In this week’s roundup of web design and development resources, you’ll find out how eye tracking can improve the layout of web interfaces, learn how a person who is blind experiences the web, find out about security practices in WordPress, and more.
Each Friday, I publish a post of the latest resources I’ve read for web workers. Hopefully you’ll find the resources helpful in your projects.
If you like what you see, share with your friends and colleagues. And if you’d like resources on a daily basis, follow me @redcrew on Twitter.
The photo in today’s post was taken last weekend as I walked the frozen shoreline of Lake Ontario, just south of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. I saw hundreds of Snow Buntings who would quickly swoop in and land on the fence around the nature area next to the lake.
Ten seconds later the flock would unexpectedly take off to the nearby trees, and then repeat the same process.
Tweet of the Week
If the future is an “Internet of Everything” then it should also be an “Internet of Everyone” @KarlenInfo
— Nena Moss (@nenamoss) March 3, 2015
User Experience
- How eye scanning impacts visual hierarchy in UX design: Find out how eye tracking can improve the layout of web interfaces.
By matching otherwise unlike pieces of information, the UI can form links in the user’s mind, communicating messages without saying a thing.
- The What, Why, and How of Mockups: What’s the difference between a wireframe, mockup, and prototype? How does a mockup fit into the development process?
-
Memo to every person making a decision about a website on planet earth: Stop auto-playing your videos. Several reasons to just stop. #ux
— Rick Purdy (@RickSaysStuff) March 6, 2015
- Badass: Making Users Awesome: My friend Virginia DeBolt reviews Kathy Sierra’s latest book, highlighting how Sierra explains your goal isn’t a great product; it’s great users.
Accessibility
- Accessibility in an Agile World: Thank you to Paul Schantz for publishing his notes from Jesse Hausler and Cordelia McGee-Tubb presentation at this week’s CSUN conference. Interesting to read their conclusion:
Unless a proper system is put in place, accessibility, under agile, will always take a back seat to the creation of new features
- Empat.io: Want to learn how a person who is blind experiences the web? Watch this short (less than three minute) videos. Yes, there’re in Dutch, but English captions are provided.
-
Grey text on a white background. #justsayno @accessibilityoz #CSUN15
— David Ashleydale (@DAshleydale) March 5, 2015
- Accessibility Responsibility Breakdown: It’s rare that I post older resources in my weekly roundup, but couldn’t pass up this post showing the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 with the responsible team member across the production phase.
- Accessibility in an Agile World: Thank you to Paul Schantz for publishing his notes from Jesse Hausler and Cordelia McGee-Tubb presentation at this week’s CSUN conference. Interesting to read their conclusion:
Unless a proper system is put in place, accessibility—under agile—ill always take a back seat to the creation of new features
WordPress
- How to Install WordPress Locally on Your Computer with DesktopServer: If you’ve been planning to set up a local development environment for WordPress, this walkthrough will explain everything you need to know to get up and running. I remember the first time I saw DesktopServer, via a live webcast of the Milwaukee WordPress meetup. It’s now one of
my can’t live without
tools. - Creating Custom Content in WordPress: Custom Post Types: In the first of her two-part series on creating custom content for WordPress sites, Rachel McCollin takes a look at custom content in WordPress and shows you how to register, use, and display posts created with a custom post type. In the second post of the series, McCollin explains how to create custom taxonomies and custom fields.
- Chris Wiegman, Former Lead Developer of iThemes Security, Joins 10up: My friend Chris Wiegman, former developer of iThemes Security and presenter at our Metro Detroit WordPress Meetup group in October 2013, has started a new job at 10up, where he will be focusing on client sites. Wishing you the best at your new job, Chris!
- Introducing the WordPress Security White Paper: Want to know more about WordPress core software development and related security processes? Curious what security is built into WordPress? The free white paper released this week is useful for developers as well as anyone evaluating WordPress for their content management system.
Responsive Design
- RWD Summit: The fourth annual RWD Summit returns next week with three days of online presentations by amazing speakers like Jen Simmons, Rachel Andrew, and Dave Rupert presenting. Have your ticket?
-
"The faster you get content to your users, the happier they'll be," @beep on usable web design and load time. #RWD #RWDBos
— Margot Bloomstein (@mbloomstein) March 6, 2015
- The Knot says
I do
to Responsive Web Design: Anyone planning their wedding will find their way to The Knot, the website for all things related to planning the big day. And after an 11-month design process, the site is now responsive.
CSS and HTML
- Sass Operators: George Martsoukos walks you through the basics of Sass operators, explaining the assignment, arithmetic, equality, comparison, and logical operators as well as string and color operations.
- 5 Golden Rules for Mobile Email Design: Creating mobile email designs that work successfully across tablets and mobile phones is a lot easier if you follow these five rules. My favorite is rule number 1: Keep email simple.
-
Remember when we only needed one favicon? #webdevelopment pic.twitter.com/YadnFiTFwb
— G. Jason Head (@gjhead) March 3, 2015
- Side Effects in CSS: Philip Walton, an engineer at Google, explains the three main forms of unintended CSS side effects and how you can use BEM (Block Eliminator Modifier) to eliminate them.
What I Found Interesting
- StockSnap: Yes, another site for free beautiful images you can use on your sites. All images have no copyright restrictions.
- Women in Photography: A Story Still Being Written: What a fascinating read. Who knew Queen Victoria started collecting visiting cards in albums, which lead to aristocratic women collecting photos in albums? (I didn’t.)
- 3 Ways to Reduce Big Meeting Stress: My biggest pet peeve about meetings is when there’s no agenda. And that’s part of step one that Michael Marsiglia recommends: Plan.
