February 4, 2022: Weekly Roundup of Web Design and Development News

In this week’s web design and development news roundup, you’ll learn why settings are not a design failure, find out why accessibility matters, discover new features added to browsers in January 2022 , 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

Best part of being a solo dev is never having to defend your decisions. Worst part of being a solo dev is never having to defend your decisions

— aj (@ajlkn) February 1, 2022

User Experience

• While many people may view settings as a failure to make design decisions, Adrien Griveau argues settings are not a design failure. Settings can improve users’ lives by providing options to create a more comfortable environment and experience.
• From giving hints to the user to type-to-select to animations (or removing animations), you’ll find a slew of recommendations for improving app context menus in Michael Villar’s guide to creating intuitive context menus.
• Join UX Research and Strategy for their February 16, 2022 meetup when they present First Year Reflections of UX Researchers. Hear from new UX researchers about starting out in the industry at this free online event (pre-registration required).
• This week, I gave a UX win to State Senator Dayna Polehanki for her email newsletter. I wish more email newsletter producers would follow her lead.
  
• Considering a transition from your current role to service design? Amina Omar talks about her journey from technology policy advisor to service designer at Government Digital Services.
  

  My mentor helped me understand what a service designer does day-to-day and what skills I needed to develop further.

• Looking to be a mentor to a user experience (UX) professional or someone getting started in the UX field? The User Experience Professionals Association (UXPA) Mentorship Program is accepting applications for mentors (Google Form) for the upcoming March 2022 cohort. Deadline to apply: February 15, 2022.

Accessibility

• In this week’s Jukebox podcast from WP Tavern, Nathan Wrigley chats with Amber Hinds on why accessibility matters (44 minutes). I really enjoyed their conversation as they discussed accessibility issues on websites, legal concerns, and where to start remediating inaccessible websites.
• Sanjay Nasta talks with Jeff Kline, author of Strategic IT Accessibility: Enabling the Organization, about the 8 key elements for creating a culture of accessibility. First up: there must be a digital accessibility policy that drives the organization’s culture. It’s the foundation for an organization’s accessibility culture.
• What you need to know about creating accessible podcasts is my recap from 3PlayMedia’s Going Beyond the Listener: Accessibility Audio for Podcasting webinar with my friend Nic Steenhout.
• Whether you’re a developer, designer, digital strategist, or content writer, you’ll gain insights from Eric Eggert’s No access without disabilities post.
  

  Of course, the best thing you can do is to observe a wide variety of disabled people and learn how they use everyday websites.

• Learn best practices for adding alternative text to images, making your images accessible to everyone, at Knowbility’s Be a Digital Ally: Alternative Text webinar on February 17, 2022. It’s the first webinar kicking off the Be a Digital A11y series. The webinar is free, but requires pre-registration.

WordPress

• Interesting news this week from Joel Spoelsky, co-founder of Fog Creek Software (where Trello and Glitch were created) and co-creator of Stack Overflow. Making the web better, with blocks! announces the Block Protocol, a open, free, non-proprietary protocol to be used in an application. I wonder how this will impact block development in WordPress?
• If you’ve transitioned to a block theme, you might discover you miss the Customizer in WordPress 5.9. David Hayes points out that the Customizer isn’t gone, you can still access it (but only if you know the URL).
• While others wonder about the use case, the functionality offered in the new Super List Block plugin fits my needs: nesting blocks inside blocks. Specifically, that’s what I’ve done for this weekly roundup post every week, but only through code view. Good to read WP Tavern’s review of the Super List Block plugin by Aurooba Ahmed. I plan to post my experience using the plugin next week.
• Missed the deadline to submit your speaker proposal for WordCamp Europe 2022? You can still apply! This year the organizing team is accepting late applications onto a backup waitlist.

CSS and HTML

• If you’re new to CSS intrinsic sizing and wondering how to use fit-content in your projects,  Ahmad Shadeed shared use cases for CSS fit-content.
• Embedding social media and adding social media widgets to your website can increase carbon emissions (power used for hosting, development end users’ devices) and decrease web performance. In her Smashing Magazine article, Michelle Barker explains how you can reduce the web’s carbon footprint by optimizing social media embeds.
• When a new browser version comes out, think twice before you jump into using new features, says Eric Bailey. Evergreen browsers doesn’t necessarily mean immediately available.
  

  It can be very tempting to rush and use the new and the shiny.

• Speaking of new features in browsers, Rachel Andrew takes a look at some of the interesting features that landed in stable and beta web browsers in January 2022.
• I get it. Everything keeps changing. How do you keep up with web development without falling into despair? It’s a common issue in many fields; Baldur Bjarnason recommends one method that works. A method that requires less effort on your part to keep up with the changes.

What I Found Interesting

• Launched last year for Android, Google’s VPN is now available on the iPhone.
• We’re all afraid of something. But don’t let fear hold you back, says my friend Eric Mann. Especially when it’s a passion project.
• For my birding friends and others interested in birdwatching, Vox has a wonderful story about Wingspan, the popular tabletop board game about birds.

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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.