[webdev] Web Design Update: November 13, 2014

Thu Nov 13 06:37:35 CST 2014

+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE.
- Volume 13, Issue 20, November 13, 2014.

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

++ISSUE 20 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: COLOR.
03: EVALUATION & TESTING.
04: HTML5.
05: JAVASCRIPT.
06: NAVIGATION.
07: TYPOGRAPHY.
08: USABILITY.

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

[Contents ends.]

++ SECTION ONE: New references.

+01: ACCESSIBILITY.

Design Like We Give a Damn! Accessibility @W3C
By Steve Faulkner.
"A highlight of TPAC, for me, was to be in the audience for the
lightning talks and hear my dear friend and colleague Leonie Watson,
in just 4 minutes, say so much about what we as participants in the
development of web standards at the W3C could do, to re-invigorate and
broaden our approach, to fulfill the promise of an accessible web..."
http://www.paciellogroup.com/blog/2014/11/design-like-we-give-a-damn-accessibility-w3c/

60 Seconds to Learn How to Make Your Website More Accessible?
By David Kennedy.
"You want to make your website more accessible, but you don't know
where to start. If you have 60 seconds, I can help."
http://davidakennedy.com/2014/10/31/web-accessibility-in-60-seconds/

Accessibility and Lawsuits
By Steve Grobschmidt.
"...Depending on the complexity of a web site, it certainly can be
expensive to retroactively make a site accessible. But it's also not
an excuse to cry foul about accessibility enforcement and blame on
'lawyers being lawyers'..."
http://www.theaccessibility.com/2014/11/accessibility-and-lawsuits/

Legal Action Against Coles Over Website Accessibility
By Chris Pycroft.
"Legal proceedings have begun against supermarket chain Coles over the
accessibility of its online shopping service, with users reporting
that they cannot buy groceries online..."
http://www.accessiq.org/news/news/2014/11/legal-action-against-coles-over-website-accessibility

Accessibility - Should We Complain About It, or Fix It?
By Olivier Nourry.
"...It's a continuing debate, one that turns around the notion of
users' responsibility in the current state of software accessibility.
I, for one, wouldn't mind feeling a little more pressure from users,
now and then. It would certainly ease my own evangelizing efforts..."
http://accessiblog.fr/2014/11/accessibility-complain-or-fix

Accessibility Tunnel Vision
By David A. Kennedy.
"Accessibility is a design constraint. Treat it like one. I don't mean
that in a negative way, but in the sense that a constraint forces us
to push boundaries and think ahead..."
http://davidakennedy.com/2014/11/06/accessibility-tunnel-vision/

Labeling Forms, Images and Links - Screen Reader Compatibility
By powermapper.
"Screen reader compatibility for a variety of form, image and link
labeling techniques, showing which techniques work in specific screen
reader / browser combinations."
http://www.powermapper.com/tests/screen-readers/labelling/

Accessibility Tests
By Russ Weakley.
"JAWS and NVDA tests..."
http://maxdesign.com.au/jobs/sample-accessibility/index.html

+02: COLOR.

The Myth of Accessible Colors
By Rakesh Paladugula.
"Colors play a vital role on providing a good visual appearance on web
pages. Good combination of colors provides enhanced user experience.
While designing accessible web pages designers assume that use of
certain colors harm people with disabilities. Is it true? Let us
understand..."
http://www.maxability.co.in/2014/11/myth-accessible-colors/

+03: EVALUATION & TESTING.

User Acceptance Testing Versus Usability Testing - What's the Dif?
By Joel Virothaisakun.
"If you develop software, you've probably heard of User Acceptance
Testing. You may also have heard the term Usability Testing. Same
thing, right? Nope. And confusion here can cause big problems..."
http://www.digitalgov.gov/2014/10/06/user-acceptance-testing-versus-usability-testing-whats-the-dif/

+04: HTML5.

Responsive Images Revisited - The srcset Attribute
By Steven Bradley.
"One of the main challenges with responsive design is how to handle
images. It's not that we don't know what we want to do. It's that the
ability to do it has been lacking. Fortunately the situation is
starting to change for the better..."
http://www.vanseodesign.com/web-design/responsive-images-srcset-attribute/

+05: JAVASCRIPT.

The Death of the JavaScript onMouseover
By Stefan Mischook.
"...The onMouseover event listener 'listens' for someone to hover
their mouse over the element (HTML tag) that it is bound to - like
what we did with the paragraph tag above and the onclick event.
It's a sweet effect and works on all the browsers, except it doesn't
work on mobile devices - that sucks! You have to remember that within
a few years, more than 50% of the Web's traffic will be mobile traffic
- people using smartphones and tablets.
Basically, that means you should probably not use onMouseover event listeners."
http://www.killersites.com/blog/2014/the-death-of-the-javascript-onmouseover/

+06: NAVIGATION.

Simple Dropdowns
By Heydon Pickering.
Simple solutions are good solutions. For this basic implementation of
navigational 'dropdown' submenus, the aria-haspopup alerts you to the
presence of a submenu. The addition of an aria-label with a value of
'submenu' just confirms it is a submenu you are entering as you focus
the first item. At all times the master about link remains functional
and will take you to the top of the about page. The submenu is an
enhancement, so aria-haspopup is only added when javascript runs.
http://heydonworks.com/practical_aria_examples/#submenus

+07: TYPOGRAPHY.

10 Considerations When Working With Web Typography
By Paul Boag.
"This week on the Boagworld Show we look at how web typography can
transform a site and what you need to do to get the most from it..."
http://boagworld.com/season/10/episode/1016/

+08: USABILITY.

Bad Design is Everywhere - Take Inspiration From It and Improve
By Tom Kenny.
"...As a web designer I scrutinize almost every site I visit, which
can be frustrating at times but I take inspiration from the bad and
make sure I'm not making the same mistakes. By taking inspiration from
poor design decisions, you'll be doing your part to make the web a
better experience."
http://inspectelement.com/articles/bad-design-is-everywhere-take-inspiration-from-it-and-improve/

Time With Users - Set Personal and Company Goals
By Jakob Nielsen.
"To develop user-experience insights and skills, define how many hours
you should spend observing actual user behavior each year. Junior
staff need more hours; senior people can get by with fewer annual
user-exposure hours."
http://www.nngroup.com/articles/user-exposure-goals/

Your Content is a Promise to Your Customers
By Gerry McGovern.
"The content an organization publishes online is increasingly
contributing to how customers regard that organization's brand..."
http://gerrymcgovern.com/new-thinking/your-content-promise-your-customers

Start With a Question, Not a Message
By Paul Boag.
"When it comes to writing the copy for your website, start with a
users question rather than the message you wish to communicate..."
http://boagworld.com/content-strategy/start-with-a-question-not-a-message/

[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.]