In this week’s web design and development news roundup, you’ll discover a better way to notify users without appearing spammy, learn about accessible videoconference tools, find tips on creating CSS illustrations, 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
Listen.
The best way to be interesting is to be interested.
Stop being on transmit, and flip the switch to being on receive.
Listen hard, listen without thinking about what you are about to say.
Good listeners are sought after.
— DO Lectures (@DOLectures) June 19, 2020
User Experience
- Every time I read one of their case studies, I nod my head. Dan Benoni and Louis-Xavier Lavallee point out in their two-minute case study there’s a better way to notify users without appearing spammy.
When you force people to do something, they tend to do the opposite of what you want.
- Do you use the Balsamiq wireframing tool? You’ll be interested in their dev update for June 19, 2020 with the announcement of long-awaited Image Links in Balsamiq Cloud, Balsamiq for Google Drive, Balsamiq for Confluence Cloud, and Balsamiq for Jira Cloud.
- Review your personas regularly.
Next time you create a persona consider adding an expiry date to it. I often see organisations working with personas that haven’t been reviewed in years to check that they are still valid.
— Paul Boag (@boagworld) June 19, 2020
- After more than 20 years of creating online passwords, it’s wonderful when an organization takes the time to design a good password creation process. Which is why I give Oxford University Press a UX win this month.
Accessibility
- It wasn’t surprising to me to learn Zoom is considered one of the most accessible videoconferencing tools. While other tools offer accessibility options, they’re not as complete as Zoom.
- Appreciate Steve Faulkner asking the question, How much user research is done prior to the creation of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) success criteria and Understanding and Techniques pages? The answer from Alastair Campbell, co-editor of WCAG.
- Shoutout to Michigan State University for their initiative to support incoming blind students with electronic Braille displays. At no cost to the students.
- When Twitter announced their new audio tweet feature, it caught everyone’s attention. Including accessibility community members wondering why there was no transcript feature. After many tweets and conversations, the Twitter design team has committed to doing better.
We get better because of the feedback from the community. Keep it coming. For accessibility we need to move from being reactive to proactive. https://t.co/NnP72VRGSl
— Dantley Davis (@dantley) June 19, 2020
- If you’re an event/conference organizer looking to make your event more accessible, Access SIG CHI has an excellent guide for accessible remote attendance with tips on technology, moderators, participants, questions, and more.
WordPress
- The first beta of the WooCommerce 4.3 version is available for download and testing. WooCommerce 4.3 is scheduled for release in July 2020.
- Glad to see the enhancements in the Block Editor announced this week, including options for selecting headings and filtering latest posts by author.
- Duplicate Post is one of my favorite plugins, I include it on almost all my client sites. How exciting to learn Duplicate Post is joining Yoast, with plans for more enhancements and integration with Yoast SEO.
- It’s been talked about for a while and it’s now official: WordPress bumps the minimum PHP requirement to version 7.2.
CSS and HTML
- I’m in awe of the incredible CSS illustration work by designers, but wonder, how do they do it? Thanks to Jhey Tompkins for sharing their advice for complex CSS illustrations.
To my surprise, this technique isn’t common knowledge. But it’s invaluable for creating accurate CSS illustrations.
- You see it everywhere. What is it? The Cooper Black font. Learn more about the favorite font and how it started in Chicago one hundred years ago, in this ten-minute video.
- We’ve known about it for years, but Adobe has finally announced end of life date for Flash: December 31, 2020.
- This question comes up frequently at our meetup events, where do you learn HTML and CSS? Everyone learns differently, which is why I appreciate this CSS Tricks post highlighting books, courses, articles, and of course, hands-on training when you create your own site.
- While not specific to CSS or HTML, it’s good advice about that bug that you can’t quite figure out.
It doesn’t matter how much experience you have in tech, there will be days where you’re stumped by a bug and so frustrated you want to quit.
Everyone goes through it. You are not alone. You don’t have to know everything to have a great career.
— Emma Bostian 🐞 (@EmmaBostian) June 19, 2020
- In just another +1 for subgrid, Chris Coyier explains his use cases for subgrid and how it can make it easier to create a layout.
What I Found Interesting
- With all the video conference options—Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Zoom—it’s hard to remember what the steps are to start a video call. Thanks to The Next Web for explaining the quickest way to start a Google Meet call.
- Power to the People art installation launches today, as students in Detroit complete Juneteenth street mural along Woodward, the main thoroughfare in downtown Detroit.
- Great news! After initially saying they would only offer end-to-end encryption to paid customers, Zoom announced end-to-end encryption will be available to all users.
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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.
