In this week’s web design and development news roundup, you’ll learn about a day in the life of an interaction designer, find out why there are no bad questions in accessibility, discover HTML semantics, 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!
Tweet of the Week
Let’s all say it together:
— Holly Schroeder (she/her) (@314UXHolly) March 22, 2022
My value as a human is not determined by my education, job, title, paycheck, or lack of the above. Nor is it dependent on what strangers on the internet say about me.
User Experience
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Learn what a day in the life of an interaction designer at Government Digital Service (GDS) is like as three designers in different career stages tell you about their work.
I have found my role has been to advocate for user-centred design (UCD) within my discovery team.
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What does a potato have to do with user experience? That’s what Steve Krug, author of the Don’t Make Me Think, wants us to remember in You say “potato,” I say “focus group.” Be prepared for people misunderstanding what usability testing is about when you first introduce it to your organization. (Personally, I’m a fan of Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong’s version of Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off where they sing about potato and potahto.)
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Join the Design Systems Roundtable with Product Leaders discussion on March 30, 2022 when they discuss what value a design system can bring to your product and team. Hosted by thoughtbot, the event is free, but pre-registration is required.
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Can people accomplish what they set out to do?
For any research, setting a purpose is very difficult, most of the time we work with the solution lens on. We think about how people use our solution. We see the trouble they have with it when it’s best to see how well a person is accomplishing their purpose. #problemspace
— Indi Young (@indiyoung) March 21, 2022 -
Who hasn’t visited a website, found what you were looking for, only to be interrupted by a popup inviting you to subscribe to a newsletter Annoying, isn’t it? That’s not the user experience you expected, but it may be what the sales department expected. So they can generate leads. As Vitaly Friedman explains, good design is all about the timing.
Accessibility
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I wish more designers, content strategists, user experience professionals, and developers knew this. Mark Steadman reminds us not to be afraid to ask others, there are no bad questions in accessibility.
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In his 17-minute Making Games More Accessible Can Be Easy video, Brandon Zahand shares resources Microsoft Gaming Accessibility team put together to help game developers and publishers produce accessible games. Zahand has years of experience creating accessible games and currently is senior gaming accessibility manager at Microsoft.
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Consider how your typography and color choices affect people who have low vision.
Todays visually impaired participant struggled with small text, lightweight fonts & italics, one form field asked for any special assistance requests. They put “I need documents in 20pt Bold Comic Sans” – it wasn’t a joke.
— Chris Spalton (@ChrisSpalton) March 24, 2022
It was by far the easiest font for them read.#a11y #ux -
Mark your calendar! After taking a one-year hiatus, WordPress Accessibility Day returns November 2-3, 2022. The free 24-hour event will be online. More information about the event, call for speakers, and registration will be posted soon.
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Accessibility plays an important role in every project and should be part of the project from the beginning. But that’s not how many projects proceed. Learn what happens when a project team shifts accessibility left, changing their perspective.
WordPress
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I missed the conversations on Twitter and other channels about the plugin, but I’m glad to learn the Russian pro-war plugin was removed from the directory.
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Call for speakers is open! Apply to speak at WordCamp US 2022. This year’s event is planned to be an in-person event with live streaming for those who cannot attend.
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How can we make WordPress something that’s built for everyone? In her 7-minute Is WordPress Made for Me? podcast episode Josepha Haden Chomphosy highlights three things:
- Testing
- Support
- Communication
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Whoa. That’s amazing growth.
Not enough people are talking about the fact that WordPress gains 3-4% market share *of the entire web* annually.
— swyx (@swyx) March 24, 2022
Let me rephrase: WordPress adds 1 Shopify **every year**.https://t.co/7bzkvbcUgA pic.twitter.com/Pgottw6ZJc -
I’ve been curious about how to do this, so I’m glad Justin Tadlock explains how he built a recipe card with the WordPress block editor. Created entirely with core WordPress blocks (except for the social sharing section).
CSS and HTML
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Stacy Schlanger shares her takeaways from axe-con, focusing on the two CSS talks by Rachel Andrew and Stephanie Eckles. What I liked about Schlanger’s notes: she walks through code examples discussing how
display: contents,color-contrast (), and others work. -
I’ve been writing HTML for over 25 years (I celebrate my 25th anniversary of web design this month!). When XHTML came out, the structure and requirements attracted my attention to detail. And that’s how I continued to write HTML. It’s time for me to update my skills and write HTML, the HTML way.
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Eric Bailey introduces us to Windows High Contrast mode, Forced Colors mode and CSS Custom Properties as he explains how modern CSS can create flexible, maintainable, and adaptive digital experiences.
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Sadly, yes. I wish more people would take time to learn HTML and CSS deeply.
The power of mastering HTML & CSS is often overlooked
— Lucian Tartea (@luciantartea) March 23, 2022 -
Have you already discovered HTML semantics? It’s an excerpt from a new course and book from Chris Ferdinandi.
What I Found Interesting
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Cynthia Ng writes another letter of thanks. I met Ng years ago through the Twitter accessibility community. Since then she’s changed careers and now works as a staff support engineer at GitLab.
Thank you for taking the time to read this letter. Like anyone, it is very difficult to be successful without the support of others.
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Considering living life on the road? What does that mean? For Lee Drozak, who I met years ago at WordCamp Kent, it means making your business portable. Find out how she does it, the benefits and disadvantages, and how you can make it work for you.
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Somehow, despite working in web design for 25 years, I missed The Useless Pages website. In his latest post in The History of the Web series, Jay Hoffman discusses the long tail of uselessness.
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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.
