[webdev] Web Design Update: August 26, 2013

Mon Aug 26 06:22:02 CDT 2013

+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE.
- Volume 12, Issue 09, August 26, 2013.

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

++ISSUE 09 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: DREAMWEAVER.
04: EVENTS.
05: HTML5.
06: JAVASCRIPT.
07: NAVIGATION.
08: PHP.
09: TYPOGRAPHY.
10: USABILITY.

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

[Contents ends.]

++ SECTION ONE: New references.

+01: ACCESSIBILITY.

Top Signs that Your New Web Project Won't be Accessible
By Alastair Campbell.
"We all like to think we do our bit for people with disabilities. If
you are running a web project this often means adding a line to the
supplier's contract that the website should 'meet accessibility
guidelines' or 'comply with the Equality's Act'. But as the project
progresses, how do you know if the supplier's work is going to be
accessible? It can be a shock when the site launches and you find out
there are some fundamental accessibility issues."
https://bdaily.co.uk/opinion/22-08-2013/top-signs-that-your-new-web-project-wont-be-accessible/

Carousels and Slideshows -  Accessibility for Developers
By Accessiq.
"Accessibility issues with rotating content displays such as
carousels, slideshows, photo galleries of content can be addressed by
giving the user control..."
http://www.accessiq.org/create/content/carousels-and-slideshows-accessibility-for-developers

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

+02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.

Semantic CSS With Intelligent Selectors
By Heydon Pickering.
"'Form ever follows function. This is the law.' So said the architect
and 'father of skyscrapers' Louis Sullivan. For architects not wishing
to crush hundreds of innocent people under the weight of a colossal
building, this rule of thumb is pretty good. In design, you should
always lead with function, and allow form to emerge as a result. If
you were to lead with form, making your skyscraper look pretty would
be easier, but at the cost of producing something pretty dangerous."
http://coding.smashingmagazine.com/2013/08/20/semantic-css-with-intelligent-selectors/

+03: DREAMWEAVER.

Dreamweaver and CSS in Creative Cloud
By Virginia DeBolt.
"The Dreamweaver wizard that Macromedia came up with way back in the
dark ages to create CSS rules stayed with us and served us well for a
long time. Because of all the CSS 3 properties that have come along
since then that weren't anywhere in the wizard, things were due for a
change..."
http://www.webteacher.ws/2013/08/19/dreamweaver-css-and-creative-cloud/

Creating Transitions in Dreamweaver CC
By Virginia DeBolt.
"The CSS interface for Dreamweaver CC is very different from the
classic look seasoned users interacted with for years. In Dreamweaver
6, CSS 3 transitions were added to Dreamweaver's design tools. The
interface works approximately the same in Creative Cloud (Dreamweaver
CC)."
http://www.webteacher.ws/2013/08/20/creating-transitions-in-dreamweaver-cc/

+04: EVENTS.

Blend Conference
September 5-7, 2013.
Charlotte, North Carolina, U.S.A.
http://www.blendconf.com/

Tech Fest NW
September 6-8, 2013.
Portland, Oregon, U.S.A.
http://techfestnw.com/

Webdagene 2013
September 9-11, 2013.
Oslo, Norway
http://webdagene.no/english/

UX STRAT
September 9-11, 2013.
Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.A.
http://www.uxstrat.com/

Mobility and the Modern Web Conference
September 10-12, 2013.
Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.
http://mmwcon.org/

ConvergeFL
September 11-13, 2013.
Jacksonville, Florida, U.S.A.
http://convergefl.com/

Webvisions
September 25-27, 2013.
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.
http://www.webvisionsevent.com/chicago/

+05: HTML5.

On Citing Quotations. Again.
By Bruce Larson.
"Every so often, the conversation about how to cite quotations in HTML
comes up again..."
http://www.brucelawson.co.uk/2013/on-citing-quotations-again/

Comparing and Contrasting ins, del, and s
By Oli Studholme.
"Since the mists of HTML 2 we've been able to semantically indicate
added or removed information using the elements <ins> and <del>
respectively. While seemingly simple on the surface these elements
have hidden depths. I'll also compare and contrast <del> with <s>,
recently out of font style rehab and back in HTML5. Let's start with
<ins> and <del>..."
http://html5doctor.com/ins-del-s/

WebKit Has Implemented srcset, And It's A Good Thing
By Mat Marquis.
"WebKit has made some serious news by finally implementing the srcset
attribute. As Chair of the W3C's Responsive Images Community Group,
I've been alternately hoping for and dreading this moment for some
time now. It turns out to be good news for all involved parties-the
users browsing the Web, most of all..."
http://mobile.smashingmagazine.com/2013/08/21/webkit-implements-srcset-and-why-its-a-good-thing/

Best Practice for Code Examples
By James Edwards.
"The majority of articles about web development include code examples,
and across the web we see great variation in how they're formatted and
presented..."
http://www.sitepoint.com/best-practice-for-code-examples/

Is HTML Relevant in the Age of Web Apps?
By John Allsopp.
"Let's think for a moment about what we build, when we build things
for the web..."
http://www.sitepoint.com/is-html-relevant-in-the-age-of-web-apps/

+06: JAVASCRIPT.

ARIA Roles M-O
By Rakesh Paladugula.
"In continuation of ARIA-Roles (L), below are some ARIA roles begin
with M, N, O. Click Each link that takes to its detailed
description..."
http://www.maxability.co.in/2013/08/aria-roles-m-o/

Why all Objects are Truthy in JavaScript
By Axel Rauschmayer.
"In JavaScript, all objects are truthy [1], even new Boolean(false),
empty arrays and empty objects..."
http://www.2ality.com/2013/08/objects-truthy.html

Should JavaScript Devs Build Real Things?
By @ajfisher.
"Having taught quite a few people to code, the benefit of being able
to open a text editor or a browser console and type code that can
immediately and reliably be executed is incredible. The power this
brings to the learner is unmatched. When trying to learn new things
it's important to get positive reinforcement very quickly and
JavaScript has this ability in spades."
http://ajfisher.me/2013/08/21/should-javascript-devs-build-real-things/

+07: NAVIGATION.

Using the ARIA Form Landmark
By Ted Drake.
"ARIA landmarks allow developers to associate structural significance
to web page elements. Common landmarks define navigation, header, the
main content, and the page's footer. It's also possible to define more
specific subelements, such as a search form. This page will test the
use of role="form" to define multiple forms on a single page. While
this may seem uncommon, it could be seen on a page that has a search,
sign up, and login form..."
http://www.last-child.com/using-the-aria-form-landmark/

+07: PHP.

The Walking Dead - The Consequences of Living with a Legacy PHP Framework
By Yannick Mahe.
"At our company, our main web app is based on Symfony 1.0, a PHP
framework released in 2008..."
http://blog.yannickmahe.com/symfony/2013/08/19/the-walking-dead.html

+09: TYPOGRAPHY.

It's Time to Stop Using Images of Text on Your Website
By  Luke McGrath.
"Images of text also cause problems for your customers if they like to
resize websites to read them more clearly - image do not work well
this way. They also add to the time it takes your site to load -
another key reason customers leave!..."
http://www.wuhcag.com/images-of-text/

Text Size and Zoom
By Maryland Department of Disabilities Program.
"Content must remain readable and understandable when text size or
page zoom is set to at least 200% or twice the default size...."
http://www.equipmentlink.org/blog/?p=1994

+10: USABILITY.

5 Signs You're Falling Short in Your Website Redesign Project
By James Royal-Lawson.
"It's all too easy to fall down the quick and dirty route for your
next web redesign project. Here are 5 tell-tale signs that your
up-and-coming new website will end up underachieving..."
http://beantin.se/post/58419752220/5-signs-your-website-redesign-will-fail

Here's What You Need to Know About the Future of Gesture-Based UI Design
By Rani Molla.
"Gestures are becoming the most integral UI function on smartphones
and yet most people aren't using them to their full potential. We ask
designers what they're doing to improve user experience."
http://gigaom.com/2013/08/19/heres-what-you-need-to-know-about-the-future-of-gesture-based-ui-design/

10 Interface Typos You Don't Even Know You're Making
By Georgina Laidlaw.
"Is it login or log in? Ebook or eBook? Who even knows any more? In
this article, I'll highlight the 10 most common user interface typos I
see (as in all the time) and help you avoid them..."
http://www.sitepoint.com/10-interface-typos-you-dont-even-know-youre-making/

Examples Are a Primary Way That Complicated Concepts Become Clear
By Tom Johnson.
"...I've long been a fan of examples in help documentation, but I
didn't suspect they played such a large role. In fact, one rarely
hears any presentations or reads blog posts on using examples. It's
time to give this technique its 15 minutes of fame..."
http://idratherbewriting.com/2013/08/20/examples-are-a-primary-way-that-complicated-concepts-become-clear/

Don't Make This Mistake
By Rosenfeld Media.
"There is actually a clinical term for a harmful practice I see
occurring in the mobile space; it's called the Hipster Designer
Disorder. This affliction is characterized by an intense need to
create novel designs just to be different..."
http://rosenfeldmedia.com/announcements/2013/08/mobile_first_design_dont_make.php

Simplified Complexity
By Dmitry Fadeyev.
"...The beauty of an interface, then, is achieved through simplified
complexity - simplified in the sense of being arranged around a
framework that helps the observer grasp its motif and meaning rather
than merely reduced to a few parts...."
http://fadeyev.net/2013/08/17/simplified-complexity/

[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.]