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Date: Thu, 7 Apr 2016 06:25:05 -0500
From: Laura Carlson <[log in to unmask]>
To: webdev <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: [webdev] Web Design Update: April 7




+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE.


- Volume 14, Issue 41, April 7, 2016.




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




++ISSUE 41 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: COLOR.

04: EVALUATION & TESTING.

05: EVENTS.

06: HTML5.

07: NAVIGATION.

08: TOOLS.

09: USABILITY.

10: XML.





SECTION TWO:



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




[Contents ends.]





++ SECTION ONE: New references.




+01: ACCESSIBILITY.




Using Keyboard-Only Navigation, for Web Accessibility

By Joseph C. Dolson.

"Blind and low-vision users, as well as those with mobility
disabilities, rely on their keyboards - not a mouse - to navigate
websites. Online forms are keyboard 'traps' when they don't allow a
user to tab through it without completing a field. That is not the
case with Newegg's checkout form, which properly allows users to tab
through it, and ultimately return to the browser bar, without
completing a field..."

http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/ 
98316-Using-Keyboard-only-Navigation-for-Web-Accessibility



The Myth of the Keyboard-Only User

By Joseph C. Dolson.

"...Situational or temporary accessibility problems are still
problems, and should be considered of equal importance to any
permanent problem."

https://www.joedolson.com/2016/03/myth-keyboard-user/



Should WCAG.NEXT Require All Functionality Operable With a
Mouse/Pointer (in Addition to Keyboard)

By David MacDonald.

"I inadvertantly created quite a dust up last week when I asked
whether our current personas for sighted keyboard only users are
overly coarse and simplistic..."

http://davidmacd.com/blog/ 
should-WCAG-require-all-functionality-by-mouse.html



1.2.2 Captions (Prerecorded)

By Rakesh Paladugula.

"Captions are provided for all prerecorded audio content in
synchronized media, except when the media is a media alternative for
text and is clearly labeled as such..."

http://www.maxability.co.in/2016/03/1-2-2-captions-prerecorded/



Testing With the NVDA Screen Reader

By Jonathan Whiting.

"This is a piece about how I configure and use NVDA..."

http://webaim.org/blog/testing-with-the-nvda-screen-reader/



LMS Accessibility - Is ATAG the Answer?

By Scott Hollier.

"The evolution of Learning Management Systems (LMS) has been a
fascinating one..."

http://www.accessiq.org/news/w3c-column/ 
2016/04/lms-accessibility-is-atag-the-answer



Be Wary of Accessibility Guarantees from Vendors

By Adrian Roselli.

"In my ~20 years of responding to RFPs/RFQs, once organizations
started to realize the value of accessibility (or fear of lawsuits), I
saw more and more requests include a note on accessibility. In most
cases this was just a single line item among many, often with nothing
more than a checkbox: 'Is your solution Section 508 compliant?'..."

http://adrianroselli.com/2016/03/ 
be-wary-of-accessibility-guarantees-from-vendors.html



15 Things to Know About Twitter's Alternative Text for Images

By Deborah Edwards-Onoro.

"...Like many other Twitter users, I'm thrilled to have the option to
add alternative text to images in Twitter. It makes my favorite social
media channel even better. A more accessible product means more people
can enjoy Twitter. That's a win-win for everyone! And I can't wait for
it to be released for the web version as well as other Twitter
third-party apps."

https://www.lireo.com/15-things-to-know-twitter-alternative-text-images/



What You Should Know About Accessibility + SEO, Part I: An Intro

By Laura Lippay.

"...It's a challenge many of us don't think about every day, but some
of what we do in SEO can affect the experience that people with visual
impairments have when visiting a page..."

https://moz.com/blog/accessibility-seo-1



Power Tool Retailer Hammers Law Firm Behind ADA Web Accessibility Suits

By Alexis Kramer.

"Over 50 complaints have been filed since the beginning of 2015
against well-known retailers for allegedly failing to make their
websites accessible to the blind..."

http://www.bna.com/power-tool-retailer-b57982069062/




+02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.




CSS Containment

By Michael Scharnagl.

"If you build simple sites without tons of DOM nodes and widgets you
probably don't have to care about CSS containment. On the other hand,
if you build more complex sites CSS containment will help to optimize
the performance. It is also a good idea to set contain: strict; for
third-party widgets to protect the performance of your site."

https://justmarkup.com/log/2016/04/css-containment/




+03: COLOR.




Color Safe: Build Accessible Color Palettes Based on WCAG Guidelines

By Sarah Gooding.

"...Color Safe is a handy web app that helps designers select color
combinations that will meet WCAG 2.0 guidelines for those with
different visual capabilities..."

http://wptavern.com/ 
color-safe-build-accessible-color-palettes-based-on-wcag-guidelines



Why Your Gray Text Should Never Exceed 46% Brightness

By UX Movement.

"The color gray comes in many different shades. You can find them on
different elements across most sites. Dark gray is often used for
headings and body text. Light gray is often used for metadata, labels,
and descriptions. But the shade that’s abused the most is light gray."

http://uxmovement.com/content/ 
why-your-gray-text-should-never-exceed-46-brightness/




+04: EVALUATION & TESTING.




6 Reasons Not to Test with Users (and Why to Test Anyway)

By Jess Hutton.

"...In this article, we'll respond to all of these objections, and
give UX practitioners the ammunition they need to convince any
doubters that usability testing is, in fact, right for every
project..."

http://www.uxbooth.com/articles/ 
6-reasons-not-to-test-with-users-and-why-to-test-anyway/



5 Reasons Why Your First User Research Activity
Should be a Usability Test

By David Travis.

"A usability test is the wrong research method when you want to
discover if there's a real user need for your product; when you want
to understand the environment where your system is used; and when you
want to find out how people use your product in their daily lives. So
why do I almost always recommend a usability test as a team's first
user research activity?"

http://www.userfocus.co.uk/articles/ 
your-first-user-research-activity.html




+05: EVENTS.




Accessibility Training
June 14-15, 2016.
Logan, Utah, U.S.A.
http://webaim.org/training/




+06: HTML5.



Custom Element Semantics

By Steve Faulkner.

"The following content written by me, was until recently a part of the
W3C Custom Elements specification, but was removed/substantially
re-written when a new editor took over. As we think, in the form
represented here, it's a useful introduction to custom element
semantics, we have re-published it..."

https://www.paciellogroup.com/blog/2016/04/custom-element-semantics/




+07: NAVIGATION.




The Hamburger Menu and the Zombie Apocalypse

By Gerry McGovern.

"Print is dead but its zombies have come back to ruin our lives with
hamburger menus: grey, meaningless text and huge, meaningless images.
Opening soon in a theatre of the absurd near you: 'Revenge of the
Brochureware Designers' and 'Nightmare on PDF Street: The Sequel.'"

http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/new-thinking/ 
hamburger-menu-and-zombie-apocalypse




+08: TOOLS.




Introducing Outline Audit

By Hugo Giraudel.

"We recently had some minor issues in a project where the final
document outline on some pages was somewhat broken. I investigated a
little, and ended up building a tiny tool to audit the document
outline. More on that in a bit, but first..."

http://dev.edenspiekermann.com/2016/03/29/introducing-outline-audit/




+09: USABILITY.



Consider Offboarding - Letting Users Leave In Peace


By Andres Cwervo.

"Let's start with a story: a tragic experience made a little worse by
careless design..."

https://medium.com/@acuervo/ 
consider-offboarding-letting-users-leave-in-peace-cdd02501d35f




+10: XML.



A Working SVG Workflow for Accessible Icons

By Hugo Giraudel. (Hat tip to Jennifer Sutton)

"It has been commonly admitted that using fonts for icons is a bad
practice. It’s bad for rendering (sizing, positioning, etc.), it has
weird failures (proxy browsers, CORS, etc.), it conveys poor
semantics, can hurt accessibility, and the list goes on..."

http://www.sitepoint.com/a-working-svg-workflow-for-accessible-icons/




[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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