[webdev] Web Design Update: May 9, 2013

[Laura Carlson]

+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE.
- Volume 10, Issue 46, May 09, 2013.

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

++ISSUE 46 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: HTML5.
06: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE.
07: JAVASCRIPT.
08: MISCELLANEOUS.
09: NAVIGATION.
10: PHP.
11: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.
12: USABILITY.

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

[Contents ends.]


++ SECTION ONE: New references.

+01: ACCESSIBILITY.

Accessibility Evaluation For Web Writers
By Dey Alexander.
"...In this article, I discuss evaluating content against the Web
Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0. If you're a web writer and not
familiar with the guidelines, you can read my articles on
accessibility for web writers..."
http://www.4syllables.com.au/2013/05/writers-accessibility-evaluation/

Accessibility - Clear up the ROT and FILTH on Your Web Site
By Rachel McAlpine.
"Accessibility means making access possible and easy for everyone,
including people with any sort of disability. (That'll be you, one of
these days.)..."
http://contented.com/contented/2013/accessibility-clear-up-the-rot-and-filth-on-your-web-site/

Accessible Content - Scrub the Decks
By Rachel McAlpine.
"A quick guide to making your documents accessible to blind or
low-vision people follows..."
http://contented.com/contented/2013/accessible-content-scrub-the-decks/

Web Accessibility for Designers
By WebAIM.
"The focus of web accessibility is often on web development - the
things that happen in HTML, CSS, or JavaScript after a site has been
designed visually. Optimal accessibility should start much earlier, as
part of the visual design process. We have created an infographic that
highlights a few important principles of accessible design."
http://webaim.org/resources/designers/

How Screen-Readers Access Web Content
By Ade Hillier.
"Screen-readers work in a unique way to manage a challenging task:
building an effective non-visual user interface for things that are
intrinsically visual in nature..."
http://accessiblize.com/how-screen-readers-access-web-content

Pragmatica11y - Perception is Everything
By Denis Boudreau.
"...Punctuation is like people's perception. A minor change can make a
big difference in how a message is received and understood. Context
changes the experience. Context can substantially alter one's
perception and the same is true when we think about the Web. For
people with disabilities, even the smallest changes can make all the
difference between being able to perceive the content or not..."
http://www.deque.com/pragmatica11y-perception

Mobile Browsers Must be Accessible Under New 21st CVAA Rules
By coataccess.
"On April 26, 2013, at its open meeting, the FCC adopted landmark new
rules to ensure browsers on mobile devices will be accessible to
people with disabilities. For example, this means a blind or low
vision person will have the same access to content available on the
Internet that other smart phone users can get to..."
http://www.coataccess.org/node/10146


+02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.

CSS Architectures - Refactor Your CSS
By Denise Jacobs.
"The top scalable and modular approaches I covered in the previous
article in my CSS Architectures series all have pieces of brilliance
that can help you change the way you think about and structure your
CSS. They also overlap in many areas, which indicates which aspects of
the process of improving your CSS are truly critical. Although you
could follow any single approach while constructing a new site to
great success, the fact of the matter is that what most of us are
doing is trying to make sense of existing CSS run amok..."
http://www.sitepoint.com/css-architectures-refactor-your-css/

Build a Responsive, Mobile-Friendly Website From Scratch: CSS Stylesheet
By Annarita Tranfici.
"In the last article of this series, I've shown how to start building
a website from scratch with a particular focus on the HTML code and
its main elements..."
http://www.sitepoint.com/build-a-responsive-mobile-friendly-website-from-scratch-css-stylesheet/

10 Years
By Dave Shea.
"Wow. It's finally happened. The CSS Zen Garden is 10 years old today..."
http://mezzoblue.com/archives/2013/05/07/10_years/


+03: EVALUATION & TESTING.

My Place or Yours? How to Decide Where to Run Your Next Usability Test
By David Travis.
"The most common types of usability test are remote usability tests,
corporate lab-based tests, contextual usability tests and rented
facility tests. What are the relative strengths and weaknesses of
these different approaches to usability testing and how should you
choose between them?..."
http://www.userfocus.co.uk/articles/common-types-of-usability-test.html

Testing Design - Testing Users Impressions of a Design
By Paul Boag.
"We all know that testing the sites we produce is important and there
are well established techniques for testing usability. But what about
testing aesthetics? What about testing design?"
http://boagworld.com/design/testing-design/

Five User Research Mistakes To Avoid
By Jeff Sauro.
"Almost all research contains mistakes in methodology, measurement or
interpretation. Rarely do the mistakes render the research completely
useless though. Don't let the fear of mistakes or shortcomings prevent
you from conducting new user research. This blog discusses five of the
more common mistakes to avoid when making the most of your research
efforts."
http://www.measuringusability.com/blog/research-mistakes.php


+04: EVENTS.

Open Web Camp V
July 13, 2013.
San Jose, California, U.S.A.
http://lanyrd.com/2013/owc5/


+05: HTML5.

How to Mark up Subheadings, Subtitles, Alternative Titles and Taglines
By Steve Faulkner.
"If you don't already know, the hgroup element is obsolete in HTML5.
Advice is now provided in the HTML spec on how to mark up subheadings,
subtitles, alternative titles and taglines using existing and
implemented HTML features..."
http://html5doctor.com/howto-subheadings


+06: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE.

Five Prevalent Pitfalls When Prototyping
By Jared Spool.
"In our work with design teams, we see a lot of teams using prototypes
today. We're also seeing many of those same teams fall into traps that
reduce the effectiveness of their prototyping efforts. Here's five of
the most common ones we see."
http://www.uie.com/articles/pitfalls_prototyping/

Prototyping Pro Tip - Practice With A New Tool By Redoing An Old Design
By Jared Spool.
"In the desire to expand your prototyping toolkit, you need to
regularly try out new tools and techniques. Your goal is to have, at
your disposal, as many different prototyping tools as possible. Maybe
you want to learn a new software tool? Maybe you're interested in
practicing your whiteboard sketching skills or play with paper
prototypes?"
http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2013/05/07/prototyping-pro-tip-practice-with-a-new-tool-by-redoing-an-old-design/

Semantic Environments and Information Architecture
By Jorge Arango.
"We inhabit many different semantic environments as we go about our
lives. For example, religion is one such semantic environment: we use
a particular set of words, in particular ways, when we are in church.
Semantic environments are also composed of many subenvironments."
http://www.jarango.com/blog/2013/05/02/semantic-environments-and-information-architecture/


+07: JAVASCRIPT.

The ARIA Guide - Introduction
By Ade Hillier.
"You probably noticed that HTML is static while the web is ever less
so. HTML5 is blurring the lines between static and dynamic in some
places, while JavaScript does the heavy lifting..."
http://accessiblize.com/aria-guide-part-1-introduction

JavaScript Quirk 5 - Parameter Handling
By Axel Rauschmayer.
"The basics of parameter handling in JavaScript are simple, advanced
tasks require manual work. This blog post first looks at the basics
and then covers advanced topics..."
http://www.2ality.com/2013/05/quirk-parameters.html

Truth, Equality and JavaScript
By Angus Croll.
"You don't have to be a JavaScript novice to get confused by this..."
http://javascriptweblog.wordpress.com/2011/02/07/truth-equality-and-javascript/

Rethinking JavaScript Object Enumeration
By Angus Croll.
"...Borrowing from Prototype.js, ECMAScript 5 defines two nifty new
methods Object.keys(obj) and the rather clunkily named
Object.getOwnPropertyNames(obj). They already work in the current
versions of Chrome and Safari and will be supported in Firefox 4 and
IE9..."
http://javascriptweblog.wordpress.com/2011/02/28/javascript-object-keys-finally/

JavaScript Strict Mode
By Angus Croll.
"The fifth edition of the ECMAScript specification introduced Strict
Mode. Strict Mode imposes a layer of constraint on JavaScript -
intended to protect you from the more perilous aspects of the
language....
http://javascriptweblog.wordpress.com/2011/05/03/javascript-strict-mode/


+08: MISCELLANEOUS.

How Much Has The Web Really Changed?
By Vasilis van Gemert.
"Responsive design is about more than just layout; it's about
designing for the Web, which means, mostly, for people with browsers.
And that's just about everything we know about the people who visit
our websites: they are probably using a browser. All the rest we just
don't know."
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2013/05/06/new-defaults-web-design/

Why the Web Is Ready for Responsive Web Design
By Rahul Lalmalani.
"Today, a large portion of site traffic comes from mobile
devices-namely smart phones and tablets-in addition to traditional
PCs. Across the globe, mobile devices now account for 12 percent of
Internet traffic, and this is scaling up faster than desktop Internet
traffic. The fraction of mobile Web traffic is sufficiently higher in
nations with high smartphone penetration (for example, 20 percent of
US-based Web traffic is via mobile browsing). What's more, this figure
is expected to grow significantly over the next 10 years, as
smartphones evolve and mature in terms of hardware and software and
adoption picks up in South America, Asia and Africa..."
http://www.sitepoint.com/why-the-web-is-ready-for-responsive-web-design/

Responsive Design Is Easier Than You Think
By Steven Bradley.
"Robin left a comment on my post about responsive design always being
appropriate suggesting I didn't know what I was talking about when I
said a responsive site takes a similar amount of time to design and
develop as a static site. I understand where the comment comes from,
but as you might expect, I disagree..."
http://www.vanseodesign.com/web-design/easy-responsive/

Sensible Jumps in Responsive Image File Sizes
By Jason Grigsby.
"...I have a new idea on how we might be able to define responsive
image breakpoints that is based on a performance budget..."
http://blog.cloudfour.com/sensible-jumps-in-responsive-image-file-sizes/

AccessU Keynote Speaker Kimberly Blessing (Interview)
By Elle Waters.
"Today, we talk with Kimberly Blessing about her upcoming keynote at
John Slatin AccessU. Kimmie talks with our own Derek Featherstone
about facilitating cultural change in an organization and how it
relates to web accessibility."
http://simplyaccessible.com/article/kimberly-blessing/

Denis Boudreau on Enterprise Accessibility (Interview)
By Elle Waters.
"Enterprise-wide accessibility is receiving a lot more attention these
days as large organizations work to implement accessible design,
development and content practices into their processes. Today, we talk
with Denis Boudreau about some of the goals and challenges of these
scenarios."
http://simplyaccessible.com/article/denis-boudreau/

Molly Holzschlag at AccessU on the Open Web (Interview)
By Elle Waters.
"Today we talk with Molly Holzschlag about CSS, resolving accessbility
tensions in design, ARIA and the culture in Austin as we prepare for
Knowbility's John Slatin AccessU..."
http://simplyaccessible.com/article/molly/

Plain Language and Usable Accessibility - Whitney Quesenbery  (Interview)
By Elle Waters.
"A modern view of accessibility leans towards it being part of User
Experience. Our own Derek Featherstone talks with Whitney Quesenbery,
a UX researcher about her sessions at AccessU about usability testing
with people with disabilities and plain language."
http://simplyaccessible.com/article/whitney-quesenbery/


+09: NAVIGATION.

Accessible and Usable Link Text
By Ade Hillier.
"Well thought-out link text is not just a boost for accessibility, but
for usability, too, which is helpful to everyone."
http://accessiblize.com/accessible-and-usable-link-text

Information Wayfinding, Part 2 - Elements of the Information Environment
By Tyler Tate.
"...In this article, I'll scrutinize the nature of information
environments by investigating their most fundamental elements..."
http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2013/05/information-wayfinding-part-2-elements-of-the-information-environment.php

Your Taxonomy is Broken
By Rick Yagodich.
"The only answer that makes any sense when managing large amounts of
content is - perhaps counter-intuitively - to use a flat structure,
without a taxonomy."
http://think-info.com/2013/05/06/broken-taxonomy/


+10: PHP.

Using Grep to Find Security Vulnerabilities in PHP Code
By Ryan Dewhurst.
"Finding all security vulnerabilities in a piece of code may be hard
as it requires in depth analysis of what the code does. However,
simple security vulnerabilities follow certain code style patterns
that are easier to find with simple search tools..."
http://www.phpclasses.org/blog/post/206-Using-Grep-to-Find-Security-Vulnerabilities-in-PHP-code.html


+11: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.

WYSIWTF
By Karen McGrane.
"Arguing for 'separation of content from presentation. implies a neat
division between the two. The reality, of course, is that content and
form, structure and style, can never be fully separated. Anyone who's
ever written a document and played around to see the impact of
different fonts, heading weights, and whitespace on the way the
writing flows knows this is true. Anyone who's ever squinted at HTML
code, trying to parse text from tags, knows it too."
http://alistapart.com/column/wysiwtf


+12: USABILITY.

Why Long Topics Are Better for the User
By Tom Johnson.
"...how big should the topics be? Obviously not the length of a book,
because that switches us right back into the book paradigm. There's
probably not an exact way to determine topic length, because so much
depends on the context of the information and the task at hand. But
basically, a good topic answers a good question. What's a good
question?... "
http://idratherbewriting.com/2013/05/06/why-long-topics-are-better-for-the-user/

Intention vs. Interpretation - What Matters?
By Thomas Wendt.
"Both interaction designers and information architects want to design
objects with a singular meaning. It's a noble, albeit impossible goal.
The best we can hope for is to create more consistently meaningful
experiences. To do that, designers must better understand the
interplay between designer intention and user interpretation: the ways
that we can influence - but not dictate - user interpretation..."
http://www.uxbooth.com/articles/intention-vs-interpretation-what-matters/

The 3 R's of Measuring Design Comprehension
By Jeff Sauro.
"To measure whether users understand a price, concept or design you
can't just ask them. To measure comprehension use the three R's:
recognition (multiple choice), recall (open-response) and recounting
(explaining to a friend)."
http://www.measuringusability.com/blog/measuring-comprehension.php

Infinite Scrolling - Let's Get To The Bottom Of This
By Yogev Ahuvia.
"Infinite scrolling promises a better experience for users. However,
the good is often accompanied by the bad and the ugly. Once we
understand the strengths and weaknesses of infinite scrolling, we can
begin to use it to enhance our interfaces..."
http://uxdesign.smashingmagazine.com/2013/05/03/infinite-scrolling-get-bottom/


[Section one ends.]


++ SECTION TWO:

+13: 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

Drupal Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/drupal.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

HTML5 Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/html.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.

WEB DESIGN UPDATE is available by subscription. For information on how
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The Web Design Reference Site also has a RSS 2.0 feed for site updates.


+ TEXT EMAIL NEWSLETTER (TEN).

As a navigation aid for screen readers we do our best to conform to
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For TEN guideline information please visit:
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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.]