Every week I post a roundup of new web development and design resources I’ve learned about from the blogs I read and the people I follow on Twitter.
This week’s collection of resources explains the basics of HTML email, highlights issues with responsive images, shares a great opportunity in the Detroit area to learn from user experience leaders, and more. Hope you find the resources useful in your projects!
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“Sometimes things are the way they are and can't be changed, other times it's because no one ever tried. Your job is to find the latter.”
— Rick Suttles (@ricksuttles) June 11, 2013
CSS and HTML
- What You Should Know About HTML Email: Excellent tutorial by Nicole Martin on the basics of HTML email, including tips for managing CSS styling. Good discussion in the comments.
- Playing catch up with HTML and CSS? Here are some recommended books.: Looking for a couple good books to update your CSS and HTML skills? Check out these recommendations from Virginia DeBolt.
- 25 Essential Sass and Compass Tools: Good roundup of resources to improve your Sass knowledge, from Mashable.
Responsive Design
- Ughck. Images.: With this follow-up to his A List Apart post, Dave Rupert says nothing has changed in the past year with responsive images. No standard has been set.
Images are probably the fattest, lowest hanging fruit, so yeah… don’t give up. Do something, anything!
- Why We Need Responsive Images: For another view on responsive images, Tim Kadlec discusses improvements from different approaches and the need to stay diligent.
- Facing The Challenge: Building A Responsive Web Application:Lars Keppart highlights the scarcity of responsive web apps and discusses the opportunities for responsive applications.
- Must Know Facts About Responsive Design: Making websites look good across all devices and providing an optimal user experience are key to responsive design.
User Experience
- What Leap Motion And Google Glass Mean For Future User Experience: Open your imagination and see what’s possible with Google Glass, Leap Motion, and other technologies. Good discussion in the comments.
- Embracing the UX Spectrum: The empathy, creativity, and systems thinking integral to user experience is not limited to the web and software applications.
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Why is the first question always "What can we do that's easy?" instead of "What can we do that will make a real difference?"
— Kim Goodwin (@kimgoodwin) June 11, 2013
- UX Thursday: Detroit: Hosted by User Interface Engineering and Vitamin Talent, this one-day user experience event on June 20 in Detroit offer keynotes from Jared Spool and Kate Kiefer, as well as six case studies from Michigan-based user experience leaders. I’m thrilled the event is in the Detroit area. Get your tickets now before they sell out!
- Hosting a Page Description Workshop: Rather than creating a page description diagram on your own, organize a workshop to gain insights from key stakeholders.
Accessibility
- Ed Tech Accessibility: With no standards in place, companies are adding accessible features to higher education technology, while publishers and disability advocates push for federal regulations.
- Deaf-blind Ottawa woman angry after ‘humiliating’ Air Canada flight: Though Christine ‘Coco’ Roschaert has taken dozens of Air Canadaa flights by herself, last week the airline company forced Roschaert off a flight she had already boarded, claiming she needed
medical clearance
. Roschaert is fighting back with a formal complaint against Air Canada. -
captionator.js No more excuses. Caption your online video today! #a11y #HTML5 #WebVTT #JavaScript http://t.co/cVQH6XQ9ML
— Paul J. Adam (@pauljadam) June 15, 2013
- SkipTo menu: A replacement for the “Skip Nav” link, this code from PayPal explains the details in the code. Nice extras: PayPal has provided a bookmarklet, Greasemonkey script as well as plugins for WordPress and Drupal.
- Comparison of Browsers on HTML5 Video Accessibility: Thanks to Terrill Thompson for compiling this comparisonof the current state of HTML video accessibility in browsers. You might be surprised with which browser is way ahead of the rest.
WordPress
- How To: Migrate Your Site to WordPress from HTML, Joomla and Drupal: Step-by-step guide for migrating to WordPress, including testing, checking for incorrect links and styling and removing old content.
- Adding a Widget Area After Your Post In WordPress and Genesis: Adding a widget area after you post gives you the opportunity to provide additional info and link to other relevant content.
- Functions.php vs Plugin, Who Wins: Are you torn between adding functionality via a plugin or functions.php? There’s another alternative, says Tom McFarlin.
- Call To Action Scheduler: Want to schedule a call to action to display on specific date? This plugin is for you.
- 15 Things You Must Do When Changing WordPress Themes: Bookmarked. There’s more to do than just check plugins; you need to check widgets, sidebar code, functionality added to functions.php and more. Do you have a checklist?
What I Found Interesting
- How to Get Your Web Development Projects Off to a Good Start: If you only get one thing out of this how-to post, use the kickoff meeting template.
- Talk Amongst Yourselves: The hallway track and beyond: How to get the most out of a conference.
- 5 Useful Google Authorship Cheatsheets and Infographics: Learn about Google author rank, what contributes to your rank, how to tag your work with your Google author tag, and more.
