In this week’s web design and development news roundup, you’ll learn about the user experience of video streaming websites and apps, find out what’s new in WordPress 5.5, discover how to structure your CSS, 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
Seriously I would work the heck out of a magic wand right now
— Dana Chisnell 💪🏽🗳🇺🇸❤️ (@danachis) August 11, 2020
User Experience
- In four lessons web app designers learn from Google, Suzanne Scacca highlights basic principles for building apps with the best experience. First up: make the first thing users see their top priority.
- PDFs are problematic. They shouldn’t be read online. Twenty years after first conducting research on them PDFs are still unfit for human consumption, says Jakob Nielsen and Anna Kalay of Nielsen Norman Group.
- In their study of five U.S.-based video streaming entertainment websites and apps, Measuring U found most sites/apps had above average UX. Key drivers were ease of watching and loading time.
We asked participants to reflect on how easy they thought it was to use and navigate the entertainment websites/apps.
- Measuring the effectiveness of your design work should be easy to do. Which is why Foolproof UX created a one-page measurement template you can use for any of your projects.
Accessibility
- The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 Working Draft, with 9 new success criteria, is now available for review. Add your comments by September 18, 2020.
- Did you know you can check the contrast ratio in Chrome DevTools? It’s available in the color picker tool. Umar Hansa steps you through Chrome DevTools accessibility features in this helpful Smashing Magazine post.
- Time’s interview with disability rights lawyer Haben Girma highlights the technology and innovations that increase access for people with disabilities.
Disability rights lawyer @HabenGirma discusses how disability and love are driving forces behind today’s innovation #TIME100Talks pic.twitter.com/oZIMhZ8vee
— TIME (@TIME) August 13, 2020
- Find out how inaccessible your Twitter feed is with the new bookmarklet that blurs inaccessible media and overlay alternative text.
- I’ve been fascinated with the possibilities of
detailsandsummaryfor years. Glad to see Paul Adam’s using both elements to create an accessible accordion, with no ARIA or JavaScript.
WordPress
- Named in honor of Billy Eckstine, WordPress 5.5 was released this week. You’ll find improvements in speed, search, and security along with a number of new features in the block editor.
- Wondering how all the new WordPress 5.5 features work? WP Beginner shares what’s new, highlighting the new integrated block directory, block patterns, image lazy loading, default XML sitemaps, and more.
- One of the most discussed topics in the WordPress community this past week was the suspension and reinstatement of the popular Astra theme from the WordPress repository.
As for the Astra theme, the question is whether it violated the affiliate guideline.
- WordPress.com announced the retirement of the Classic editor this week, replaced with the Classic Block for users who want to use the Classic editor interface. Disappointed that the announcement to millions of users was made two days after the change was implemented.
CSS and HTML
- Is the time and effort invested in interactive emails worthwhile? In this week’s Feedback Friday session, Matt Helbig interviews Chris Barnett who works at 1973 about their experience adding value in the interactive holiday email created for Seagate hard drives.
- I always mess up
font-styleandfont-weight, what CSS mistakes do you make on autopilot? - When it comes to structuring CSS, you’ll find dozens of options people have written about for years. Which is why I liked Matt suggestion:
Take any methodology with a grain of salt and freely adjust it to your needs and the way you work.
in his latest post how I structure my CSS.
What I Found Interesting
- Eagle 1: Drone 0:. A Bald Eagle attacked a State of Michigan’s $950 drone in the Upper Peninsula, sending the drone to the bottom of Lake Michigan.
- Not only good advice for dads.
Pro dad tip: when your child shows you a drawing, don’t ask “what is it?”, Say “tell me about it”. It’s the same conversation without the shame of you not being able to tell what it is, AND recognising that they might be drawing without trying to represent something.
— Justin Donaldson (@JDonaldson_art) August 12, 2020
- As in-person conferences transition to remote conferences, it’s important to remember that while we can’t be physically near each other, with good planning, virtual conferences offer a unique experience. It’s not the same as in-person, but they’re still full of opportunities to share knowledge, network, and interact.
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Did I miss some resources you found this week? I’d love to see them! Post them in the comments below.
