In this week’s web design and development news roundup, you’ll learn about conducting a UX audit, find out why GOV.UK chose the YouTube video player for their videos, discover how to keep your WordPress site secure, 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
Overnight, the world-famous statue of Christ the Redeemer in Brazil was lit up in solidarity with countries around the world who are fighting the #coronavirus
It included messages of hope and resilience.
— Goodable (@Goodable) March 19, 2020
User Experience
- When you conduct a UX audit, it’s crucial to identify what organizations want to get out of it. One key goal: create an easier user journey.
- With so many organizations moving to a remote work environment, User Testing’s March 25, 2020 webinar Moving from face-to-face feedback to remote methods couldn’t come at a better time.
- Do you like book clubs? Tom Greever is hosting a free online UX book club on Thursdays in April 2020 to discuss a href=”https://twitter.com/annadahlstrom”>Ann Dahlström’s new book Storytelling in Design by Ann Dahlström.
- Users are concerned about the security and privacy of their data. Which is why it’s always best to explain why the phone field is needed, 58 percent of sites don’t.
- For some reason, I’ve been missing UX Magazine articles. Glad to read this one about writing and designing effective public health guidance. My key takeaways: Know your audience, use clear languague, include graphics where appropriate. Plus, I love the vintage public safety posters!
Accessibility
- Inclusive Design 24, the 24-hour online conference about all things inclusive design, has announced their call for speakers. The event will be held September 17, 2020.
- The new WordToEPUB tool from The Daisy Consortium offers
a simple and straightforward method of converting Word documents to valid and accessible EPUB files.
- Include descriptive text in your tweet. Or add alternative text to tweets with screenshots.
It is easy to attach a screenshot to a tweet. It is also easy to describe that in text. If you don’t do that you are excluding many people from your important message if they are blind or have a visual impairment #accessibility #a11y
— Richard Morton (@accessibleweb) March 18, 2020
- In light of COVID-19, many schools have moved their instruction online. It’s crucial that those online learning platforms are accessible to all students, says Kenneth Marcus, Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights for the U.S. Department of Education in this seven-minute video.
- I’ve been puzzling over which video player to use on my site; I’ve changed the player three times in the past four years. Which is why I was glad to read that Gov.UK chose to use the YouTube video player for their videos.
WordPress
- The third release candidate for WordPress 5.4 is available for testing. The release candidate fixes eight bugs and addresses improvements to the About page.
- Keeping your site secure is critical; check out the seven steps for securing your WordPress site. Note: I don’t recommend step seven for whitelisting the dashboard login.
- WooCommerce version 4.0 has been released, with a more efficient workflow and enhanced reporting tools. The biggest new feature is WooCommerce Admin, which has been incorporated into WooCommerce Core.
- You have two options for setting up donations on your WordPress site: set up a simple donate button or use a WordPress plugin. WP Lift explains both options and reviews four donation plugins as it explains how to accept donations on WordPress.
CSS and HTML
- Oh my word. This incredible sunset is created completely in CSS.
See the Pen
Pure CSS Landscape – An Evening in Southwold by Ben Evans (@ivorjetski)
on CodePen. - If you’re into typography, filmmaker Gary Hustwit is streaming his Helvetica documentary about typography, graphic design, and global visual culture free through March 24, 2020.
- Are you a designer looking to transition into coding? In the first article of their two-part series, Paul Hanaoka walks you through learning how to use the terminal and text editors.
What I Found Interesting
- There are people always looking out for one another. And there are others who don’t, until it affects them personally. In these times of the COVID-19 pandemic, we’re pulling together separately. Call me an optimist, I think there’s more of the people who care for each other.
- Find yourself working from home for the first time and need to learn how to use Microsoft Teams? Or best practices for working remotely? Thanks to LinkedIn Learning, you have 16 free courses on remote working and virtual communication tools to help you more easily transition to remote work.
- If you’re looking to set up freezer meals for yourself, your family, or friends, look no further than Cami’s guide for batch cooking freezer meals. She includes helpful tips on what to consider (don’t forget desserts and breakfasts!) along with links to almost two dozen recipes.
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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.
