-landmarks-2013/

ARIA Tabs
By Adrian A. Roselli.
"Last week I spent my Friday afternoon trying to get my head around
how to apply ARIA properly to a tabbed interface. I even got so far as
to map it out on my whiteboard and snap a photo so I could mull it
over during the weekend..."
http://blog.adrianroselli.com/2013/02/aria-tabs.html

Avoid the Pains of Pagination
By UX Movement.
"Everyone has scrolled to the bottom of a web page before and seen
that row of numbers. That row of numbers is a website's pagination.
Pagination is a user interface pattern that divides content into
different pages. It's important to have one on your site to prevent
your pages from becoming too long and overwhelming. But the way
paginations are designed today are painful for users to use. It's time
to turn the page on painful pagination..."
http://uxmovement.com/navigation/avoid-the-pains-of-pagination/

Master Mobile Navigation
By Aaron Gustafson.
"The success of a site almost always hinges on its content. Content,
as we are frequently reminded, is king. But if that's the case, then
navigation is the establishment that keeps him on the throne..."
http://www.netmagazine.com/features/master-mobile-navigation

+08: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.

W3C in the Wild
By Doug Schepers.
"Each month, a new author from the W3C will keep you informed on what
we're up to-and how you can be a part of it. This month's column is
from Doug Schepers, W3C Developer Relations Lead at the W3C. - Ian
Jacobs, Head of W3C "
http://alistapart.com/column/w3c-in-the-wild

The Progress Element
By Ian Devlin.
"When building web sites and web applications, we often need to
provide essential feedback to a user informing them of the progress of
their request or task, be it uploading a file, playing a video, or
importing data..."
http://html5doctor.com/the-progress-element/

Further Examples on Using the Main Element
By Ian Devlin.
"Which is the more correct page layout? - was the question posed over
on Stack Overflow with regards to the new HTML5 main element. Neither
of them as it turned out, but it did make me think that further
examples on how to use the main element might be useful..."
http://www.iandevlin.com/blog/2013/02/html5/further-examples-on-using-the-main-element

DRM for the Web? Say It Ain't So.
By Scott Gilbertson.
"So far it ain't so, but some form of DRM in HTML is becoming a more
likely possibility every day..."
http://www.webmonkey.com/2013/02/drm-for-the-web-say-it-aint-so/

+09: TOOLS.

Word2cleanhtml
By Olly Cope.
"Word2cleanhtml cleans up HTML pasted from Word documents. It applies
filters to fix various things that Microsoft Office puts in its HTML
and gives you a well formatted result that you can paste directly into
a web page or content editing system. "
http://word2cleanhtml.com/

Edge Inspect: Developing Mobile Sites with Accessibility in Mind
By Kathy Wahlbin.
"Adobe Edge Inspect has been around for a while but the latest
accessibility upgrades will be a breath of fresh air for accessibility
professionals..."
http://www.interactiveaccessibility.com/blog/edge-inspect-mobile-accessibility

+10: USABILITY.

Making Content More Usable for both Designers and the End User
By Steph Hay.
"...I have to think about the user, so I typically start with a text
file. I create the content in a text file based on conversations with
the client and with end users. I then hand it to the designer and the
designer really builds the site around that. Once I hand it to the
designer and some comps come back, I might make a few UI/UX
suggestions in the notations as part of the content..."
http://www.uie.com/articles/making_content_more_usable

Adaptable Content
By Sara Wachter-Boettcher.
"Sara Wachter-Boettcher's book, Content Everywhere, went on sale just
before the holidays. We present an exclusive excerpt that looks into
creating content for responsive and adaptive experiences..."
http://www.netmagazine.com/features/adaptable-content

Your Website has Two Faces
By Lyle Mullican.
"Your website must serve human and robot masters. An interface that
reflects too much of a system's internals will confuse human users;
but if data doesn't conform to a specific structure, it's likely to
confuse the machines that need to use it. How can your designs serve
these very different masters? Jon Postel's Robustness Principle,
although usually applied to low-level protocols like TCP, offers a
clue to designing experiences that meet human and machine needs with
equal grace. Lyle Mullican explains."
http://alistapart.com/article/your-website-has-two-faces

A Brief History of Usability
By Jeff Sauro.
"The profession of usability as we know it largely started in the 1980s..."
http://www.measuringusability.com/blog/usability-history.php

[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.]