In this week’s web design and development resources roundup, you’ll discover how information architecture can manage digital experiences at scale, learn about accessible front-end patterns for responsive tables, find a CSS media query guide, 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!
User Experience
-
In episode 102 of The Informed Life, Jorge Arango talks with Amy Jiménez Márquez on leading information architecture. Specifically about the role of information architecture in managing digital experiences at scale.
-
It’s time to put the kibosh on UI vs. UX. They’re tightly integrated with each other. Focus on creating experiences that look and function well.
-
Bad grammar and spelling can reflect poorly on the business, says Jessica Day in bad UX writing: 5 mistakes to avoid. UX writing quality shapes how users feel about using a product or service.
A simple “you” can create a personal connection with readers, just as though the writer were in the room with them, talking directly to them.
-
Rather than arguing with design team members about solutions to a user interface issue, Kate Moran recommends you say “show me the data” to resolve the debate (two-minute video).
Accessibility
-
When you haven’t worked in accessibility before, it can be hard to demonstrate your qualifications. From Microsoft, this two-minute video highlights the skills you’ll need and how to leverage them.
-
In part 1 of a two-part series on accessible front-end patterns for responsive tables, Adrian Bece explains the various patterns you can use to display responsive and usable tables on small screens.
-
The 2022 WordPress Accessibility Day videos are now available with captioned recordings and transcripts.
-
Two new modules have been added to the free online Learn Accessibility course: Patterns, components, and design systems and Design and user experience.
-
Jamie Teh, co-creator of NVDA (NonVisual Desktop Access) screen reader, explains how they’re making Firefox accessible and delightful for everyone, including how the Cache the World project is increasing the speed for documents and pages to load and update.
WordPress
-
Here’s a plugin to consider adding to your performance toolbox. Code Profiler helps you measure the performance of your WordPress theme and plugins.
-
In the Jetpack 11.6 version released this week, you’ll find block pattern support for Jetpack Forms as well as improved search engine optimization features.
-
For many WordPress folks, this is a welcome change: an update to the support forums editor. Which is so old, it doesn’t even use the TinyMCE editor. I suspect some folks may object to the block editor being introduced in the support forums.
-
Hmm. If you’re a WordPress developer, are you concerned? ChatGPT creates a working plugin, on the first try.
-
It’s back! Bloganuary returns in January 2023. A writing challenge from WordPress.com, Bloganuary offers a daily writing prompt to inspire you to publish a post on your blog. Are you planning to participate?
CSS and HTML
-
The results of the State of CSS 2022 survey are in, with some fascinating info about CSS usage and frameworks. One item stood out for me, the demographics of survey participants: over 60% men, 6.5% women, and over 30% non-binary, not listed or provided no answer.
-
I only discovered this tip this week. And I didn’t want my blog readers to miss this solution for displaying images with different heights. Without Photoshop or other image editing application.
-
Alex Ivanovs takes a closer look at CSS media queries, how they work, how to use them in their practical guide to CSS media queries. With grid, flexbox, and multicol, there’s not as much need to write media queries as in the past.
-
Over the years, I’ve had arguments, er, discussions with many colleagues and friends whether WWW still belongs in URLs. Pieter De Decker discusses the benefits and the issues with the Ws.
-
From Day 5 of the 2022 Web Performance Calendar, I learned you can reduce image sizes by removing metadata. One way to do that in Windows is to view the image property details and select Remove Properties with Personal Information to delete specific values. Only remove data on your own photos!
What I Found Interesting
-
Not surprised to learn better mental health and improved productivity are two findings of the four-day work week study.
-
Hey, doesn’t everyone want to learn how to read ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs (28-minute video) from Ilona Regulski, the British Museum’s curator of ancient writing?
-
Argh. Not a fan. Google is switching to continuous scrolling for desktop search results.
If you like what you’ve read today, share the post with your colleagues and friends.
Want to make sure you don’t miss out on updates? Subscribe to get notified when new posts are published.
