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Date: Thu, 10 Mar 2016 06:21:07 -0600
From: Laura Carlson <[log in to unmask]>
To: webdev <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: [webdev] Web Design Update: March 10, 2016




+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE.


- Volume 14, Issue 37, March 10, 2016.



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



++ISSUE 37 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: EVENTS.

05: HTML5.

06: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE.

07: JAVASCRIPT.

08: TOOLS.

10: USABILITY.




SECTION TWO:



11: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site?



[Contents ends.]




++ SECTION ONE: New references.



+01: ACCESSIBILITY.



aria-selected (state)

By Rakesh Paladugula.

"Aria-selected state is used to notify when one or more items in a
widget have selectable functionality. Eg: various tabs in a tab panel
have selectable mechanism. In general the selected state is notified
to the user with a change in color. The change in color notification
will not be recognized by screen reading technologies..."

http://www.maxability.co.in/2016/03/aria-selected-state/



ARIA - Roles, States and Properties (Video)

By Joe Dolson.

"ARIA is way to communicate the semantics of rich internet
applications to users of assistive technology..."

http://wordpress.tv/2016/01/22/joe-dolson-aria-roles-states-and-properties/



Surfing the Web Should be Easier for the Blind

By The Philadelphia Inquirer.

"It's too easy to ignore the needs of the disabled. Just ask blind Web
surfers who for years have been waiting patiently for new federal
rules that would make it easier for them to navigate the Internet..."

http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/20160307_Inquirer_Editorial__
Surfing_the_web_should_be_easier_for_the_blind.html



Is Microsoft Changing the Game for Accessible Browsers?

By Robin Christopherson.

"A raft of new internet accessibility work by Microsoft will make the
web user-experience for people with disabilities far smoother and more
sophisticated..."

https://www.abilitynet.org.uk/blog/ 
microsoft-changing-game-accessible-browsers




+02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.




User Generated Content in a Classy World

By Jonathan Snook.

"...The way I visualize content is like it is part of a module..."

http://snook.ca/archives/html_and_css/ugc-in-a-classy-world



Quick Tip: Fixing the font-weight Problem on Hover States

By George Martsoukos.

"Have you ever tried to change the value of the font-weight property
on link states? If yes, you may have noticed that the text shifts. In
this quick tip, we'll first learn what causes this undesired behavior
and then we'll examine two possible solutions."

http://www.sitepoint.com/quick-tip- 
fixing-font-weight-problem-hover-states/



REM vs EM - The Great Debate

By Zell Liew.

"...In this article, you're going to find my take on rem vs
em. You're also going to learn exactly what rem and em are, and how to
use them to build modular components...."

http://zellwk.com/blog/rem-vs-em/




+03: EVALUATION & TESTING.




Getting Users to a Specific Feature in a Usability Test

By Jakob Nielsen.

"User testing works best if you don't direct participants too much,
but sometimes you need users to go straight to a target page. How to
get them there?"

https://www.nngroup.com/articles/feature-user-test/



The Interview Survey - Getting the Accuracy of Interviewing Thousands of Users

By Dimitri Khanine.

"...By conducting a (Biggest Issue Bucket) BIB Survey, you can get as
close to a good interview as possible, while reaching thousands of
users..."

http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2016/03/the-interview-survey-
getting-the-accuracy-of-interviewing-thousands-of-users.php



10 Essentials of Measuring Usability

By Jeff Sauro.

"Observing just a few users interact with a product or website can
tell you a wealth of information about what's working and not
working..."

http://www.measuringu.com/blog/measuring-essentials.php



Excuses, Excuses! Why Companies Don't Conduct User Research

By Jim Ross.

"...While the term user experience has received a lot of attention
over the last few years, many people still don't know user research is
the key activity that informs UX design..."

http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2016/03/ 
excuses-excuses-why-companies-dont-conduct-user-research.php



Keeping Yourself out of the Story - Controlling Experimenter Effects

By Philip Hodgson.

"We take a look at some subtle yet pervasive experimenter effects, at
ways they can bias the outcome of a design experiment, and at what we
can do to control their influence."

http://userfocus.co.uk/articles/fixing-experimenter-bias.html



The Secret Cost of Research

By Erika Hall.

"...Allowing a designer to do research means opening assumptions up to
scrutiny. It means admitting you don't have all the answers. To
someone in charge, the true cost of research is the risk of losing
control...Research is necessary for a successful design project
because it gives you a shared basis for decision-making, grounded in
evidence rather than in sheer authority or tenacity. And this saves
time and money..."

https://deardesignstudent.com/the-secret-cost-of-research-fbe95739afdd



The Case for Direct Questions in your UX Research

By Bradley Miller.

"...The most crucial aspect of obtaining valid user research is not to
lead the user..."

https://www.usertesting.com/blog/2016/03/03/direct-questions/




+04: EVENTS.




Accessibility Basics Webinar Series
Every other Thursday beginning March 17, 2016.
http://info.ssbbartgroup.com/Accessibility-Basics-Series.html


Responsive Web Design Summit
March 29-31, 2016.
Online.
http://environmentsforhumans.com/2016/responsive-web-design-summit/



Twin Cities Drupal Camp
June 23-26, 2016.
Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.A.
http://2016.tcdrupal.org/



Generate San Francisco 2016
July 15, 2016.
San Francisco, California, U.S.A.
http://www.generateconf.com/san-francisco-2016/



UX Australia
August 23-26, 2016.
Melbourne, Australia
http://www.uxaustralia.com.au/conferences/uxaustralia-2016/



The Mobility and Modern Web Conference
September 14-16, 2016.
Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.
http://mmwcon.org/




+05: HTML5.




HTML: What's Next?

By Charles McCathie Nevile.

"Since the end of last year the Web Platform Working Group has
responsibility for W3C's HTML spec, as well as many other core
specifications. What have we been doing with HTML, and what is the
plan?..."

https://www.w3.org/blog/2016/03/html-whats-next/



Major Browsers Summary - Chrome and Firefox Rock!

By Steve Faulkner.

HTML5 Accessibility Support Scores have been updated to include Edge 13.

http://html5accessibility.com/




+06: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE.




Quality Wireframes Inspiration

By Muzli.

"A well produced, quality wireframe is a critical phase in the
creative process and could make all the difference while working with
different stakeholders..."

https://medium.com/muzli-design-inspiration/quality-wireframes-inspiration-a91f5d78be37




+07: JAVASCRIPT.



A Year Without jQuery

By Patrick Kunka.

"Dropping the trusted workhorse from our front-end back in 2014 has
led to a faster, leaner platform..."

http://blog.wearecolony.com/a-year-without-jquery/



Maybe We Could Tone Down the JavaScript

By Lexy Munroe.

"...Accept that sometimes, or for some people, your JavaScript will
not work. Put some thought into what that means. Err on the side of
basing your work on existing HTML mechanisms whenever you can. Maybe
one day a year, get your whole dev team to disable JavaScript and try
using your site. Commence weeping..."

https://eev.ee/blog/2016/03/06/maybe-we-could-tone-down-the-javascript/




+08: TOOLS.




A11y Color Palette

By Matt Long.

"This tool should help you visualize an entire palette of colors with
accessibility in mind. An indicator will be placed next to each
foreground color to show if its contrast with the background color is
WCAG 2.0 AA and/or AAA compliant for normal and large text. No
indicator next to a foreground color means its contrast ratio with the
background color is not at all compliant..."

http://a11yrocks.com/colorPalette/




+09: USABILITY.




Golden Rules of User Interface Design

By Nick Babich.

"Based upon Ben Shneiderman's 'Designing the User Interface' and Jakob
Nielsen's 'Ten Usability Heuristics', 10 general principles for
interaction design. They are called 'heuristics' because they are
broad rules of thumb and not specific usability guidelines..."

https://medium.com/ux-planet/ 
golden-rules-of-user-interface-design-19282aeb06b





[Section one ends.]





++ SECTION TWO:



+11: 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:[log in to unmask]





[Issue ends.]




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