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Friday Feast #13: Accessibility, Usability, Blogs, CSS, Design, JavaScript, and Fun
10:00 AM - Jun 14, 2002

Today’s Friday Feast has its usual eclectic mix from accessibility to zoology. Well, there’s not really zoology here today, but you get the drift.

And there’s more to be found in the archives.

Accessibility

• Accessibility Resources
  Usability SIG’s excellent section on accessibility resources, covering standards, guidelines, organizations, testing services, and general articles.

Blogs

• BUZZThe Web Standards Project
  The new weblog at The Web Standards Project (WaSP). Several of us on the WaSP Steering Committee will be keeping it up-to-date with the latest info and tips that in any way relate to web standards. Visit often.

CSS

• /CSS/ - a guide for the unglued
  A Panic Guide by Owen Briggs. Excellent CSS resource and help. See also the Metafilter thread on this that branches into a good discussion with helpful links, too.

Design

• Keep the web simple, stupid
  Article about design approaches, interviewing Joshua Davis and Jakob Nielsen. Interesting reading exploring approaches of usability, user experience, graphics. Story at BBC February 18, 2002.
• Web design 'causes confusion'
  An interesting study was done at Kansas State University addressing how users remember site organization. Bottom line: keep it simple. Links to more info. Story at BBC June 13, 2002.

Design Reference

• Sizing Up the Browsers
  Steve Mulder of Webmonkey has recently updated this popular article to include AOL 7, already covering through Internet Explorer 6 and Netscape 6 for PC and Mac. Steve provides charts of window canvas sizes, text sizes, and form elements. Big help! He also provides Photoshop mockups of browsers at 3 resolutions in downloadable zip files for anyone to use to help with designing sites.

HTML Reference

• HTML Special Characters and Browser Compatibility
  Andrew Starling, for WDVL, has painstakingly researched about 250 HTML 4 character entities for cross-browser, cross-platform compatibility (Internet Explorer, Netscape, PC, Mac). His charts provide information about common and less common symbols, currency symbols, Latin and other European languages, Greek and related math symbols, and a breakdown for Internet Explorer and Netscape.

JavaScript

• JavaScript + CSS + DOM Magic coverCreating the Basic Document Object Creation Script
  WDVL’s Part 2 from the new book, JavaScript + CSS + DOM Magic, by Makiko Itoh, published by New Riders. Exceptionally easy to understand information to learn to create sophisticated designs. This chapter excerpt covers creating tabbed interfaces with CSS, JavaScript and minimal graphics. Also check out the book’s online companion site.

Usability

• Usability: the Site Speaks For Itself
  Read excerpts at WDVL from the new book by Kelly Braun, Max Gadney, Matthew Haughey, Adrian Roselli, Don Synstelien, Tom Walter, David Wertheimer, Molly E. Holzschlag, Bruce Lawson. This new usability book provides case studies on usability and information architecture for several well-known sites.

Fun Distractions

• FBI Accused of Passing Secrets to U.S.
  The FBI may have actually shared its information with headquarters. Fun article June 02 by SatireWire.
• Netcafé
  Site for the well done technology TV show produced by Stewart Cheifet that “features browsing and computing tips, best Web site picks, interviews with the Internet’s most influential players, and much more.”

More

Friday Feast archives

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