[webdev] Web Design Update: October 24, 2014

Fri Oct 24 06:25:06 CDT 2014

+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE.
- Volume 13, Issue 17, October 24, 2014.

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

++ISSUE 17 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: COLOR.
04: EVALUATION & TESTING.
05: EVENTS.
06: HTML5.
07: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE.
08: JAVASCRIPT.
09: MISCELLANEOUS.
10: NAVIGATION.
11: USABILITY.

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

[Contents ends.]

++ SECTION ONE: New references.

+01: ACCESSIBILITY.

HTML5: Techniques for Providing Useful Text Alternatives
W3C Working Draft 23 October 2014
By Steve Faulkner, editor.
"This document contains best practice guidance for authors of HTML
[HTML5] documents on providing text alternatives for images..."
http://www.w3.org/TR/2014/WD-html-alt-techniques-20141023/

Developing an Accessible Star Ratings Widget
By Thierry Koblentz.
"Many ecommerce sites, social networking services, and online
communities include rating or assessment features. Soliciting people's
opinion has even become a business model; there are now sites
dedicated to rating products, services, businesses, and more. The most
common interface used to display votes is the 'star rating system' in
which a particular number of points (often expressed as stars) is
assigned to an item by each reviewer. We find this model on many
sites, from Amazon to Yelp."
http://www.cssmojo.com/developing-an-accessible-star-ratings-widget/

Higher Ed Raises Concerns, Works with Proponents of the TEACH Act
By Jarret Cummings.
"In September, EDUCAUSE and a number of other higher education
associations released an analysis of the Technology, Equality, and
Accessibility in College and Higher Education (TEACH) Act. The
proposed legislation, not to be confused with the already established
TEACH Act on copyright issues (see the 2009 ECAR Research Bulletin on
the topic for more information), is intended to improve the
accessibility of 'electronic instructional materials and related
technologies' for persons with disabilities. The bill attempts to do
this by tasking the U.S. Access Board with developing accessibility
guidelines for such materials and technologies..."
http://www.educause.edu/blogs/jcummings/higher-ed-raises-concerns-works-proponents-teach-act

Accessibility Claims Expected Over Websites
By Angus Loten.
"...The Justice Department, which enforces the disability-rights act,
isn't expected to post official compliance standards for websites and
mobile apps until next year. But lawyers say the H&R Block case offers
a clear road map for disability-access claims, and is likely to spark
a surge of lawsuits with violations that pertain to websites. The
agreement included the use of captions, text alternatives and audio
descriptions, among other tools set out in website accessibility
guidelines published by the World Wide Web Consortium, a nonprofit
group based at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology..."
http://online.wsj.com/articles/accessibility-claims-expected-over-websites-1413411990

ADA Claims Coming for Retailers This Holiday Season for Inaccessible Websites
By Selena J. Linde and Kimberly Reindl.
"The Department of Justice takes the position that websites are
covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). More claims are
being filed by plaintiffs targeting retailers whose websites are
inaccessible to consumers who are blind or have low vision. With more
than $72 billion to be spent online this holiday season, retailers
that do not address accessibility issues may be on the receiving end
of claims-and may look more like the Grinch than Santa Claus."
http://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/ada-claims-coming-for-retailers-this-hol-68829/

Designing for Dyslexia (Part 1)
By Andrew Zusman.
"As designers, we think daily about the challenges our users may face,
and choose the right best practices and patterns to help them. This
week, UX designer Andrew Zusman introduces us to a unique challenge
faced by dyslexics around the world: the challenge of not recognizing
the patterns that seem so obvious to many of us..."
http://www.uxbooth.com/articles/designing-for-dyslexia-part-1/

CDC Ebola Response on Twitter Excludes Blind
By Adrian Roselli.
"...Even if you're not the CDC, I think there is still a lesson to be
learned here - putting all your tweet content into embedded images is
a great way to exclude users. Thankfully the CDC can choose from one
of three (four?) easy fixes..."
http://blog.adrianroselli.com/2014/10/cdc-ebola-response-on-twitter-excludes.html

Of Disabilities and Bad Attitudes
By Nicolas Steenhout.
"Suggesting that a bad attitude causes disability is both untrue and
damaging to people with disabilities..."
http://incl.ca/of-disabilities-and-bad-attitudes/

+02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.

Axiomatic CSS and Lobotomized Owls
By Heydon Pickering.
"Managing flow content can get unwieldy-too many class selectors can
become a specificity headache, nested styling can get redundant, and
content editors don't always understand the presentational markup.
Heydon Pickering offers an unexpected option for handling cascading
styles more efficiently: a variation on the universal selector."
http://alistapart.com/article/axiomatic-css-and-lobotomized-owls

CSS {all: initial} to Prevent Widgets Inheriting CSS From a Host Page
By Bruce Lawson.
"Imagine you have some sort of widget - an ad box, a sign-up form,
some execrable collection of social buttons, whetevs - that you're
injecting into arbitrary pages using JavaScript. You don't want your
widget to get weirdly styled by the host page's CSS. This is when you
want to undo the CSS..."
http://www.brucelawson.co.uk/2014/css-all-initial-to-prevent-widgets-inheriting-css-from-a-host-page/

The Secret of Grid Layouts, and the Mistake You're probably Making
By Speider Schneider.
"...The grid layout is not some obsolete design principle and whether
it's for print or the web, it is a design strength that broke ground
decades ago but still rings true with basics of great design. It is
the foundation on which all design is built..."
http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2014/10/the-secret-of-grid-layouts-and-the-mistake-youre-probably-making/

+03: COLOR.

Design Accessibly, See Differently - Color Contrast Tips And Tools
By Cathy O' Connor.
"...In this article, I'll share one aspect of design accessibility:
making sure that the look and feel (the visual design of the content)
are sufficiently inclusive of differently sighted users..."
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2014/10/22/color-contrast-tips-and-tools-for-accessibility/

+04: EVALUATION & TESTING.

How to Conduct a Usability Heuristic Evaluation
By Armen Ghazarian.
"User experience works best when it's incorporated into every stage of
product development, starting from idea to development and testing..."
http://designmodo.com/usability-heuristic-evaluation/

+05: EVENTS.

Accessibility Summit
April 17-18, 2015.
Washington, D.C., U.S.A.
http://accessibilitysummit.org/

IA Summit
April 22-26, 2015.
Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.A.
http://2015.iasummit.org/

University of Illinois Web Conference
April 29-30, 2015.
Champaign, Illinois, U.S.A.
http://webcon.illinois.edu/

John Slatin AccessU
May 11-13, 2015.
Austin, Texas, U.S.A.
http://www.knowbility.org/v/john-slatin-accessu/

24th International World Wide Web Conference
May 18-22, 2015.
Florence, Italy
http://www.www2015.it/

Web Conference at Penn State
June 22-23, 2015.
Penn State, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.
http://webconference.psu.edu/

+06: HTML5.

Footnotes and Endnotes in HTML.next
By David MacDonald.
I've taken an action item with John Foliot to propose a new element in
HTML5 for footnotes. The <note> and related <noteref> elements would
provide an easy way for authors to create functioning footnotes, such
as those in MS Word. Here's a Q&A to start the discussion.
http://davidmacd.com/blog/html51-footnotes.html

How to Make Sites More Accessible With Web Components
By Marcy Sutton.
"Interactive web developer Marcy Sutton discusses the potential of Web
Components to extend the accessible browsing experience. "
http://www.creativebloq.com/netmag/how-make-sites-more-accessible-web-components-101413200

HTML5 Video Captioning
By 3PlayMedia.
"HTML is the markup language used to render almost every page on the
web. HTML5 is the latest version, and it's replete with incredibly
useful features, including a universal video standard that lets
developers add video to a web page without using any third party
plugins, like Flash. The new standard also makes it much easier to
publish accessible video through closed captioning..."
http://www.3playmedia.com/how-it-works/how-to-guides/html5-video-captioning/

+07: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE.

Improving Your Information Architecture With Card Sorting: A Beginner's Guide
By Pierre Croft.
"In this article, we'll discuss card sorting, a tried and true
technique for doing just that. We'll go through some practical tips
for running a card-sorting session, and also cover some examples..."
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2014/10/20/improving-information-architecture-card-sorting-beginners-guide/

+08: JAVASCRIPT.

JavaScript Beyond the Web in 2014
By Patrick Catanzariti.
"JavaScript has evolved far beyond its role in the DHTML websites of
the 90s. It is fast becoming the leading contender for a common
language for the Internet of Things (IoT). While it's far too early to
say if JavaScript will truly take that crown, I believe JavaScript
does have a role to play in this ever expanding IoT space..."
http://www.sitepoint.com/javascript-beyond-web-2014/

+09: MISCELLANEOUS.

10 Things to Consider When Building a Responsive Site
By Paul Boag.
"This week on the Boagworld show we take a close look at responsive
design, and identify ten things you should consider when going
responsive..."
http://boagworld.com/season/10/episode/1014/

NAGW Slides - Responsive Web Design Primer
By Adrian Roselli.
"I just finished a webinar for the National Association of Government
Web Professionals where I provided an overview of responsive design. I
always struggle when I cannot see the audience, but as always my ego
carries me through to the end. The slides are embedded here for any
and all to see..."
http://blog.adrianroselli.com/2014/10/nagw-slides-responsive-web-design-primer.html

+10: NAVIGATION.

Improve Accessibility with Smarter Flagging
By Heydon Pickering.
"The convention for flagging up current pages is far from accessible.
Heydon Pickering discusses his search for a suitable alternative. "
http://www.creativebloq.com/web-design/improve-accessibility-smarter-flagging-101413228

Hyperlinks and Accessibility
By Rakesh Paladugula.
"...Keep the following points in mind to have an accessible hyperlink.
Proper link description...Proper link description...Keyboard focus
visibility...Identifying links from surrounding content..."
http://www.maxability.co.in/2014/10/hyperlinks-accessibility/

Writing Appropriate Link Text
By Rakesh Paladugula.
"...WCAG 2.0 SC 2.4.4 link purpose (in context) and SC 2.4.9 Link
purpose (only) (future link) mandates that an appropriate link
description should be provided for each link to understand the target,
purpose or the action associated with them..."
http://www.maxability.co.in/2014/10/writing-appropriate-link-text/

2.4.4 Link Purpose (In context)
By Rakesh Paladugula.
"...The purpose of each link should be provided by the link text or
its programmatically surrounded content. If the link text does not
provide the target or purpose of the link the surrounding content
should be able to do so..."
http://www.maxability.co.in/2014/10/2-4-4-link-purpose-context/

Apple on Hamburger Menus
By Manbolo Team Blog.
"...Apple could not be clearer: don't use hamburgers menus on iOS."
http://blog.manbolo.com/2014/06/30/apple-on-hamburger-menus

+11: USABILITY.

Busy People Need Help, Not Interruptions
By Gerry McGovern.
"..The future is about being useful. People know what they want when
they come to the Web. Don't disrupt, interrupt, distract or annoy
them. Help them succeed at completing the task they came to do."
http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/new-thinking/busy-people-need-help-not-interruptions

Form Usability - The Pitfalls of Inline Accordion and Tab Designs
By Jamie Appleseed.
"...In this article we'll dive into the observations from our test
sessions, highlight the issues and design affordances that both inline
accordion forms and tabbed form layouts produce, and touch upon some
design alternatives..."
http://baymard.com/blog/accordion-and-tab-design

How Bad UX Killed Jenny
By Jonathan Shariat.
"...When most of us design a User Interface, and fail at basic
usability, the worst that happens is that our product fails. Yet, when
the designers of this system, or even an airplane's cockpit, fail at
their design, there are real physical harms. With so much on the line,
you would think these industries would have hired the best designers
in the world to carefully craft the User Experience. But they
don't..."
https://medium.com/@designuxui/how-bad-ux-killed-jenny-ef915419879e

[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

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.]