[webdev] Web Design Update: May 14, 2015

Thu May 14 06:13:31 CDT 2015

+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE.
- Volume 13, Issue 47, May 14, 2015.

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

++ISSUE 47 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: HTML5.
05: MISCELLANEOUS.
06: NAVIGATION.
07: TYPOGRAPHY.
08: USABILITY.
09: XML.

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

[Contents ends.]

++ SECTION ONE: New references.

+01: ACCESSIBILITY.

Design for Web Accessibility From the Beginning
By Abbey Fitzgerald.
"As we know, content is king. And we want everyone to be able to
access our website content. What happens if a user is not able to
access content in the 'traditional' way?..."
https://getflywheel.com/layout/design-web-accessibility-beginning/

Web Accessibility Screencast
By Dan-Mouyard Dan Mouyard.
"I recently created a short screencast about Web Accessibility. This
is a topic that I'm passionate about and I am always happy to share
what I have learned over the years..."
http://forumone.com/insights/web-accessibility-screencast/

Accessibility is...?
By Melanie Jones.
"Our first poll was a simple fill-in-the-blank: 'Accessibility is _'
What does accessibility mean to you? How do you define it for
yourself?..."
http://simplyaccessible.com/article/accessibility-is/

Web Accessibility - Why it's Great for your Bottom Line.
By Carrie Dils.
"The goal for this discussion is to take away the intimidation factor
of such a big topic and show you practical steps for participating in
the web accessibility initiative..."
http://www.carriedils.com/web-accessibility-initiative/

MathML Accessibility
By Frederic Wang.
"In a previous blog post about MathML in Wikipedia, I mentioned that,
despite ongoing efforts there was still no accessibility support for
MathML in Gecko. The situation changed two months ago..."
http://www.maths-informatique-jeux.com/blog/frederic/?post/2015/05/06/MathML-Accessibility

Short Note on aria-labelledby and aria-describedby
By Steve Faulkner.
"The ARIA attributes aria-labelledby and aria-describedby can be used
to provide an accessible name or accessible description for a subset
of HTML elements. It is important to note that by design, hiding the
content (using CSS display:none or visibility:hidden or the HTML
hidden attribute) of the element(s) referenced by these attributes
does not stop the content from being used to provide the
name/description..."
http://www.paciellogroup.com/blog/2015/05/short-note-on-aria-labelledby-and-aria-describedby/

Justice Department Moves to Intervene in Disability Discrimination
Lawsuit Alleging that Miami University Uses Inaccessible Educational
Technologies and Course Materials
By U.S. Department of Justice.
"The Justice Department announced today that it has moved to intervene
in Aleeha Dudley v. Miami University, et al., 14-cv-038 (S.D. Ohio), a
private lawsuit alleging disability discrimination by Miami University
in Oxford, Ohio..."
http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-moves-intervene-disability-discrimination-lawsuit-alleging-miami

Understanding the Proposed Section 508 Refresh - Overview
By Jonathan Avila.
"Section 508 is the portion of the Rehabilitation Act that covers the
accessibility of information and communication technology used,
developed, maintained, or procured by the United States Federal
Government..."
http://www.ssbbartgroup.com/blog/understanding-proposed-section-508-refresh-overview/

+02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.

Cyclomatic Complexity - Logic in CSS
By Harry Roberts.
"...I recently hit upon a way of thinking that made me realise that
CSS does include logic, and the fact that it's rarely viewed as such
is probably also why we end up with such poor CSS at all. I found
myself explaining compound selectors to a client as being made up of
the subject--the thing we're actually interested in--and its
conditions..."
http://csswizardry.com/2015/04/cyclomatic-complexity-logic-in-css/

The At-Rules of CSS
By Geoff Graham.
"The at-rule is a statement that provides CSS with instructions to
perform or how to behave..."
https://css-tricks.com/the-at-rules-of-css/

+03: EVALUATION & TESTING.

The Top 7 Questions about Measuring the User Experience
By Jeff Sauro.
"...Here are the seven I get the asked the most and some guidance on
how to answer them..."
http://www.measuringu.com/blog/mux-questions.php

+04: HTML5.

Placeholder Text - Clever, or Too Clever?
By Sarah E Bourne.
"HTML5 allows you to have "placeholder" text - text in a form field to
give hints about what you should put there.  There are a number of
ways to use it incorrectly and poorly..."
http://sarahebourne.posthaven.com/placeholder-text-clever-or-too-clever

15 HTML Questions for Testing Your Knowledge
By Alexander Dawson.
"Think you know HTML? Most developers probably feel they have a good
handle on modern Web standards. It's with this in mind that I offer
you a challenge..."
http://sixrevisions.com/html/html-questions/

+05: MISCELLANEOUS.

Always Choose Prototypes over Mockups
By Neal O'Grady.
"...Working prototypes offer huge benefits over mockups, and can
significantly improve the designer workflow. With designs that work
from day one, you can reduce back-and-forth and recapture what it is
you love about design..."
http://blog.webflow.com/always-choose-prototypes-over-mockups

+06: NAVIGATION.

Don't 'Click Here' - 5 Ways Bad Link Text Screws Up Your Website
By Max Johns.
"Using 'click here', or similar words, as link text is a bad habit for
a lot of reasons. But if you want to annoy people, here are five great
things this lazy link text can do for you:.."
http://contentistheweb.com/click-here-wrong/

+07: TYPOGRAPHY.

How to Pick the Nicest Font
By David Khourshid.
There are over 1,000 fonts on Typekit, and another 682 on Google
Fonts.  Somehow, you have to pick the best for your site-and ensure
that they pair well. Where do you even start?
http://blog.webflow.com/how-to-pick-the-nicest-font-for-your-site

+08: USABILITY.

Don't Prioritize Efficiency Over Expectations
By Aurora Bedford.
"Features meant to increase user efficiency by reducing steps can end
up hurting users if they do not conform to existing mental models and
expectations based on past experiences..."
http://www.nngroup.com/articles/efficiency-vs-expectations/

Design is Only 5% of UX
By Sarah Hawk.
"Yup, you heard me. Only 5%. At least, that's what Ashlea McKay would
have us believe - but then she IS an Australian, so perhaps we
shouldn't put too much stock in her opinion. And just like that, I've
summarised The Great UX Debate #3..."
http://uxmastery.com/design-is-only-5-of-ux/

Cognitive Demand, Not Always By Design
By Nicholas Bowman.
"...An optimal system - at least from a human factors standpoint - is
not necessarily one that delivers the most information, but rather one
that delivers the most useful information in the most useful format.
And as it happens, the most useful system isn't the most comprehensive
one, but the most rational for the given environment"
http://www.uxbooth.com/articles/cognitive-demand-not-always-by-design/

+09: XML.

How To Work With SVG Patterns
By Steven Bradley.
"Patterns are useful design elements. They can provide contrast,
create a sense of depth, and add interest to a composition. SVG makes
it easy to create and use patterns that are limited only by your
imagination..."
http://www.vanseodesign.com/web-design/svg-pattern-element/

Making SVG Accessible
By Dudley Storey.
"...making SVG accessible takes a little work, but it's a
straightforward process if you remember five rules..."
http://demosthenes.info/blog/1026/Making-SVG-Accessible

[Section one ends.]

++ SECTION TWO:

+10: 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.

+ SUBSCRIPTION INFO.

WEB DESIGN UPDATE is available by subscription. For information on how
to subscribe and unsubscribe please visit:
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/webdev_listserv.html
The Web Design Reference Site also has a RSS 2.0 feed for site updates.

+ TEXT EMAIL NEWSLETTER (TEN).

As a navigation aid for screen readers we do our best to conform to
the accessible Text Email Newsletter (TEN) guidelines.  Please let me
know if there is anything else we can do to make navigation easier.
For TEN guideline information please visit:
http://www.headstar.com/ten

+ 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.]