In this week’s web design and development news roundup, you’ll learn about researching and modifying your design for global audiences, find the results of WebAIM’s third survey of web accessibility practitioners, discover how to handle text over images in CSS, 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
Every company needs a “how we do remote” blog post to make it easy for applicants to understand the day-to-day.
It’s an opportunity to set expectations, in addition to highlighting unique benefits & perks.
— Brianne Kimmel (@briannekimmel) March 22, 2021
User Experience
- In creating an online learning platform for an education company, Alvaro Gil explains their approach for conducting research for a company expanding from in-person language courses to an online component. I enjoyed learning how Gil’s research narrowed down the pain points the design could address .
- Consider this story the next time you discuss plans to add infinite scroll to a website.
As a…
– website visitor
I want to…
– have new content load automatically when I reach the bottom of the page
So that…
– I can never see the footer pic.twitter.com/mi5x3Lj8bS— Shit User Story (@ShitUserStory) March 23, 2021
- Why do you have other people proofread survey questions? Because it’s easy for our words to be misunderstood, says Jeff Sauro and Jim Lewis as they discuss the seven reasons misinterpret survey questions.
- When I coordinated translation and localization projects for a software company, I learned the importance of researching cultural differences. And discovered why our team needed to research and modify our design for global audiences. It took us three development cycles to get it right.
Accessibility
- Over 750 people participated in WebAIM’s third survey of Web Accessibility Practitioners and the survey results are in. One finding I was surprised to learn: NVDA (37%) and VoiceOver (35%) are the most commonly used screen readers for testing, compared to 16% for JAWS (down from 37% in 2014).
- Bas explains what skip links are, why they are useful, how to implement them, and why skip links are important for accessibility.
The label of a skip-link must describe in easy to understand language which section it points to.
- This is one resource I recommend bookmarking: complete guide to accessible front-end components by Smashing Magazine. From checkboxes, color palettes, inputs, and more, you’ll find a library of tools and techniques for your projects.
- Learn more and expand your knowledge of inclusion.
When talking about inclusion issues, beware of only speaking up for yourself or people who share your identity.
Learn what you can about other forms of exclusion, and bring more excluded voices into the conversation.
“The status quo plus me” is not an inclusion advocate’s goal.
— Matt May (@mattmay) March 24, 2021
WordPress
- The Convert to Blocks plugin announced by 10up this week is a helpful tool for everyone with hundreds of posts and pages not yet converted to blocks. The plugin automatically converts existing classic content to blocks when a page or post is edited.
- Save the date! WordCamp Europe 2021 returns June 7 to June 10, 2021 as a virtual event. Call for speakers and sponsors will be announced soon.
- Podcasts have returned to WP Tavern! First up, Nathan Wrigley interviews Josepha Haden Chomphosy on the past, present, and future of WordPress (41-minutes).
- I noticed the unusual link to my site in my analytics. Someone had stolen content from my site, word for word. An entire 700+ word blog post. No credit to me. I only discovered it because they hot linked to one of my original images. If it’s happened to you and you’re wondering what to do, check out WP Beginner’s guide on how to find and remove stolen content in WordPress.
CSS and HTML
- Ahmad Shadeed takes a deep dive into using gradient overlays to handle text over images in CSS, sharing key points about how to make sure it’s accessible.
- I’m not very good at identifying fonts, but maybe you are and will do better than I did with Foont.co, an online game for designers to identify fonts.
- There was a time, over 10 years ago, when many designers published how they created their personal custom horizontal rule. I miss those days. Good to read Sara Soueidan’s post on creating an accessible and atypical horizontal rule using SVG of birds on a wire.
- Great news for designers and developers struggling with browser compatibility in Flexbox, CSS Grid, position: sticky, aspect-ratio, and CSS transforms: Microsoft, Google, Igalia, and other community members have joined forces with the new Compat 2021 group to fix browser compatibility pain points.
- Missed this last week, Craig Buckler has published an excellent how-to on simulating mobile devices with device mode in Chrome. While it’s always best to use a real device, sometimes it’s not possible. Added bonus: you can emulate slow networks with the Throttling tab.
What I Found Interesting
- Do you know what the small pocket in the front pocket of your jeans, is for? I didn’t until I read about it on Gear Patrol, now I know.
- When Google Reader closed down in July 2013, I was one of their thousands of users frustrated with the decision. Lots of theories abounded on why Google chose to shut down such a popular product. Kevin Drum’s post this week on why blog audiences declined over the past decade makes the most sense to me.
- Haikei is a free online tool to generate unique SVG shapes, backgrounds, and patterns. No account needed, ready to use the designs in your projects.
- Want to start a new Google Meet, without going to your calendar? Type “meet.new” in your browser.
If you like what you’ve read today, share the post with your colleagues and friends.
Want to make sure you don’t miss out on updates? Subscribe to get notified when new posts are published.
Did I miss some resources you found this week? I’d love to see them! Post them in the comments below.
