[webdev] Web Design Update: July 10, 2008

[David P. Dillard]

Date: Thu, 10 Jul 2008 06:28:19 -0500
From: Laura Carlson <lcar...@d.umn.edu>
To: web...@lists.d.umn.edu
Subject: [webdev] Web Design Update: July 10, 2008

+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE.
- Volume 7, Issue 02, July 10, 2008.

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

++ISSUE 02 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: COLOR.
04: EVALUATION & TESTING.
05: EVENTS.
06: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.
07: TOOLS.
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.

Review of the WebVisum Firefox Extension
By Marco Zehe.
"Today, a post announcing the WebVisum Firefox extension was posted to the
mozilla.dev.accessibility newsgroup. The things talked about in this post and
on the WebVisum homepage almost sound too good to be true..."
http://tinyurl.com/5l62yv

+02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.

Browser Bugs
By westciv.
"Browser bugs driving you mad? Then, hopefully, we have the cure. At this
browser guide, you can find (and contribute) detailed information about browser
bugs in CSS, HTML and the DOM from Internet Explorer, Netscape 4 and up!..."
http://westciv.com/browsers/index.php/Main_Page

Level 3 Features in the Wild
By James Hopkins.
"The beauty about working on a site that is specifically targeted for one the
most popular mobile devices around (aka the iPhone) is that the vendor with the
least CSS support (*cough* IE *cough*) doesn't exist on it (purely because of
its inadequate CSS support in this case)..."
http://www.css3.info/level-3-features-in-the-wild/

All About Floats
By Chris Coyier.
"Float is a CSS positioning property. If you are familiar with print design,
you can think of it like an image in a layout where the text wraps around it as
necessary..."
http://css-tricks.com/all-about-floats/

Multiple CSS Classes
By Ben Counsel.
" Applying multiple CSS classes allows you to create reusable classes that can
easily be mixed together on any HTML element without adding additional markup,
thus saving you time and making your CSS more efficient and easier for your
work colleagues to understand. It's a method I've been using for a while, but
one I wish I'd adopted long ago..."
http://tinyurl.com/5ow3zg

+03: COLOR.

Colour Theory
By Linda Goin.
"In this article, I'll cover colour basics and three simple colour schemes so
that you can feel confident about choosing colours for your site. I'll follow
up this article with another piece on how to simplify these colour choices.
After all, it's more fun to enjoy the compliments on your Web site design than
it is to sweat over the colour choices."
http://dev.opera.com/articles/view/8-colour-theory/

Colour Schemes and Design Mockups
By Linda Goin.
"After a web designer presents a site's architecture, or wireframe, to a client
for approval, the next step is to determine the look and feel of the site
through colour and graphics. In this article, I'll demonstrate how I keep this
process as simple as possible..."
http://dev.opera.com/articles/view/10-colour-schemes-and-design-mockups/

+04: EVALUATION & TESTING.

Avoiding Demographics When Recruiting Participants
By Jared Spool.
"User research is now a critical tool in the toolbox of design teams. However,
it only works well if you involve the right participants in the study. Having
the participants that match the design's audience will give the team feedback
on what works well and where the design needs rethinking. By learning from the
participants, the team can make informed design decisions on all aspects of the
user's experience..."
http://tinyurl.com/4axa37

+05: EVENTS.

Type Camp Galiano
August 3-8, 2008.
Galiano Island, Canada
http://www.typecamp.org/galiano.html

10th Annual Conference On World Wide Web Applications
September 3-5, 2008.
Cape Town, South Africa.
http://active.cput.ac.za/ZAW3/public/index.asp?pageid=546

+06: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.

Circumventing Hegemony in the HTML WG
By Steve Faulkner.
"Raising Issues: In order to raise an issue or proposal in regards to the HTML5
specification you do not have to be a member of the W3C HTML Working Group
(HTML WG). Anyone can simply enter a bug into the HTML Bugzilla. If the
proposal or issue is rejected by those that control the specification and the
issue is related to accessibility, you can refer the issue to the W3C Protocols
and Formats Working Group (PF WG). Probably the best method is to subscribe to
and send an email to the WAI-XTECH mailing list..."
http://www.paciellogroup.com/blog/?p=80

Microsoft Credible as Blushing Debutante at the Standards Ball?
By Rick Jelliffe.
"Effective participation in standards bodies involves quite specific commitment
and development of expertise, it is not a generic capability that can be
instantly redeployed, Rumsfield-style, to trouble spots..."
http://tinyurl.com/5pp6od

Introduction to The Web Standards Curriculum
By Chris Mills.
"...a course designed to give anyone a solid grounding in web
design/development, no matter who they are-it is completely free to use,
accessible, and assumes no previous knowledge..."
http://tinyurl.com/68t9pl

Yes, You Can Use HTML 5
Jens Meiert.
"For those who weren't aware of that so far, you can already use HTML 5: Just
use <!DOCTYPE html> as your HTML documents' document type..."
http://meiert.com/en/blog/20080708/you-can-use-html-5/

+07: TOOLS.

The Pencil Project
By Duong Thanh.
Firefox 3 wireframing tool extension.
http://www.evolus.vn/Pencil/

+08: USABILITY.

Web Form Design Patterns: Sign-Up Forms
By Vitaly Friedman and Sven Lennartz.
"Below we present findings of our survey of current web form design patterns -
the results of an analysis of 100 popular web-sites where web-forms (should)
matter. We have decided to start with sign-up forms first. We present the first
part of our findings below; the second part of the survey results will be
published next week..."
http://tinyurl.com/59je2h

+09: XML.

HTML or XHTML: Does It Really Matter?
By James Edwards.
"I could say that HTML has come a long way since its first standard
specification, HTML 2.0, was published in 1995. I would like to say that-but it
wouldn't be true..."
http://www.sitepoint.com/article/html-or-xhtml-does-it-matter

[Section one ends.]

++ SECTION TWO:

+10: 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.

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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:lcar...@d.umn.edu

[Issue ends.]