In this week’s web design and development news roundup, you’ll learn the importance of investing in making sites accessible, find out how to enable Classic Editor on WordPress.com, discover how to use HTML inputs and labels, and more.
If you’re new to my blog, each Friday I publish a post highlighting my favorite user experience, accessibility, WordPress, CSS, and HTML posts I’ve read in the past week.
Hope you find the resources helpful in your work or projects!
Want more resources like these on a daily basis? Follow me @redcrew on Twitter.
Tweet of the Week
In case you need to hear this today:
You matter.
The work you’re doing is necessary and important.
You don’t need a seat at the arbitrary “cool kids” table for either of those things to be true.
Keep going.
Keep making a difference.
— Emily Ladau (@emily_ladau) April 1, 2021
User Experience
- Fascinating read of the design process to protect people’s health on public transit in New York and New Jersey. One of the most successful prototypes: a mask-up zone at the public transit station entrance, providing an opportunity for riders to pause and cover their faces.
- In MeasuringU’s study of the user experience of four food delivery services, I wasn’t surprised to learn mobile app usage is high: 75% of participants reported using a mobile app compared to 51% using mobile websites.
- Who would have thought the Nielsen Norman Group would promote major redesigns and changes in the interface? Users Love Change argues Alita Joyce. It’s a designer’s responsibility to make sure users are provided opportunities to learn and adapt. (April Fool’s!)
- Is this you? The Information Architecture Conference (IAC) 2021 is looking for group mentors (April 28 to April 30, 2021) and 1-on-1 career session advisors (April 19 to April 30, 2021). Interested? Check the schedule and sign up.
Accessibility
- Have you read my friend Rian Rietveld’s post blind people don’t visit my website? She talks about the frustrations people have with the web. The same frustrations with the web that people with disabilities report. Invest in making sites accessible and help fix the web.
- In this week’s 13 Letters podcast, Adrian and the Overlays, Cordelia Dillon and Will Butler talk with Adrian Roselli about accessible memes, blogging, and accessibility overlays.
- Another way to look at accessibility.
If you’re not including everyone, tell us which groups you’re willing to exclude.
— Accessibility London (@A11yLondon) March 31, 2021
- Why have I avoided Clubhouse? It’s an exclusive platform, one for people who can hear clearly and can speak. Captions aren’t allowed. It’s not for people who are hard of hearing, deaf, or unable to speak. Or stutter. Which is what Lawrence Weru discusses in Clubhouse, the Shift to Spoken Social Media, and the Voices That Will Be Silenced.
- TPGi is looking for participants for a remote web usability study between April 7 and 14, 2021. Participants must use assistive technology, be located in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, or Ireland, and employed full or part-time. Interested? Here’s how to register for the study.
WordPress
- The first look at initial designs for the WordPress block pattern directory looks and sounds ambitious. I’m excited that it offers the opportunity for designers to contribute, without having to know plugin or theme coding.
- When WordPress.com rolled out their new administrative interface, they failed to tell users that everyone using the Classic Editor, including blind people, were automatically updated to the new interface and the block editor. Which isn’t accessible to blind people. Here’s how to enable the Classic Editor and return to an accessible interface.
- This question hasn’t come up in years, but I do remember when it was a hot topic among plugin developers. What is the trademark policy and can you use “WordPress” in your product name?
- Happy 10th birthday! Jetpack turned 10 this month. Yes, I remember when it first launched.
CSS and HTML
- Did you know
addresscan be used for contact information including email addresses, article address, social media links, or phone numbers? Good to find Jen Kramer’s 30DaysOfHTML Day 1: address post explaining how you can useaddresson your web page. - Thanks to Josh Comeau for publishing their intermediate-level tutorial for front-end developers building a magical 3D button. You’ll only need to know HTML and CSS for the tutorial. What stands out for me for his tutorial? The focus on browser and device support.
- Amber Wilson takes a closer look at HTML inputs and labels, explaining how to make them accessible and easier to use by everyone.
What I Found Interesting
- Which illustration apps have you used from this list of the top 10 illustration apps in 2021? I suspect there are some people who will argue the order for the top two choices.
- We all face procrastination. Those things you keep saying you’re going to do. But never get around to doing. It’s not only about making plans, says Darren Rowse in how to overcome procrastination.
Make deadlines as well. And stick to them.
- A thank you from the New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on the one year anniversary of their plan to residents safe during the pandemic.
This week, New Zealand marked the one year anniversary of their first lockdown.
They listened to science, acted hard, and moved fast.
On the anniversary, Jacinda Ardern spoke to her people. She didn’t boast, or take any credit.
She just wanted to say thank you.#Leadership pic.twitter.com/zqQY6gyUTE
— Goodable (@Goodable) March 31, 2021
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Did I miss some resources you found this week? Tell me about them in the comments.
