Tips, web design book reviews, resources and observations for teaching and learning web development.
User Testing for Web Accessbility from six revisions is an excellent summary of user testing and web accessibility.
Must reading: Misogyny and the Marketing Chick.
The Periodic Table of SEO Success Factors is from Search Engine Land. Well organized and effective tool for checking your site’s SEO practices.
7 Academic Search Engines Not Named Google comes from Teach Thought.
Pinterest announced you can now search your own pins.
Mobile Form Usability: Never Use Inline Labels explains why what they call “inline labels” are are such an accessibility problem in mobile design.
Retention and Intention in Massive Open Online Courses: In Depth is a study from EDUCAUSE. It examines the retention rate in MOOCs and what that means to educators.
Shelley Powers posted an explanation of the uses of alt, figcaption and longdesc on Google+ that is worth a read.
Screenreaders at a crossroads is from the NCSU accessibility blog. Lots of test results and comparisons of screenreaders.
The popularity behind Professor blogs today – explained is from .eduguru.
I urge all my students to use Chris Pederick’s Web Developer Toolbar. Recently Cynthia Says, which the toolbar uses for a number of tests, added CAPTCHA. Here’s an article that tells you how to replace Cynthia Says with the WAVE tool in the Web Developer Toolbar. Since WAVE is a far better tool than Cynthia Says, this is a good idea for everyone anyway, even if Cynthia Says hadn’t suddenly rendered itself inaccessible.
Pinterest for Designers has tips for getting started with Pinterest and using it to support your brand. The part of the article I found most interesting was the list of boards to follow for ideas about typography, print design, web design, package design, color, logos, and general inspiration.
Responsive Images – Interim Report from Bruce Lawson lays out the current state of things.
Understanding WCAG Level from Karl Groves can help you come to grips with WCAG priority levels.
Migrating a website to WordPress is easier than you think is a well done article at Smashing Magazine that can help you if you are contemplating a move.
I’ve worked with Knowbility for years but I didn’t realize they offered Document Accessibility and User Experience Testing. Using a group called AccessWorks, they provide people with disabilities who have been highly trained to help you with making your PDF and Office documents accessible.
10 Easy Accessibility Tips Anyone Can Use. You could build a class or a presentation around these basic tips from WebAIM.
Study ranks accessibility of Learning Management Systems.
The review examined four major LMSes: Blackboard Learn version 9.1 Service Pack 6 and 8, Desire2Learn version 10, Moodle version 2.3, and Sakai version 2.8.
Excellent forms tutorial by Roger Hudson at Web Usability. Even includes screen reader results.
Automatic Figure Numbering with CSS Counters at Codrops not only explains how to number Figures, it provides downloadable code.
Could a Responsive Website Design Hurt Your SEO is from Copyblogger. Don’t dismiss it because it’s from Copyblogger – it’s worth a look. He goes into how search engines act, when responsive design can help or hurt, and draws conclusions.
This is from WebAIM.org. A text version is available on WebAIM.
