June 24, 2022 Weekly Roundup of Web Design and Development News

In this week’s web design and development news roundup, you’ll learn how to conduct a UX research kick-off meeting, find an accessible marketing playbook, discover helpful multilingual website design tips, 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

"Good writing for the web is about creating communications in which people can find what they need, understand what they find, and act appropriately […] Plain language is part of user-centered design."
—Ginny Redish via @interacting #uxdesign #copywriting

— Poli Dey (@PoliDey) June 23, 2022

User Experience

• Preeti Srinivasan shares tips for planning and conducting a UX research kick-off meeting. One important tip: create an agenda and timebox each agenda item.

• Excited my friend Mike Wojan is one of the three University of Michigan School of Information graduates sharing their insights on UX design and their work. I met Mike years ago at one of the Accessibility Summit group meeting room events I co-hosted and organized at the University of Michigan.

• Your About Us page is crucial for users who view it as a way to establish trust and credibility. Personally, if I don’t find an About page or section on a website, I usually leave. Christopher Wong shares helpful tips and advice for learning to design About Us pages.

  The page’s primary purpose isn’t to get you to buy something or explain how the product is being used: it’s to shine a light on the more human aspects of the business.

• In their 31 minute-podcast, Google Search team member Martin Splitt chats with Google Search Relation team members Gary Illyes, and Lizzi Sassman about the relationship between UX and SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Note: the podcast is published on YouTube; the episode transcript is available.

• There are many approaches to implement the Think Aloud method in usability testing, according to Jeff Sauro and Jim Lewis. Be aware that different approaches may take longer and/or require a moderator.

Accessibility

• Thanks to Sam Evans for bringing my attention to Google’s resource for creating disability inclusive and accessible marketing. The free accessible marketing playbook was developed in partnership with Disability:IN () and LaVant Consulting.

• Reminder about design and inclusion

  “Design without inclusion is injustice” @AmyHeymans – this is everything. Accessibility, performance, language. Especially in a time when tech is the only way people can access services—that tech _must_ reinforce inclusion and build trust June 21, 2022

• Poor color contrast is a common accessibility issue on websites and web apps. Eric Karkovack shares his guide on how to test and repair color combinations.

• In the ongoing story about website overlays and accessibility, Karl Groves asks why the International Association of Accessibility Professionals (IAAP) gives special treatment to overlays.

  The IAAP does not need to create special best practices for overlays or any other type of product.

• As I do each quarter, I’ve updated my post of accessibility and inclusive design meetup groups around the world. Almost 50 groups! And first time I’ve included a group focused on inclusive design within cities.

  

WordPress

• Given a recent German court ruling against a website owner who violated General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) for using Google hosted webfonts, WordPress.org is strongly urging theme authors to switch to locally-hosted webfonts.

• That’s pretty cool!

  You know it's a good day when #WordPress makes an appearance in the NYT Crossword. pic.twitter.com/8SZktign2F

  — Matt DeSiena (@theinstantwin) June 22, 2022

• While I’m not fond of the headline (what are the factors that qualify a “best” plugin?), I discovered several new plugins in Kyle Van Deusen’s best WordPress plugins you never heard of. Van Deusen used crowdsourcing to ask WordPress users to recommend some of their favorite, but not popular, plugins.

• Planning to launch a multi-language website? Check out Colin Newcomer’s eight multilingual website design tips and best practices to help you create the best experience for your visitors. First recommendation: make sure your language switcher is in a prominent location.

CSS and HTML

• Another impressive work of CSS art by Álvaro Montoro of Moses Flexing the Red Sea. (Created only with HTML and CSS.)

• Thanks to Estelle for the tip!

  CSS: Want your first 5 list items to be bold?
  
  li:nth-of-type(-n + 5) {font-weight: bold;}
  
  Start with the # of list items you want to impact, then increment backward with -n.

  — Estelle Weyl (@estellevw) June 21, 2022

• In a follow-up to his post on text resize and reflow, Eric Eggert published his findings on text-overflow: ellipsis and how it’s harmful. Did you know text-overflow: ellipsis only works on one line of text?

• With the CSS :has() selector, you can style an element based on its descendants or any succeeding elements. In his tutorial, Ibadehin Mojeed explains when and how to use the :has() selector. Note: Safari is the only browser that supports :has() by default, though you can get support in Chrome with an experimental features flag.

What I Found Interesting

• Excellent post from Smashing Magazine discussing things you wished you knew earlier in your career. One of my favorite recommendations, something I didn’t start for years: keep records of your achievements.

• This week I was thrilled to hear the American Kestrel’s call for the first time! American Kestrels don’t sing, but they have several calls. And I learned from Kenn Kaufman the difference between bird songs and calls.

  The singing is a behavior unto itself, while calls are usually just accompanying other behavior.

• Well, the announcement about Twitters Notes was news to me. I didn’t realize Twitter was pursuing long form content. Competition for WordPress and Tumblr?

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