[net-gold] [webdev] Web Design Update: January 8, 2010
- From: "David P. Dillard" <jwne@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: Net-Gold <Net-Gold@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Temple University Net-Gold Archive <net-gold@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Temple Gold Discussion Group <TEMPLE-GOLD@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Net-Gold <net-gold@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Sean Grigsby <myarchives1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Educator Gold <Educator-Gold@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Educator Gold <Educator-Gold@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, K12AdminLIFE <K12AdminLIFE@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Net-Platinum <net-platinum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "Net-Gold @ Nabble" <ml-node+3172864-337556105@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, MediaMentor <mediamentor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Digital Divide Diversity MLS <mls-digitaldivide@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, net-gold@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 8 Jan 2010 17:43:47 -0500 (EST)
.
Date: Fri, 08 Jan 2010 06:25:53 -0600
From: Laura Carlson <lcarlson@xxxxxxxxx>
To: webdev <webdev@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [webdev] Web Design Update: January 8, 2010
+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE.
- Volume 8, Issue 28, January 8, 2010.
An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design and
development.
++ISSUE 28 CONTENTS.
SECTION ONE: New references.
What's new at the Web Design Reference site?
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/webdesign/
New links in these categories:
01: ACCESSIBILITY.
02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.
03: EVALUATION & TESTING.
04: EVENTS.
05: MISCELLANEOUS.
06: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.
07: USABILITY.
08: XML.
SECTION TWO:
09: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site?
[Contents ends.]
++ SECTION ONE: New references.
+01: ACCESSIBILITY.
True Tales of Accessibility Ignorance
By Steve Grobschmidt.
"I was just recalling a recent firsthand experience with web accessibility
ignorance, and thought I'd share, to kick off 2010..."
http://www.theaccessibility.com/2010/01/captcha/
Steps Towards Building an Accessible Site: Part 1
By Henny Swan.
"Web accessibility, in its purest form, is the practice of coding your web
sites and applications so that users with disabilities can access all the
content and functionality they provide. These users can break down into four
main disability groups..."
http://scrunchup.com/issue-4/building-accessible-sites-part-1/
Contacting Organizations about Inaccessible Websites (Draft)
By Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI).
"Steps to help you report websites with accessibility problems are described on
this page: 1. Identify key contacts 2. Describe the problem 3. Follow-up as
needed..."
http://www.w3.org/WAI/users/inaccessible
alt and title Content Display in Popular Browsers
By Steve Faulkner.
"...The results reveal a lack of standardized display behavior across browsers,
which makes it difficult for authors to provide a predictable experience to
users in cases where images are not available or users have disabled the
display of images to suit their requirements. It would be useful if the
recommended behavior was clearly specified in the HTML5 specification, the
current wording is not precise, which will result in a continuation of the
current diversity of implemented approaches."
http://www.paciellogroup.com/blog/?p=498
Accessibility Statement: What Is It and Who Uses It?
By Tom Babinszki.
"On an increasing number of web sites you can find the phrase 'accessibility
statement'. Sometimes it is very visible and hard to miss, in other cases we
can barely find it. Did you ever read any of these statements? If you ever did,
do you read it on all sites where you find them? In this article I will explain
what is the accessibility statement, and give you a couple of points to decide
if you need it on your web site..."
http://www.evengrounds.com/articles/accessibility-statement
Accessible Tables
By Tom Babinszki.
"...tables play a crucial role in helping users understand the contents of a
web page. Persons with disabilities are no exception to this fact. It is
therefore important for you to know how to make tables accessible for all types
of users..."
http://www.evengrounds.com/developers/accessible-tables
New Years Eve, Prince (The Artist), and Alternate Text
By Terrill Thompson.
"...What should we use for alternate text when an image is meaningful, but
unpronounceable?..."
http://tinyurl.com/ycmdypw
Web More Accessible to Those with Disabilities
By Alejandro Martinez-Cabrera.
"...The Internet has brought enormous benefits to people with disabilities,
allowing them to become more competitive when applying for jobs, lessen their
dependence on others, engage more actively in public debates and connect with
their peers in ways that were impossible before. But at the same time, as
society becomes more intertwined with digital media, the disabled struggle not
to be left behind..."
http://tinyurl.com/ycmdsdy
The Web More Accessible, Really?
By Kelly Ford.
Still it is a mistake to equate this with real web accessibility. I think half
the reason people with disabilities tolerate such a pathetic state of true
accessibility is because the alternative to doing things online is that much
more of a challenge.
http://blog.kellyford.org/archives/2010/01/the_web_more_ac.html
Internet Captions Mean Better Access for WA Deaf Community
By Chris Thomas.
"Most web sites that feature videos do not offer closed captioning, although a
bill in Congress would require it..."
http://tinyurl.com/yht8gle
Making Footnotes Accessible in PDFs (and other PDF Accessibility Fixes)
By Ted Page.
"This article explains how to make footnotes accessible in PDFs using a
technique that can also be applied to fix many other common PDF accessibility
problems..."
http://www.pws-ltd.com/sections/articles/2010/pdf_footnotes.html
17 Misconceptions about People with Hearing Loss
By Janice Schacter.
"Misconceptions about people who are deaf or hard of hearing are common place -
some antiquated stereotypes, others are just incorrect assumptions. It's easy
enough to get the wrong idea as hearing loss can be an invisible disability -
unlike the wheelchair that signals a mobility challenge. Whether it's a total
stranger trying to make small talk in sign language or a overly slowly
articulating coworker or relative, it's time we initiated the conversation that
will correct misconceptions and remove the stigma associated with deafness and
hearing loss. This list of the more common misconceptions there are many more -
can be a good starting point for that conversation..."
http://www.drf.org/magazine/38/Winter+2010+Issue/article/309
+02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.
The Importance of the !important CSS Declaration
By Brigitte Simard.
"...The !important declaration if used without much consideration can make CSS
files difficult to maintain but if used with forethought, it can save time and
effort."
http://tinyurl.com/ya3u98t
Join the CSS Quality Assurance Team
By Elika Etemad.
As you may (or may not) know, I'm an Invited Expert on the CSS Working Group at
W3C. Mostly I talk about specs. But today, I'm going to talk about testing..."
http://www.css3.info/css-quality-assurance/
+03: EVALUATION & TESTING.
Wake Up! Test Analysts, Do Usability Testing Correctly
By Gary Barber.
"I'm seeing an interesting trend here in Perth. Recently, job adverts and
recruiters looking for Test Analysts to do usability and accessibility testing
as part of their duties. Now this is a good thing in a way..."
http://tinyurl.com/yc62qkn
+04: EVENTS.
The Workshop Summits
January 14-15, 2010.
Online
http://workshopsummits.eventbrite.com/
Interaction10
February 4-7, 2010.
Savannah, Georgia, U.S.A.
http://interaction.ixda.org/
Techshare India 2010
February 15-16, 2010.
New Delhi, India
http://techshare.barrierbreak.com/techshare2010.php
International Conference on Digital Information Management (ICDIM)
July 5-8, 2010.
Thunder Bay, Canada
http://www.icdim.org/
Emerging Technologies for Online Learning Symposium
July 20-23, 2010.
San Jose, California, U.S.A.
http://www.sloanconsortium.org/ET4online
An Event Apart - Washington, DC
September 16-17, 2010.
Washington, DC, U.S.A.
http://aneventapart.com/2010/dc/
Assets 2010
October 25-27, 2010.
San Francisco, California U.S.A.
http://www.sigaccess.org/assets10/
+05: MISCELLANEOUS.
Interview with Jared Spool - CEO of User Interface Engineering
By Russell Wilson.
"Jared Spool is the CEO and founder of User Interface Engineering, a usability
research organization. He is a prolific speaker and noted expert in the field
of usability and user interface design..."
http://tinyurl.com/yfxr79v
+06: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.
Why Validate Your Pages?
By Tom Babinszki.
"...Here are a few good reasons why you should validate your pages..."
http://www.evengrounds.com/developers/why-validate-your-pages
The Decline of Standards/Evolution and Devolution
By Niels Matthijs.
I'm still not sure how much I should adopt from these new methods. I'm eager to
use new technologies. Ones that work faster, that are more logical and indicate
the way of the future. But I also think it might be better to wait until they
turn into a respectable standard before using them in any commercial project.
It's not an easy choice to make, certainly while others are jumping on the boat
already, gaining experience in what might be the techniques of tomorrow..."
http://www.onderhond.com/blog/work/the-decline-of-web-standards
An Open Invitation to the HTML5 Team
By Vlad Alexander.
"HTML5 was conceived and continues to be developed within a group of likeminded
people. There has not been any in-depth debate about the design principles of
HTML5, the direction in which HTML5 is heading, nor the process in which HTML5
is developed. As a result, HTML5 may not be meeting the needs of many
stakeholders in Web technology and may be insufficient to significantly evolve
the Web. I invite the HTML5 team to a series of debates, with myself and
others, on HTML5 and the future of Web technology..."
http://rebuildingtheweb.com/en/invitation-html5-team/
A Form of Madness
By Mark Pilgrim.
"HTML5 defines over a dozen new input types that you can use in your forms..."
http://diveintohtml5.org/forms.html
Recap: My Refresh Bellingham Presentation - The Ghosts of Web Standards Present
By Kyle Weems.
"The Ghosts of Web Standards Present: CSS3, HTML5 and Mobile"
http://tinyurl.com/yclf3rr
(re-)Introducing <video>
By Philip Jagenstedt.
"Today the desktop team released a new years pre-alpha of Opera 10.50 which
includes the first public preview of our new HTML5 <video> implementation. It
was Opera that first proposed <video> and made the first proof-of-concept build
way back in 2007. In this post I will talk about what we've done since then,
the decisions we've made and where we hope to go next..."
http://my.opera.com/core/blog/2009/12/31/re-introducing-video
HTML5 Tag Reference
By W3Schools.
"HTML 5 improves interoperability and reduces development costs by making
precise rules on how to handle all HTML elements, and how to recover from
errors. Some of the new features in HTML 5 are functions for embedding audio,
video, graphics, client-side data storage, and interactive documents. HTML 5
also contains new elements like <nav>, <header>, <footer>, and <figure>. The
HTML 5 working group includes AOL, Apple, Google, IBM, Microsoft, Mozilla,
Nokia, Opera, and many hundreds of other vendors. Note: HTML 5 is not a W3C
recommendation yet!..."
http://www.w3schools.com/html5/html5_reference.asp
Bob Dylan Meets HTML5
By Molly E. Holzschlag.
"Inspired by Shelley Powers who quipped 'HTML5, it is a changing' on Twitter, I
in turn said I was gonna write a Dylanesque song about HTML5. Of course,
between that time and the time I got to the next available WiFi point, Jeff
Allen wrote the song..."
http://www.molly.com/2010/01/05/bob-dylan-meets-html5/
Bruce Lawson's Rendition:
http://www.brucelawson.co.uk/2010/html5-it-is-a-changin/
+07: USABILITY.
Controls are Choices
By Dan Saffer.
"Every button, slider, switch, knob, or dial represents a choice. Two choices,
actually: the choice to have it, and the choice to use it...Like all choices
when designing devices, arbitrary choices about controls are an anathema to
good design. The best technology, the coolest features, can be ruined by poor
controls."
http://www.designingdevices.com/controls-are-choices/
The Complexity Paradox
By Bruce Tognazzini.
"... Simply put, one cannot reduce the complexity of a task. One can only shift
the burden. Harry draws the relative complexity among the user's, application
programmer's, and OS programmer's domain thusly..."
http://www.asktog.com/columns/011complexity.html
More Like This: A Design Pattern
By Greg Nudelman.
"...The idea behind the More Like This pattern is very simple: within each
group of items representing a particular category from a catalog or
accompanying each item in search results, provide a prominent link or button
with a label that is some variation of More Like This ». Of course, the devil,
as they say, is in the details..."
http://tinyurl.com/yjfn8ow
Specifying Behavior: With an Example Menu Behavior Specification
By Pabini Gabriel-Petit.
"...And why do so many applications provide a poor user experience as a result
of their not behaving properly? I can think of several possible reasons why
some applications don't behave as they should..."
http://tinyurl.com/yjmb3bn
+08: XML.
Is SVG Finally Coming to Internet Explorer?
By Craig Buckler.
"Could one of my top wishes for IE9 be coming true? According to the IEBlog,
Microsoft have joined the W3C SVG Working Group..."
http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2010/01/07/internet-explorer-svg/
[Section one ends.]
++ SECTION TWO:
+09: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site?
Accessibility Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/accessibility
Association Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/associations
Book Listings.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/books
Cascading Style Sheets Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/css
Color Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/color
Dreamweaver Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/dreamweaver
Evaluation & Testing Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/testing
Event Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/events
Flash Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/flash
Information Architecture Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/architecture
JavaScript Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/javascript
Miscellaneous Web Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/misc
Navigation Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/navigation
PHP Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/php
Sites & Blogs Listing.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/sites
Standards, Guidelines & Pattern Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/standards
Tool Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/tools
Typography Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/type
Usability Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/usability
XML Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/xml
[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/goto/webdevlist
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@xxxxxxxxx
[Issue ends.]
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