In this week’s web design and development news roundup, you’ll learn how to better communicate the significance of user research to stakeholders, find a webinar on accessible typography, discover what WordPress block themes are all about, 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
Just because there’s space on a screen, doesn’t mean you have to fill it.
Design is done when there’s nothing left to take away.#ui #design
— Jason Ogle (@jasonogle) January 12, 2022
User Experience
- As part of the User Experience Professionals Association (UXPA) International 2022 Conference, you’re invited to submit a short video for their UX Video Wall. Share in the video what UX is like in your country, what makes your UX work unique, and what challenges you face. Deadline: February 1, 2022.
- Plain language from the early 20th century.
“Good style favors short words, short sentences, short paragraphs, short stories.” That’s what the Instructions for Correspondents of The Associated Press said in 1911. We agree.
— APStylebook (@APStylebook) January 10, 2022
- For their first event in 2022, Content Strategy Seattle hosts Rebecca Evanhoe presenting Where Conversation Design Meets Design Strategy on January 19, 2022. While the event is free, pre-registration is required.
- After 1,100+ hours of testing leading grocery websites, Baymard Institute highlights five of their high-level UX findings for online groceries. First up: always remember convenience is king. Users rely heavily on features that allow them to repurchase past items.
- While there is no magic fix, you can take steps to better communicate the value and significance of user research and UX to stakeholders. One key method: identify quick wins to show the value of UX faster.
Accessibility
- In What’s Red & Black & Also Not Read?, Andrew Somers takes a closer look at the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2 contrast guidelines to determine if they help color vision issues. His findings are not what you might expect.
- Thanks to Kate Kalcevich for her in-depth article hiring for digital accessibility roles in your organization. What I liked about Kalcevich’s post was her discussion of the need for an executive champion and how to approach building accessibility capacity in your organization.
- I hope you’ll consider joining me January 17, 2022 when Carie Fisher discusses Accessible Typography at the WordPress Accessibility Meetup. The event is free and online, but requires pre-registration.
- After seeing multiple tweets recently about the number of accessibility issues in the Gutenberg repository, long-time WordPress Accessibility Team member Joe Dolson reminds us to not judge progress by the number of open issues.
- If you’re planning to add animation and flashing content to your web pages, pay heed to Patrick Lauke’s tips to avoid causing seizures, motion sickness, or other issues for users. Always give people control over animations and movement.
WordPress
- A reminder to WordPress users: the customizer will disappear for some block theme users. Since block theme allows theme developers to build designs from blocks, settings can be edited by users via the site editor and global styles system. Be aware: there some missing options.
- Agreed. This is so frustrating that block settings aren’t consistent.
It’s kinda frustrating how some blocks support some dimension settings, or even typography settings, while others don’t.
I know some of these are still being thought through, but we need more consistency throughout the WordPress editing experience as a whole.
— Rich Tabor (@richard_tabor) January 7, 2022
- Like Jeff Chandler, I believe the mask policy for in-person WordPress events needs to be more specific. I also agree there’s no safe way currently to host in-person events, given how easily Omicron spreads.
- Still wondering what block themes are all about? Justin Tadlock brings you up-to-date with What are Block Themes? What You Need to Know Before WordPress 5.9. Unlike the introduction of the block editor in 2018, block themes are opt-in.
- With the release of WordPress 5.9 later this month comes Twenty Twenty-Two, the new default theme. In their post, Torque Magazine reviews the Twenty Twenty-Two theme: a full-fledged block theme, highlighting features and changes. One important change: with global styles being managed in
theme.json, you won’t find many styles instyle.css. - Another change to be aware of in the upcoming WordPress 5.9 release: the new Navigation block. One of the key features to know: you’ll be able to reuse menus across different themes.
CSS and HTML
- Have you ever considered creating type with LEGO bricks? That’s what Craig Ward is doing, creating letterforms using LEGO bricks.
- If you missed it, Josh Comeau has updated his helpful post on making beautiful gradients with CSS.
- Do you use Firefox on macOS? If yes, did you discover during your testing that system color scheme settings aren’t being followed?
✏️ Firefox changed how it respects `prefers-color-scheme` styles on macOS; by default it will look at your browser theme instead of the system setting.
You can change this via about:config https://t.co/ludAewc3T2— Hidde (@hdv) January 12, 2022
- Created by Laurie Voss, The Angle Bracket was a tournament of HTML tags (seven rounds, over 75,000 votes!) conducted on Twitter in November 2021. Not surprised by the winner! What I loved learning about The Angle Bracket site: no JavaScript used on the site, all interactions are created with CSS. Guess how many times Voss had to manually type < and > for the tournament.
- Have you found Álvaro Montoro’s CSS illustrations already? Stunning! Here’s his latest, a new cartoon character created entirely in CSS.
See the Pen
Cartoon character wearing a hashnode t-shirt by Alvaro Montoro (@alvaromontoro)
on CodePen.
What I Found Interesting
- One good reason to write in longhand more often: it improves your learning and memory. You learn faster and better remember what you learned.
- Looks like the Snowy Owl enjoyed its tour of Washington DC! It’s rare for a bird that’s at home in the Arctic to travel that far south in winter.
- I’m a longtime fan of Quantum Leap, the 1990’s science fiction series staring Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell. The news of a possible reboot of the Quantum Leap series had me smiling this week.
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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.
