26Jun0
Highlights of Week 25/2011
- Colors in Web Design: An Exploration (by Kayla Knight) - in-depth reflection about color theory
- Top 10 Project Management Software for Remote Teams (by Rean) - exactly what the title says
- An Exploration of Website Redesigns: Tips and Examples (by Mohammad Moradi) - make a plan and consider doing it at all (sometimes)
- #19: Sketchnotes (by Eva-Lotta Lamm) - inspiring perspective on taking notes that aren't boring
- 10 Big Brand Lessons From The Corporate Social Media Summit (by Rohit) - talking about brands and their approaches to success
- Getting to grips with a mobile accessibility strategy (by iheni) - great approach on trying to establish a mobile accessibility strategy
- 5 Dangerous Ideas for Designers (by Scott Berkun) - be an ambassador of good ideas and sell and defend them to the right people at the right time
- HOW TO: Choose a PHP Framework for Your Next Project (by Kelli Shaver) - pick your weapons...
- Brainstorming Tips and Techniques for Freelancers (by Samar Owais) - in the end it all depends on you and how you set up the rules, but good tips in here
23Apr1
Highlights of Week 16/2011
- Using “Preventive Medicine” Against Bad Clients (by Maria Malidaki) - Love the section about useful documents
- Accessibility and web innovation – a talk (by Christian Heilmann) - Chris makes a case for deeper involvement in the actual development of cool technology that is accessible (or cool development that makes technology accessible)
- Architecture v. Web Design (by Dmitry Fadeyev) - Dmitry on the essence of architecture to create space and how this is (or is not) applied to web design
- What’s new for web designers – Apr 2011 (by Cameron Chapman) - Once again, great collection of apps for designers, thx Cameron
- Are your users S.T.U.P.I.D? (by Stephen Turbek) - Get Smart (and download the info poster)
- Essential Facebook Etiquette: 10 Dos and Don’ts (by bellefoong) - Funny how we need to learn social etiquette again, huh?
- How To Design The Perfect Form (by Brian) - Extensive collection of examples and best practices for forms
- Integrating UX into Agile Development (by Janet M. Six) - State your requirements as user stories: As a [role], I want to [action based on a feature], so [user goal].
- Mobile Application Development: Web vs. Native (by Andre Charland, Brian LeRoux) - Excellent research on web versus native development for mobile. Sooner or later we all need to understand the ins and outs of mobile dev.
- A new micro clearfix hack (by Nicolas Gallagher) - updated hack to clear floats without resorting to using presentational markup
- Web Developers vs. Web Developers (Infographic Remix) (by Cassie McDaniel) - nice remix of the original web designers vs web developers infographic by Shane Snow
25Mar0
Accessibility Events in May
Jennison Mark Asuncion just posted 4 upcoming accessibility events in North America:
- Ottawa's First Accessibility Unconference, May 6 in Ottawa Ontario (free event) register now at http://www.a11yyow.ca
- John Slatin AccessU 2011, May 17-19, Austin TX http://www.knowbility.org/v/accessu-detail/John-Slatin-AccessU/39/
- Accessibility Camp Seattle, May 20-21 (free event) register now at http://www.AccessibilityCampSeattle.org
- The Guelph Accessibility Conference, May 31-June 1, Guelph ON http://www.accessconf.open.uoguelph.ca/
Missed one? Post it in the comments section.
30Sep0
Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT)
The Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) is a tool used to document a product's conformance with the accessibility standards under Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act.
Download
Download VPAT in MS Word format.
Purpose
The purpose of the document is to assist vendors and buyers in assessing the accessibility of a product/website and formalizing a form of accessibility statement. This is not an Section 508 Certification, such a certification doesn't exist!
Format
From Information Technology Industry Council (ITIC): "The first table of the Template provides a summary view of the section 508 Standards. The subsequent tables provide more detailed views of each subsection. There are three columns in each table. Column one of the Summary Table describes the subsections of subparts B and C of the Standards. The second column describes the supporting features of the product or refers you to the corresponding detailed table, "e.g., equivalent facilitation." The third column contains any additional remarks and explanations regarding the product. In the subsequent tables, the first column contains the lettered paragraphs of the subsections. The second column describes the supporting features of the product with regard to that paragraph. The third column contains any additional remarks and explanations regarding the product."
1Aug0
Highlights of Week 30/2010
- How Web Designers Can Adopt a Global Mindset (by Christian Arno) - Cultural differences are shamelessly overlooked, depending on your audience that might be ok but you should know... read the article.
- User Interface Design Framework (by webalys) - a really nice set of flexible GUI elements, free icon library and a graphic style library.
- The Hackday Toolbox – getting you started faster (by Chris Heilmann) - wow, what a great set of resources to get you started with YQL for PHP and JavaScript.
- How to Navigate Design by Committee (by Andrew Follett) - Andrew outlines a feasible approach to steering design discussions into a successful direction.
- Accessiblity Forum 2.0 (by buyaccessible.net) - promising blog to follow if you are into accessibility.
- 10 Free Online Books for Web Designers (by Henry Jones) - add to your never ending supply of good stuff.
26Mar1
Highlights of Week 12/2010
I'm still feeling enriched by the exciting sessions presented at the Web App Masters Tour in San Diego. Check out Luke's notes of all the 9 sessions presented - fantastic!
- Techniques for Squeezing Images for All They’re Worth (by Ben Gremillion) - image optimization is key to fast loading web sites.
- UX Design Versus UI Development (by Mike Hughes) - who designs and who builds and where do they overlap? Is it about data?
- Board Releases Draft Refresh of Section 508 Standards and Section 255 Guidelines (by Tim Creagan) - a major step towards WCAG 2.0 becoming a law.
- 20 Portable Applications Web Designers Should Have On Their USB Sticks (by Joel Reyes) - go get a memory stick
- Understanding the Power of Social Media with Infographics (by Paul Andrew) - some real gems there.
- Adobe expanding the accessibility of Acrobat and Flash! (by Jeff Singleton) - don't know how they relate exactly to WCAG but surely welcome to see.
- The Impossible Bloomberg Makeover (by Dominique Leca) - a great example of the kitchen-cabinet problem.
- 10 Principles of UX (by Joshua Porter) - very nice top 10 collection.
19Feb1
Highlights of Week 07/2010
- The Skinny on CSS Attribute Selectors (by Chris Coyier) - CSS attribute selectors are really useful and I've been using them for ages; here a nice summary by Chris.
- Common Misconceptions about Web Designers (by Shannon Noack) - working odd hours? When was the last time I've seen day-light?
- CSS files downloaded twice in Internet Explorer with protocol relative URLs (by Robert Nyman) - and Robert gives three nice (and trivial) examples on how to avoid it.
- Create a Clean and Professional Web Design in Photoshop (by Waheed Akhtar) - Step-by-step guide for Photoshop geeks. Really basic but a nice start.
- Is Web accessibility a human right? (by Vlad Alexander) - excellent article; and Ian Pouncey's response: Accessibility is a human right.
- How to Make Your Small Business Geolocation-Ready (by Leah Betancourt) - jump on the train of geographically optimized interaction!
- The Browser Choice Screen for Europe: What to Expect, When to Expect It (by Dave Heiner) - Microsoft finally bowed to pressure by the EU (better late than never).
- 25 Beautiful Examples of “Coming Soon” Pages (by Tyler Denis) - get inspired; and Walter offers similar A Collection of “Coming Soon” Web Pages
31Jan0
Highlights of Week 04/2010
- Win 5 Copies of “Fluid Web Typography” (by WebdesignerDepot) - leave a comment with your favorite typography link for the chance to win a copy of Jason Cranford Teague's book (I hope this trackback counts as a comment .
- Finding the current location by IP and with the W3C Geo API (by Chris Heilmann) - nice writeup on how to read the IP in PHP and call the API with cURL.
- Web accessibility myths (by Ian Pouncey) - accessibility isn’t a target to aim for, it is a goal to aspire to.
- 13 video player UIs in 24 hours (by Jason F.) - form follows function, or not? What do you think about these media players?
- There are always more than two options (by Derek Sivers) - couldn't agree more. Counting choices means limiting yourself, like "all flights to Europe are too expensive therefore I cannot go to Europe" - how about taking a cruise?
- Resist the urge to punish everyone for one person's mistake (by Derek Sivers) - another great by Derek, on how to stay positive when your thinking is clouded.
11Jan0
Highlights of week 01/2010
Happy New Year everybody! Hope you are healthy and fully motivated for a new decade of great things to happen. It's going to be great!
If the last decade gave us wikipedia, digg, facebook and all the other fascinating apps based on web 2.0, collaboration and connection then we can truly be excited of what lies ahead of us - I am!
Highlights of week 01/2010
Here is what made me happy last week:
- Placebos Are Getting More Effective. Drugmakers Are Desperate to Know Why (by Steve Silberman) - Belief is power, color, shape and labeling are important triggers for effectiveness; good article on wired; applicable to web design as well?!
- WAI initiative: Speak up! Tell organizations if their website is inaccessible - Take a few minutes to encourage web accessibility. Your voice counts.
- Myths & Misconceptions About Grid Systems - I'm a big believer in grid systems, but is it a one fits all? Do grid systems benefit each and every development? Is a website less valuable when not based on a grid system?
- Simple Numbers, Complicated Dates: 49 Innovative Calendars (by Michael Poh) - Start the New Year with some creative calendars.
- Web Design Trends and Resolutions for 2010 - A good collection and reflection by designreviver.com
- More Like This: A Design Pattern (by Greg Nudelman) - Design Patterns like 'More like this' help to speed up development, define a common language and should be part of everybody's toolkit
- Drop-Shadows and Gradients: Be Consistent in Your Visual Metaphors (by Nate Eagle) - How to design them correctly, please have a look, no excuses later!
About Me
Michael Gaigg is Lead UI Engineer in Esri's Professional Services Division.
He has been designing map application for over 10 years and can't stop thinking about improving them.
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- Design Guidelines (12)
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