Tips, web design book reviews, resources and observations for teaching and learning web development.
Useful links: a good idea for ebook readability, learn to make iPhone apps, find out what’s new in HTML5.
Do It Myself Blog has a great suggestion for the creators of ebooks. Improve readability with one easy change.
Learn to make iPhone apps. One good app, sold for a buck or two to a few million folks. Well, you do the math. Now you can learn to make iPhone apps from the professors at Stanford at iTunesU.
What’s New in HTML5 is a simply organized and simply written summary of what may be coming in HTML5. Nice roundup.
Christian Heilman talks about how to make web apps accessible at the panel on accessible web applications at the European Accessibility Forum in Frankfurt.
This is the presentation where he was quoted on Twitter as saying “web design is a form of autism.” Listen and find out what he meant.
A fun Twitter app, a good explanation of RDFa and the semantic web, and a simplified checklist to use with WCAG 2.0 specs. More . . .
There’s another fun web app to use with Twitter. It’s called Twitter Grader. It isn’t quite as useful as some of the apps growing up around Twitter, but it’s fun to play with and get your “grade.”
RDFa, Drupal and a Practical Semantic Web at CMS Wire is a terrific piece in clear language that explains what a sematic web is and how RDFa fits into that concept. It also will help RDFa newbies grasp what it’s all about.
WebAIM’s WCAG 2.0 Checklist. WebAIM has simplified and organized the WCAG specs into an easy to use format with simplified explanations of how you can meet the standards. This would make a great handout or required reading assignment to add to your students’ reading lists. It could also be useful as a grading rubric for assignments that are required to be accessible.
A review of Build Your Own Web Site the Right Way Using HTML and CSS by Ian Lloyd is from Sitepoint (2008). More . . .
(Amazon affiliate link)★★★★★ Build Your Own Web Site the Right Way Using HTML and CSS by Ian Lloyd is from Sitepoint (2008). This is the 2nd edition. The first edition was on my recommended list for a very long time, and I don’t see any reason to remove the second edition from that recommended list.
The book covers the basics of getting started, tools you need, and gives plenty of examples of code for both the HTML and CSS it suggests. You build a single site to completion by the end of the book with a customized Blogger blog added. The book is a foundational experience that emphasizes best practices and would get anyone off to a solid start. The last chapter deals with where to go next, what else to learn, and where to find more references.
When tools are involved, such as FTP tools, the book includes examples for both Windows and Mac. It’s well written and illustrated. In short, a very good book
Summary: Clear explanation of the basics using best practices.
Technorati Tags: Build Your Own Web Site the Right Way, book reviews
Links to Playing for Change, a worldwide music project, 300+ WordPress tools. Accessibility tips. More…
Playing for Change is a worldwide multimedia music project, bringing musicians from all over the world together by digital magic to create wonderful music for a web site, a YouTube site, an album, and iTunes videos. The program brings supplies, facilities and education to musicians around the world. I realize it has nothing to do with teaching or learning web design, but it’s clearly a project that could not have been achieved before the advances in technology that support it.
WordPress God: 300+ Tools for Running Your WordPress Blog. Who could resist a list like this? Only someone using Blogger or Typepad would pass up this gem.
Check your design with text size increased to 200 percent from 456 Berea St is good advice to teach all students as a standard part of their routine checks of every page they design.
Useful links: When can I use new features of web standards? The John Slatin Access U for 2009. Do It Myself Blog’s Glenda figures out how to present live online. More . . .
When can I use . . . has compatibility tables for features in HTML5, CSS3, SVG and other upcoming web technologies. It shows a timeline for when various features will be supported. No surprise, many are waiting for the demise of some version or other of Internet Explorer.
An event to note. For two days in May, Knowbility will be putting on the newly named John Slatin Access U. It will be at St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas. It features a Usability Track and a Molly Holzschlag Track. There’s a post conference day with Molly and Derek Featherstone. Read the course descriptions.
You know Molly’s a brand of her own when there’s a whole section of an event named “Molly Holzschlag Track.” There’s not even a need to explain what it will be about, you only need to mention her name. There’s an interview or a graduate thesis or a book in there somewhere about how Molly became a brand.
Celebrating a Newly Discovered Ability from Do It Myself Blog is Glenda Watson Hyatt’s presentation from AccessCamp San Antonio. It explains how she managed to do a live online presentation and is a must see presentation.
Links to a review of Neuro Web Design, the latest issue of the Web Design Update newsletter, the difference between HTML 4 and HTML 5.
More . . .
dotEdGuru, a blog I just discovered and which is now in my feed reader, wrote sex…Sex…SEX! Now I have your attention about a book called Neuro Web Design.
Neuro Web Design takes Neuromarketing one step further by discussing psychological concepts, which can then be applied to your website. It’s a fascinating (and quick!) read that I recommend for anyone working on the web in any capacity.
In case you missed the Feb. 20, 2009 issue of the University of Minnesota at Duluth’s Laura Carlson Web Design Update newsletter, it’s bursting at the seams stuffed with so many great links I’m going to point to the archived copy of the newsletter. A lot has happened in the past week in accessbility, HTML 5, WCAG, CSS 3, web standards, and more. Sometimes I cherry pick a few links from this weekly email to emphasize here, but this issue is so full of things you need to know that I thought I’d provide a link to the whole thing. You can subscribe to the listserv and get these valuable newsletters yourself.
HTML 5 differences from HTML 4 at the W3C not only details the differences in typical W3C-speak, but also explains the reasoning behind some of the changes. If you’re teaching HTML, this could be a great resource for you. Keep in mind that HTML 5 is still in the draft stage and not yet a recommendation.