Web design Linkfest

Since this site has been down a number of exciting web design related links have cropped up:

The Coral

The most accessible site ever… or not? Great band though.

A second voice

A new mezzoblue spin-off containing thought-provoking articles on css, (x)html, semantics and accessibility.

Making absolute relative

Making the absolute relative. The theory behind this often used method of CSS positioning.

Attractive yet accessible sites

Attractive, accessible web sites. Disproving the myth of ugly.

Outstanding web trailer

When the flash movie loads, click on the third bullett point on the left and be amazed and scratch your head as to how the designer managed to embed a proper trailer into a flash movie and then screw around over the top of it. Insane and brilliant.

Web designers and JAWS

Disconnect your monitor and use JAWS exclusively for computer access for at least a week, preferably a month.

Remember, JAWS is software meant for the blind end user, and it often takes that long — if not longer! — to master the software. And without mastering the software, you’re likely to run into serious problems when testing your Web pages.

All that’s wrong with the Jaws petition

Now the thing about having people you respect tell you when you’re wrong is that it really sinks in. The recent JAWS petition has drawn criticism. Many have gone on record denouncing it, some more vociferously than others.

A better W3C validator

The W3C Validator team are seeking help with the latest version of their validator, dubbed the “Zeldman Made Us Do It!” release. They want people to play with the beta and submit suggestions for error messages that would make more sense to the average user. They also have a new feature called “fussy mode” which acts a bit like a lint tool for checking code, highlighting problems that aren’t necessarily illegal markup but may not be best practise techniques.

Effective CSS use of images as headers

The CSS-based background image replacement technique, also known as Fahrner Image Replacement (FIR), is a vital cornerstone of all future Web design.