[webdev] Web Design Update: April 30, 2015

Thu Apr 30 06:32:08 CDT 2015

+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE.
- Volume 13, Issue 45, April 30, 2015.

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

++ISSUE 45 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: EVALUATION & TESTING.
03: EVENTS.
04: HTML5.
05: JAVASCRIPT.
06: USABILITY.
07: XML.

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

[Contents ends.]

++ SECTION ONE: New references.

+01: ACCESSIBILITY.

It's Alive! Apps that Feed Back Accessibly
By Heydon Pickering.
"It's one thing to create a web application and quite another to
create an accessible web application. That's why Heydon Pickering,
both author and editor at Smashing Magazine, wrote an eBook Apps For
All: Coding Accessible Web Applications, outlining the roadmap for the
accessible applications we should all be making..."
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2015/04/27/its-alive-apps-that-feed-back-accessibly/

3.2.4: Consistent Identification
By Rakesh Paladugula.
"In any website, same functionality repeats in several pages. For
example a search functionality if available on one webpage it appears
on several other pages of the website. A web page can have multiple
links that navigates to same destination. If such functionalities
exist on the website, they should be identified with same name, role
and value. This allows the screen reader and users with cognitive
difficulties to find the component quickly and more efficiently..."
http://www.maxability.co.in/2015/04/3-2-4-consistent-identification/

ARIA-level (Property)
By Rakesh Paladugula.
"The aria-level (property) defines the hierarchical structure of an
element within a document. Similar to all other ARIA roles, states and
properties aria-level (property) is used only when the native
semantics cannot provide the structural level of an element, or when
the user agent including assistive technologies cannot identify the
level of any element. Aria-level is used for defining a heading
structure, level of a list item within a list, nested tablist,
treeitems within a tree structure, nested grids etc..."
http://www.maxability.co.in/2015/04/aria-level-property/

Time to Revisit accesskey?
By Leonie Watson.
"What we need is a way for websites to provide keyboard shortcuts that
are exposed in the browser's accessibility tree - so that the
information can be queried by any assistive technology using the
accessibility API. Perhaps it's time to revisit accesskey, fix the
broken bits and extend it to become a useful thing?..."
http://tink.uk/time-to-revisit-accesskey/

WCAG Cheat Sheets
By Dennis Lembree.
Dennis' list of cheat sheets.
http://www.webaxe.org/wcag-cheat-sheets/

Testing for Presence in an Invisible Interface
By Brandon McCartney.
"As important as testing is to site usability, we too often forget to
test for accessibility. This week, author Brandon McCartney suggests a
new form of testing to ensure sites are universally usable."
http://www.uxbooth.com/articles/testing-for-presence-in-an-invisible-interface/

Accessibility Testing in Android Studio
By Ted Drake.
"Android Studio, as well as IntelliJ Idea and Eclipse, provide a
simple solution for testing your application for accessibility errors.
This short video shows how to use the testing tool to find errors and
fix an input that lacks a label..."
http://www.last-child.com/accessibility-testing-in-android-studio/

Future of Web Design - Creating Accessible Interfaces Everyone Wants to Use
By Leonie Watson.
Leonie's slides from the Future of Web Design conference.
http://tink.uk/future-of-web-design-creating-accessible-interfaces-everyone-wants-to-use/

Make Your Presentations Accessible - Seven Easy Steps
By Whitney Quesenbery.
"You've spent hours carefully crafting your presentation and decided
there's enough good content to share. Why not then go the extra mile
to make your presentation accessible for all who might want to view,
quote, comment, or read it?..."
http://uxpamagazine.org/make-your-presentations-accessible/

Scribd Faces Setback in Lawsuit Over Accessibility
By Nate Hoffelder.
"District Court Judge William Sessions ruled on Thursday that the ADA
lawsuit filed against Scribd will be moving forward..."
http://the-digital-reader.com/2015/03/20/scribd-faces-setback-in-lawsuit-over-accessibility/

+02: EVALUATION & TESTING.

User Testing Explained
By Jerry Cao.
"Usability testing is a technique used to help discover problems or
bottle-necks in your design. But there are different types of user
testing that suit different types of goals. Scripted or un-scripted?
Here we'll explain the differences between the two and how you can
make the most of them..."
http://thenextweb.com/creativity/2015/04/27/user-testing-explained/

How Many Test Users? 3... 5...10? Try 46!
By Peter W. Szabo.
"Yes, this is yet another blog post on number of test participants,
but this time it is based on very large samples and statistical
wizardry..."
http://kaizen-ux.com/number-of-tests/

Practical Advice for Testing Content on Websites
By Hoa Loranger.
"What happens when people reach the web page that contains the
information they seek? Don't let the user experience fall apart on the
content page. Use modified user-testing techniques to evaluate whether
your content meets users' needs and expectations."
http://www.nngroup.com/articles/testing-content-websites/

The Fox Guarding the Usability Lab (PDF)
By Bill Albert.
"The idiom of 'don't let the fox guard the hen house' warns  us about
the potential danger of giving someone responsibility for overseeing
something that
he or she shouldn't be involved with, particularly when there is an
inherent interest in the outcome."
http://www.uxpajournal.org/wp-content/uploads/pdf/JUS_Albert_May2015.pdf

3 Ways to Combine Quantitative and Qualitative Research
By Jeff Sauro.
"If you're setting up a customer-research project and wondering
whether to take a quantitative or a qualitative approach, consider a
third option: use both, and take advantage of the opportunities
afforded by mixing the two methods..."
http://www.measuringu.com/blog/mixing-methods.php

+03: EVENTS.

Digital and Technology Access: The Role of Law I the Limits of Law
(Lainey Feingold)
May 21, 2015.
Audio Conference
http://www.ada-audio.org/Webinar/AccessibleTechnology/Schedule/

+04: HTML5.

HTML5 Video Captions - Current Browser Status
By Ian Devlin.
"The topic of HTML5 videos and captions is something that I have
written extensively about in the past, specifically talking about
creating your own UI via JavaScript to access multiple tracks since
browser support is generally quite poor at the moment. I have decided
to document here what the current browser support is actually like, at
the time of writing..."
http://www.iandevlin.com/blog/2015/04/html5/html5-video-captions-current-browser-status

HTML 5 Forms
By Mark DuBois.
"It is April, 2015 as I write this post. HTML5 is supported by the
majority of modern browsers..."
http://webprofessionals.org/html-5-forms/

Extending
By Jeremy Keith.
"Contrary to popular belief, web standards aren't created by a shadowy
cabal and then handed down to browser makers to implement..."
https://adactio.com/journal/8814

+05: JAVASCRIPT.

Everyone has JavaScript, Right?
By Stuart Langridge.
"Your user requests your web app..."
http://kryogenix.org/code/browser/everyonehasjs.html

+06: USABILITY.

The Millennial Generation is Defining the Web Experience
By Gerry McGovern.
"We must design our websites for speed, for simplicity, because the
Millennials are just the spear point of a world that has got a taste
for doing things for themselves, for doing things quickly and easily.
We are seeing a historical rebalancing of the relationship between the
individual or community and the systems and organizations that are
used to govern and control them."
http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/new-thinking/millennial-generation-defining-web-experience

Obvious Always Wins
By Luke Wroblewski.
"It's tempting to rely on menu controls in order to simplify mobile
interface designs -especially on small screens. But hiding critical
parts of an application behind these kinds of menus could negatively
impact usage."
http://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?1945

10 Tips for a Better Login Page and Process
By Neil Turner.
"...Ensure that your login page doesn't present an unnecessary
obstacle to your users by following these 10 top tips for designing a
better login page and process..."
http://www.uxforthemasses.com/login-page/

Password Creation - 3 Ways To Make It Easier
By Katie Sherwin.
"By making password requirements visible upfront, allowing users to
unmask the password, and showing a strength meter, designers can
improve the frustrating user experience of creating a password."
http://www.nngroup.com/articles/password-creation/

There Is No Fold
By Luke Wroblewski.
"On the Web, people use the concept of 'above the fold' to support
layout decisions, call to action designs, ad placements, and more.
Here's why most of these arguments don't fly..."
http://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?1946

+07: XML.

How To Define SVG Content for Reuse - The defs, symbol, and use Elements
By Steven Bradley.
"An ability to define code in one location and reuse it in another
helps you make your code more modular, maintainable, and readable. SVG
provides that ability through elements that define the code and
elements that reference it for reuse..."
http://www.vanseodesign.com/web-design/svg-definition-reuse/

[Section one ends.]

++ SECTION TWO:

+08: 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.]