[webdev] Web Design Update: September 11, 2014

Thu Sep 11 06:39:12 CDT 2014

+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE.
- Volume 13, Issue 11, September 11, 2014.

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

++ISSUE 11 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: JAVASCRIPT.
06: NAVIGATION.
07: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.
08: USABILITY.

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

[Contents ends.]

++ SECTION ONE: New references.

+01: ACCESSIBILITY.

Web Accessibility - Issues and Techniques
By Philip Kragnes.
"...The following training modules illustrate some common
accessibility issues and techniques for resolving them..."
http://z.umn.edu/webaccessibility

Using the tabindex Attribute
By Leonie Watson.
"The HTML tabindex attribute is used to manage keyboard focus. Used
wisely, it can effectively handle focus within web widgets. Used
unwisely however, the tabindex attribute can destroy the usability of
web content for keyboard users."
http://www.paciellogroup.com/blog/2014/08/using-the-tabindex-attribute/

Proper Use of Buttons and Links
By Dennis Lembree.
"The main point is, please do the basics. When designing a website,
ensure controls with button-type behavior (interaction, affects the
current page) are designed as buttons and regular text links (go to an
external page, anchor on page, or external document) are designed like
text links (such as blue underlined text)..."
http://www.webaxe.org/proper-use-buttons-links/

Facebook Rolls Out Video Captioning
By Adrian Redden.
"Facebook is now rolling out a feature that will allow users to supply
captions with their videos."
http://www.accessiq.org/news/news/2014/09/facebook-rolls-out-video-captioning

One. Simple. Question. (and a follow-up)
By Karl Groves.
"...Stop selling. Start leading."
http://www.karlgroves.com/2014/09/08/one-simple-question-and-a-follow-up/

When the Refresh Comes
By Steve Faulkner.
"The Section 508 Refresh contains a provision that places
responsibility on assistive technology vendors to make use of
accessibility information made available via platform accessibility
APIs. I suggest this is a very good thing..."
http://www.paciellogroup.com/blog/2014/09/when-the-refresh-comes/

A Lesson on the TEACH Act (Video)
By National Federation of the Blind.
"Blind college students talk about the little-known, but devastating
problem of inaccessible educational technology. The NFB explains why
the TEACH Act, a bill that creates accessibility guidelines to
stimulate the market, guide schools, and ensure equal access for
students with disabilities, is the best solution for everyone."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mU4MBIluhD0

+02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.

How To Create Flat Style Breadcrumb Links with CSS
By Chris Spooner.
"With all the progressions of CSS and CSS3 over recent years we'Äôve
reached a point where many of the old coding techniques that involved
background images can now be created entirely with CSS. In this
tutorial we'Äôll look at creating a series of breadcrumb navigation
links in a flat design style without the need for the previously
popular 'Äúsliding doors background image'Äù method."
http://line25.com/tutorials/how-to-create-flat-style-breadcrumb-links-with-css

A Peek Inside the CSS Text Decoration Specification
By Vipul Patel.
"Text decoration is defined as decorating the glyphs of the text once
typeset according to font and typographic rules. CSS3 provides support
for text decoration. This support comes in the form of underlines,
text shadows and emphasis marks."
http://www.htmlgoodies.com/html5/css/a-peek-inside-the-css-text-decoration-specification.html

+03: EVALUATION & TESTING.

How to Compute a Confidence Interval in 5 Easy Steps
By Jeff Sauro.
"Confidence intervals are your frenemies. They are one of the most
useful statistical techniques you can apply to customer data. At the
same time they can be perplexing and cumbersome..."
http://www.measuringusability.com/blog/ci-five-steps.php

+04: EVENTS.

php[world]
November 10-14, 2014.
Washington, D.C., U.S.A.
http://world.phparch.com/

An Event Apart San Francisco
November 17-19, 2014.
San Francisco, California, U.S.A.
http://aneventapart.com/event/san-francisco-2014

+05: JAVASCRIPT.

ARIA-Flowto (property)
By Rakesh Paladugula.
"Aria-flowto property should be used when the reading order of the
content on the page is not sequential or meaningful. "
http://www.maxability.co.in/2014/09/aria-flowto-property/

124 JSJ The Origin of Javascript with Brendan Eich
By woody2shoes.
"An epic interview/group discussion featuring Brendan Eich where he
walks through JavaScript's history, warts and all. A lot of back-story
and interesting tangents here. It's almost two hours long but worth
the listen to get more insights into JavaScript and its development."
http://javascriptjabber.com/124-jsj-the-origin-of-javascript-with-brendan-eich/

Advanced Objects in JavaScript
By Bjorn Tipling.
"A look at some of the more sophisticated or interesting ways to
create and work with objects, including ES6's proxies and symbols. If
you want to do some diving into JavaScript's more technical parts, you
should enjoy this."
http://bjorn.tipling.com/advanced-objects-in-javascript

ECMAScript 6 Modules - The Final Syntax
By Axel Rauschmayer.
"At the end of July 2014, TC39 [1] had another meeting, during which
the last details of the ECMAScript 6 (ES6) module syntax were
finalized. This blog post gives an overview of the complete ES6 module
system."
http://www.2ality.com/2014/09/es6-modules-final.html

What the Death of YUI Can Teach Developers
By Craig Buckler.
"It doesn't matter which third-party library or framework you use: it
will be discontinued at some point. Yes, even jQuery and Angular.
That's not necessarily an argument for developing your own system --
even your own code will eventually be superseded..."
http://www.sitepoint.com/death-yui-can-teach-developers/

+06: NAVIGATION.

Search Is Not Enough - Synergy Between Navigation and Search
By Raluca Budiu.
"When websites prioritize search over navigation, users must invest
cognitive effort to create queries and to deal with the weak
implementations of site search..."
http://www.nngroup.com/articles/search-not-enough/

Using the Core Model and Top Tasks to Design Better Web Navigation
By Gerry McGovern.
"The essence of the Core Model design process is that you focus
primarily on the top tasks of your customers. You make sure they can
solve their problem, complete their task. You design inside-out, from
the task outwards..."
http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/new-thinking/using-core-model-and-top-tasks-design-better-web-navigation

+07: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.

The URL Mess
By Larry Masinter.
"One of the main inventions of the Web was the URL.  And I've gotten
stuck trying to help fix up the standards so that they actually
work..."
http://masinter.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-url-mess.html

+08: USABILITY.

7 Techniques for Prioritizing Customer Requirements
By Jeff Sauro.
"...Prioritizing this list is essential to the success of your product
and potentially business. But what's the best way to approach
this?..."
http://www.measuringusability.com/blog/prioritize-requirements.php

How to Create Great UX Documents
By Neil Turner.
"...what makes a great UX document and how do you ensure that your
documents achieve what you need them to?..."
http://www.uxforthemasses.com/create-great-ux-documents/

A to Z of Example UX Docs and Deliverables
By Neil Turner.
"Following on from my article about how to create great UX documents,
I thought that it would be useful to collate some example UX documents
and deliverables together. This should hopefully provide a bit of
inspiration and assist when it comes to choosing the type of
document(s) to produce. For each document / deliverable I've included
examples, together with a quick outline and links to more information.
The following UX documents and deliverables are covered..."
http://www.uxforthemasses.com/example-ux-docs/

Why Re-Designs Fail
By Susan Weinschenk.
"...Here are the top 5 reasons I've seen that cause product re-designs
to fail..."
http://www.blog.theteamw.com/2014/09/10/why-re-designs-fail/

[Section one ends.]

++ SECTION TWO:

+09: 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

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

HTML 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.

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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.]