[webdev] Web Design Update: March 6, 2014

Thu Mar 6 06:35:57 CST 2014

+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE.
- Volume 12, Issue 37, March 6, 2014.

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

++ISSUE 37 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: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE.
06: JAVASCRIPT.
07: MISCELLANEOUS.
09: NAVIGATION.
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.

Accessibility and Building a Web for Everyone Because Sometimes It's
Not All About Us
By Jenn Schiffer.
"...With a lack of time and budget, a lot of accessibility 'testing'
really falls on whether the designer and developer of a page or
application can, well, access it. Designs then become focused on
aesthetics only, with low contrast being seen as more pleasant to
those who have excellent vision; tools become tiny because that makes
them cute and out of the way for more content. It's 2014 and we
continue to build a Web for what we consider to be the group most
worthy of access: able-bodied, good-sight-and-hearing-having people,
in a class that can afford high-bandwidth and memory for large asset
loading sites...."
http://negativitysandwiches.com/accessibility-and-building-a-web-for-everyone-because-sometimes-its-not-all-about-us/

Break Complex Data Tables in Smaller, Simpler Data Tables
By Denis Boudreau.
"Make sure data tables can be digested in smaller, simpler data chunks..."
http://dboudreau.tumblr.com/post/77946869931/break-complex-data-tables-in-smaller-simpler-data

Use Caption Elements to Bind Table Headings with Data Tables
By Denis Boudreau.
"Make sure data tables headings are marked up using real HTML caption
elements..."
http://dboudreau.tumblr.com/post/78014554511/use-caption-elements-to-bind-table-headings-with-data

Provide ALT attributes on Images Used as Submit Buttons
By Denis Boudreau.
"Make sure images used as submit buttons have ALT attribute values
describing their functions..."
http://dboudreau.tumblr.com/post/78328587719/provide-alt-attributes-on-images-used-as-submit-buttons

Present Definitions of Words or Phrases Using Definition Lists
By Denis Boudreau.
"Make sure definitions of phrases or words are marked up using
definition lists..."
http://dboudreau.tumblr.com/post/78448710614/present-definitions-of-words-or-phrases-using

Captions, Audio Descriptions and Transcripts (Video)
By Gosia Mlynarczyk.
"This video gives you some advice about alternatives for audio and
video content..."
http://www.nomensa.com/blog/2014/captions-audio-descriptions-and-transcripts/

WCAG-EM - Evaluating Websites with Structure and Flexibility
By Scott Hollier.
"...In essence, WCAG-EM is designed for web accessibility specialists
with a high degree of technical knowledge. As such, the document has
three clear sections to assist with the process..."
http://www.accessiq.org/news/w3c-column/2014/02/wcag-em-evaluating-websites-with-structure-and-flexibility

Separate is Not Equal - Good News for Grocery Delivery
By Law Office of Lainey Feingold.
"...Eliminating the text-only site is part of Safeway's commitment to
making its main site accessible to all users..."
http://lflegal.com/2014/02/safeway-accessibility/

Screen Reader User Survey #5 Results
By WebAIM.
"In January 2014, WebAIM conducted a survey of preferences of screen
reader users. We received 1465 valid responses to this survey..."
http://webaim.org/projects/screenreadersurvey5/

The WebAIM survey sparked numerous articles and a bug regarding screen
reader detection:

Why Screen Reader Detection on the Web is a Bad Thing
By Marco Zehe.
"...letting a website know you're using a screen reader means running
around the web waving a red flag that shouts 'here, I'm visually
impaired or blind!' at anyone who is willing to look. It would take
away the one place where we as blind people can be relatively
undetected without our white cane or guide dog screaming at everybody
around us that we're blind or visually impaired, and therefore giving
others a chance to treat us like true equals..."
http://www.marcozehe.de/2014/02/27/why-screen-reader-detection-on-the-web-is-a-bad-thing/

Bug 979298 - Screen Reader Detection Heuristics - Privacy Review
By Marco Zehe.
"...In short, the main concerns are that web developers will offer
feature-reduced or text-only versions of web sites to screen reader
users, limiting the experience or even exposing out of date content
because the text-only version is not being maintained and updated like
the rest of the page. Moreover, screening out visually impaired users
on job employment sites and only offering them certain types of jobs,
limiting equal access to the job market..."
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=979298

Assistive Technology Detection - It Can be Done Right
By Dylan Barrell.
"It seems like the WebAim 5th annual screen reader survey has launched
a bunch of discussion on screen reader detection and most of the
voices have been against it. I think that all of these negative voices
are wrong..."
http://unobfuscated.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/assistive-technology-detection-it-can.html

'Should We Detect Screen Readers?' is the Wrong Question
By Karl Groves.
"...if your approach to accessibility has anything to do with
detecting screenreaders, you've clearly misunderstood
accessibility..."
http://www.karlgroves.com/2014/02/28/should-we-detect-screen-readers-is-the-wrong-question/

On Detecting Assistive Technology
By Joe Dolson.
"...Has there ever been a time when separate but equal was a
legitimate treatment?...So many accessibility failures amount to
ignorance and laziness, rather than failures of technology, that I
can't see this as solving the root problem: developers..."
https://www.joedolson.com/articles/2014/03/detecting-assistive-technology/

Detecting Screen Readers - No
By Dennis Lembree.
"There has been much discussion about the idea of detecting a screen
reader from a website and optimizing the code. In the W3C editor's
draft IndieUI 1.0: User Context, screen reader detection is proposed.
This scares me and many others in the web accessibility community..."
http://www.webaxe.org/detecting-screen-readers-no/

On Screen Reader Detection
By Adrian Roselli.
"...this is where different risks come in. I'll focus on three that
come to mind immediately...Double Effort...Selection
Bias...Privacy..."
http://blog.adrianroselli.com/2014/03/on-screen-reader-detection.html

+02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.

Confused About REM and EM?
By Jeremy Church.
"REM can be confusing, especially without a solid understanding of its
partner EM and their archvillain, the PX."
http://j.eremy.net/confused-about-rem-and-em/

Basics of CSS Blend Modes
By Chris Coyier.
"Bennett Feely has been doing a good job of showing people the glory
of CSS blend modes. There are lots of designerly effects that we're
used to seeing in static designs (thanks to Photoshop) that we don't
see on the web much, with dynamic content. But that will change as CSS
blend modes get more support. I'd like to look at the different ways
of doing it, since it's not exactly cut and dry..."
http://css-tricks.com/basics-css-blend-modes/

CSS Gradients
By Chris Coyier.
"This article was originally published on March 2, 2010. It was
updated April 1, 2011, July 20, 2011, and again March 3, 2014, each
time to clarify and correct browser prefixes and best practices..."
http://css-tricks.com/css3-gradients/

+03: DREAMWEAVER.

Struggles with Dreamweaver CC's Grid Layout System
By Virginia DeBolt.
"After building about 20 layouts, redoing a couple of sites, and
starting and rejecting an uncounted number of Dreamweaver CC grid
system attempts, I'm here to describe some of my issues with this
tool..."
http://www.webteacher.ws/2014/03/03/struggles-dreamweaver-ccs-grid-layout-system/

+04: EVENTS.

CSUN 2014 Hackathon
March 21, 2014.
San Diego, California, U.S.A.
http://john.foliot.ca/csun-2014-hackathon/

Generate Conf
June 20, 2014.
New York, New York, U.S.A.
http://www.generateconf.com/Content/New-York-1-2

mLearnCon 2014 Conference and Expo
June 24-26, 2014.
San Diego, California, U.S.A.
http://www.elearningguild.com/mLearnCon/content/2702/mlearncon--2013-home/

OSCON
July 20-24, 2014.
Portland, Oregon, U.S.A.
http://www.oscon.com/oscon2014

+05: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE.

Achieving Alignment - Collaboration Versus Wireframes?
By Janet M. Six.
"In this edition of Ask UXmatters, our experts discuss whether
wireframes can sometimes be a crutch that product teams rely on too
much when trying to achieve alignment rather than becoming aligned by
truly collaborating...."
http://uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2014/02/achieving-alignment-collaboration-versus-wireframes.php

+06: JAVASCRIPT.

JavaScript String: substring, substr, slice - Which Function Should
You Use When?
By Ariya Hidayat.
"Extracting a portion of a string is a fairly well understood
practice. With JavaScript, there are three different built-in
functions which can perform that operation. Because of this, often it
is very confusing for beginners as to which function should be used.
Even worse, sometimes it is easy to fall into the trap and choose the
wrong function..."
http://ariya.ofilabs.com/2014/02/javascript-string-substring-substr-slice.html

+07: MISCELLANEOUS.

Responsive Strategy
By Brad Frost.
"Right now around 11 or 12% of the top 100,000 sites are responsive,
and no doubt that number is slated to rise over the next few years..."
http://bradfrostweb.com/blog/post/responsive-strategy/

+08: NAVIGATION.

Global Navigation is Less Useful on Large, Complex Websites
By Gerry McGovern.
"As a website becomes larger and more complex, navigation should focus
on helping customers move forward. Helping them move backwards or
sideways can cause major distraction and confusion..."
http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/new-thinking/global-navigation-less-useful-large-complex-websites

+08: TYPOGRAPHY.

Web Typography is Now Open Source
By Richard Rutter.
"In December 2005 I launched Elements of Typographic Style Applied to
the Web, a practical guide to web typography using Robert Bringhurst's
book The Elements of Typographic Style as a basis..."
http://clagnut.com/blog/2375/

+10: USABILITY.

Simplicity - A Thoughtful Approach To Better Design
By Steven Bradley.
"...the closer any design gets to simplicity the better that design
will be. Staying true to the essence of the thing being designed
should be a primary goal of all design. Those that successfully follow
the goals of simplicity will appear inevitable and right..."
http://www.vanseodesign.com/web-design/simplicity-thoughtful-reduction/

>From Google Ventures - 5 Rules For Writing Great Interface Copy
By John Zeratsky.
"John Zeratsky gives pointers on the importance of crafting those
little bits of text in the UI design of software products."
http://www.fastcodesign.com/3026463/from-google-ventures-5-rules-for-writing-great-interface-copy

What Happens When Placeholder Text Doesn't Get Replaced
By Rian van der Merwe.
"One of the many things I do that proves that I need to get out more
is collect examples of placeholder text that ends up in a final
interface. But I've also noticed that the issue happens more and more
in the offline world as well..."
http://www.elezea.com/2014/02/lorem-ipsum-gone-wrong/

[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.]