[webdev] Web Design Update: September 18, 2014

[Laura Carlson]

+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE.
- Volume 13, Issue 12, September 18, 2014.

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

++ISSUE 12 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: JAVASCRIPT.
07: MISCELLANEOUS.
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 Tutorials
By W3C WAI.
"These tutorials show you how to develop web content that is
accessible to people with disabilities and that provides a better user
experience for everyone..."
http://www.w3.org/WAI/tutorials/

WCAG-EM Report Tool
By W3C WAI.
"Website Accessibility Evaluation Report Generator..."
http://w3c.github.io/wcag-em-report-tool/dist/#/

Tip #36: Make These Four Quick Web Site Accessibility Fixes
By Heather Burns.
"The 36th web site tip for charities and third sector organisations is
four really quick fixes you can make today to improve your web
site'Äôs accessibility"
http://www.idea15webdesign.com/webwise-wednesdays/tip-36-make-four-quick-web-site-accessibility-fixes

A Workflow for Testing Web Accessibility with Free Tools
By David A. Kennedy.
"Learning how to test for web accessibility can be overwhelming, even
for the most experienced web worker. However, if you approach the
testing bit by bit throughout the creation of your project, it becomes
 more manageable..."
http://davidakennedy.com/2014/09/12/a-workflow-for-testing-web-accessibility-with-free-tools/

The Technology, Education and Accessibility in College and Higher
Education (TEACH) Act
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://nfb.org/TEACH

Good Intentions, Bad Legislation
By Terry W. Hartle and Jarret S. Cummings.
"...higher education leaders are so concerned about legislation that
would take decision-making about the use of technology to support
learning out of the hands of campuses and turn it over to an obscure
federal agency..."
https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2014/09/16/essay-criticizing-teach-act

A New Obstacle for Students With Disabilities
By Kyle Shachmut.
"It is well documented that students with disabilities are facing
barriers in their pursuit of higher education, and institutions are
having a difficult time fulfilling their legal obligation to ensure
equal access. So it was surprising last month when the American
Council on Education, in a letter to Sen. Tom Harkin about the
proposed reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, completely
dismissed a provision that would make it easier for its member
institutions to meet the needs of students with disabilities."
http://chronicle.com/article/A-New-Obstacle-for-Students/148795/

Google Drive and the Docs Editors - Designed with Everyone in Mind
By Google.
"Imagine trying to keep track of another person- real-time edits in a
document - using only your ears. Or trying to create a table from
spreadsheet data - without being able to clearly see the cells..."
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2014/09/google-drive-and-docs-editors-designed.html


+02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.

Responsive Web Design Podcast
By Karen McGrane and Ethan Marcotte.
"This is a Responsive Web Design Podcast, co-hosted by Karen McGrane
and Ethan Marcotte. In each episode, Karen and Ethan interview the
people who make responsive redesigns happen..."
http://responsivewebdesign.com/podcast/

All You Need To Know About Vertical-Align
By Christopher Aue.
"I set myself the target to clarify the behavior of vertical-align
once and for all. I ended up working through the W3C specifications
and playing with some examples. The result is this article."
http://christopheraue.net/2014/03/05/vertical-align/

Grid By Example
By Rachel Andrew.
"I have been writing and speaking about the CSS Grid Layout Module for
some time now. In order to learn how Grid works I've put together lots
of small examples, and I am publishing them here as a resource for
anyone else interested in this emerging specification..."
http://gridbyexample.com/

CSS Audits - Taking Stock of Your Code
By Susan Robertson.
"A CSS audit helps to organize code and eliminate repetition for
speedier sites. Susan Robertson shows us how to sleuth out potential
trouble spots, along with offering tips on tools, documentation, and
ways to keep our codebases lean well into the future."
http://alistapart.com/article/css-audits-taking-stock-of-your-code

Getting Started with Sass, Part 2
By Laura Kalbag.
"In Part 1 of this series, I introduced you to Sass, a CSS
pre-processor. I showed you how to set up a project using Codekit to
compile Sass files, and got started on the basics of the Sass syntax
with partials, variables, comments and errors. In this, Part 2, I'm
going to take a deeper look at variables and using maths with variable
operations to achieve vertical rhythm. I'll also discuss Sass nesting
syntax to make CSS easier to read and maintain."
http://webstandardssherpa.com/reviews/getting-started-with-sass-part-2


+03: EVALUATION & TESTING.

The New Face of Usability Testing
By Jeff Sauro.
"With the recent adoption of unmoderated remote testing methods,
usability testing can be done for a fraction of the cost and time.
Unlike a traditional usability test that requires a facilitator and
participant attend a session at the same time (and usually same
location), unmoderated sessions allow participants to complete a study
at any time and without the need of a facilitator..."
http://www.measuringusability.com/blog/new-faces.php


+04: EVENTS.

Front Porch
October 7, 2014
Dallas, Texas U.S.A.
http://frontporch.io/

W3C JavaScript Course
20 October to 16 November, 2014
Online
http://www.w3devcampus.com/javascript-w3c-course/


+05: HTML5.

Presentation on HTML5 Accessibility
By Becky Gibson.
"I presented HTML5 Accessibility at the 5th Annual online
Accessibility Summit in September, 2014. I also presented this topic
at Knowbility's AccessU in May, 2014. "
http://www.weba11y.com/blog/2014/09/10/presentation-on-html5-accessibility/

Web Components
By Jeremy Keith.
"I have conflicting feelings about Web Components. I am simultaneously
very excited and very nervous. That's probably a good sign..."
http://adactio.com/journal/7431/

Notes on Notes (of smart people) About Web Components
By Steve Faulkner.
"...Web components are being built in the same development culture
that web stuff is usually built in, and this is bad for accessibility.
This is not to say that web components are by definition bad. It is
the same story for any implementation of accessibility support on the
web, in browsers and in UI libraries: it usually comes after, often
way after a product has been shipped and distributed to millions upon
millions of people and 100s of thousands of developers have gorged on
and regurgitated the code in their own projects..."
http://www.paciellogroup.com/blog/2014/09/notes-on-notes-of-smart-people-about-web-components/

Web Components Punch List
By  Steve Faulkner.
"If your control has the stuff below covered, excellent! If not then
please implement it before shouting to the world about it being the
next big thing. Or at least document its deficits and provide a health
warning that the control is incomplete and not fit to use in
production..."
http://www.paciellogroup.com/blog/2014/09/web-components-punch-list/

The URL Mess
By Sam Ruby.
"tl;dr: shipping is a feature; getting the URL feature well-defined
should not block HTML5 given the nature of the HTML5 reference to the
URL spec."
http://intertwingly.net/blog/2014/09/16/The-URL-Mess

After 5
By Robin Berjon.
"As we approach the point at which HTML5 will become a Recommendation,
it is time to think about how HTML would best be handled next..."
http://darobin.github.io/after5/

A Guide to the HTML5 time Element
By Aurelio De Rosa.
"In this article I'm going to cover HTML5's <time> element, which
helps address the need just discussed..."
http://www.sitepoint.com/html5-time-element-guide/

Creating Autocomplete datalist Controls
By Aurelio De Rosa.
Until few years ago, there wasn't a native HTML element to deal with
this situation and developers have implemented the concept in
different ways. This piece of the HTML puzzle isn't lacking anymore.
Today, we have an HTML element called datalist that serves this
purpose. In this article, we'll discover what it is and how to use
it."
http://www.sitepoint.com/creating-autocomplete-datalist-controls/


+06: JAVASCRIPT.

WAI-ARIA Support Matrix
By Paul J Adam.
"VoiceOver screen reader versions and Safari browser versions are tied
to the desktop Mac OS X version or the mobile iOS version numbers.
Android versions can be all different and not specific to the Android
OS version number..."
http://pauljadam.com/demos/ariasupport.html


+07: MISCELLANEOUS.

Client Education and Post-Launch Success
By Drew Thomas.
"As web professionals, our jobs don't end when we flip the switch at
launch. It's our responsibility, in fact, to follow through and make
sure the tools we build are used to their fullest potential- by taking
the time to educate and train our clients. Drew Thomas demonstrates
how teaching our clients to understand, wield, and embrace their new
websites and digital strategies makes good business sense for everyone
involved."
http://alistapart.com/article/client-education-and-post-launch-success


+08: USABILITY.

Accessibility Summit 2014: Accessibility for UX
By Deborah Edwards-Onoro.
"When Elle Waters kicked off this week's Accessibility Summit
conference with her Accessibility for UX talk, she captured everyone's
attention with her stories of challenging user experiences,
explanation of why UX professionals don't include accessibility in
their work, and her UX professional's accessibility coloring book.
Here are a few key takeaways from her presentation, along with some
social media discussion:"
http://www.lireo.com/accessibility-for-ux/

The 10 Most Common Landing Page Optimization Mistakes
By Vasilis Vryniotiso.
"...in this article we discuss the 10 most common Landing Page
Optimization mistakes and we explain how these problems affect the
online marketing campaign..."
http://www.webseoanalytics.com/blog/the-10-most-common-landing-page-optimization-mistakes/


[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.]