Nowadays we can have access to pretty much everything, and even for those like me, who don’t have the opportunity to attend to design events such as @media, sxsw, dconstrukt and others, we have the chance to listen to them via podcasts or using Odeo.

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Picidae is a fantastic project looking at internet censorship. Thanks to Zoe for the tip off. Also looking for ingenious ways round the great firewall of China and the like is this project by Amnesty. And if the embed works properly you should be able to see an example below.

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The number of mobile phone users that can access the Web from their phones is increasing quickly, as is the number of people who actually do use their phones to access the Web. I wouldn't be surprised at all if, in a couple of years, there are more people worldwide who connect to the Internet from mobile phones than from personal computers.

So what does that mean for us who design and develop sites and applications that are deployed on the Web? Does it matter? Do we need to change the way we work? How can we accommodate the needs of mobile phone users? In Mobile Web Design, Cameron Moll tries to answer those and many other questions.

Cameron has had the mobile Web on his mind for a long time. Among other things he has held presentations on the subject several times and written a series of articles on mobile Web design. He has clearly done a lot of research and thinking when it comes to designing and developing for the mobile Web. And now he has written and published Mobile Web Design, a PDF book based on his findings, to help those of us who haven't spent the time or energy on researching the options available to us.

The book starts with some background info explaining how mobile phones have developed over the years, a look at the incredible growth of the number of subscribers, and emphasises that the mobile Web is not just a crippled version of the "normal" Web.

After that the book contains plenty of practical tips and examples. The article series I mentioned earlier is revisited, and the following four basic methods of handling mobile phones are detailed:

• Do Nothing
• Reduce Images and Styling
• Use Handheld Style Sheets
• Create Mobile-Optimized Content

The next few chapters cover subjects such as XHTML/CSS Development, Testing & Validation, Beyond Simple XHTML Pages, and Promoting Your Content. All very well-written and easily digested.

At 104 pages, Mobile Web Design is a quick read, but priced at USD 19 for a PDF download I still think it's a bargain. On top of that, if you buy your copy before September 14 you will be entered in a competition where you can win an iPhone, a conference pass to Future of Mobile in London, or a conference pass to Future of Web Design in New York. Competition details in iPhone winner + another iPhone giveaway.

Mobile Web Design

Author: Cameron Moll

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Posted in Browsers, Mobile Web, Reviews.

"stupid people, violent people, and people who are emotionally damaged need to have background noise in their lives at all times"

In several recent online and offline discussions on comment spam and other automated, improper use of forms, I have seen or heard people suggest using image-based CAPTCHAs (you know, those images of distorted letters and numbers) to prevent spambots and other programs from successfully submitting forms.

Requiring the user to interpret an image of distorted characters and then enter those characters into a text input field may seem like a nice idea at first. But while it does offer some protection against spam, unfortunately it is also really bad for accessibility.

The nature of graphical CAPTCHAs makes it difficult or impossible for people who are visually impaired, blind, or dyslexic to post comments (or place their order, or whatever the form is used for). Heck, they make it hard enough for people with perfect eyesight to submit the form. If you can't see or interpret the image, you're completely out of luck though.

American Foundation for the Blind have made a nice demonstration of the problems available in a video titled CAPTCHAs on Social Networking Sites Shut Out Blind Users. If you currently use graphical CAPTCHAs on your site I suggest you watch the video and find out what it's like for a screen reader user to interact with them.

Using alternative text, which is the normal method for making images accessible to people who can't see them, for CAPTCHA images is basically the same as removing any protection against spammers, so that obviously does not work.

If you simply have to make your users prove they are human, don't use a graphical CAPTCHA with no alternative. A couple of possible alternatives are logical puzzles and audio, both of which are explained, along with other possible solutions, in the W3C Note Inaccessibility of CAPTCHA. Audio should obviously not be used as the only option either.

Something as simple as adding a checkbox that the user needs to check or uncheck also seems to work well.

Be innovative when looking for solutions to comment spam. But please, be careful with CAPTCHAs, and do not use a visual or audio CAPTCHA only. Provide alternatives.

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Posted in Accessibility.

I'm gradually finding more convenient places to keep much loft-based loveliness. Like this 1964 edition of Ernest's classic work.

And when I went looking for some kind of biographical stuff I stumbled on what looks like the entire text online. Not in the most readable format I admit but hey, it's free!

From the lovely new publication A Brief Message comes a, eh, brief message on the bleak future of print written by Steve Heller. Please go read all two-hundred words, I'll wait (and you really need to go check out what Khoi and Ms. Danzico have created, it's simply tres chic).

Now I know I don't work in the print industry but I am a huge consumer of printed products (newspapers, periodicals and books) and I have a hard time understanding all the hub-bub over whether this medium is dying or not. Maybe if I showed you my yearly budget for acquiring print material you would understand. Still what's all this hoo-ha about?

Are persons who work with print afraid that one day they'll come to work and find the doors locked and a sign that reads: "Sorry we're closed indefinitely because print died in its sleep last night"? Do print designers huddle in corners nervously smoking cigarettes and say things like, "five more issues, maybe, maybe a sixth, and then that's it, I'm out, because there is no way print can live much longer and I'll be damned if I'm going down with the ship."

In his essay Steve makes a point that print is no longer the preferred medium of reaching the most amount of people but that's nothing new. Print has taken a back seat to television as the primary tool for reaching the masses for decades. So why does this conversation loom as if one day we'll have print and the next we won't? It's as if there is this giant fear that this will all end with thousands of designers homeless, hungry, and roaming the streets, where they will offer to kern type for a spare change or provide color corrections for food.

Call it a hunch but something tells me that's not gonna happen any time soon. So buck-up little print designer, I seriously doubt your medium will go Dodo in my lifetime or yours. Get back to Quark and keep on keepin' on, my wallet is at that ready.