In this week’s web design and development news roundup, you’ll learn about designing digital experiences for autistic children, find out what new features are in WordPress 6.0, discover a fun comic that explains how CSS combinators work, 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
Unpopular opinion: There should be a rotation program for software engineers to gain some insights on how other roles are executed so they avoid thinking software engineering is the hardest role out there.
— Jaana Dogan ヤナ ドガン (@rakyll) May 24, 2022
User Experience
-
When it comes to designing and developing digital experiences for children with autism, it’s important to prioritize clarity, brevity, and engagement, says Estee Rothstein.
Instead of overwhelming children with too many options, always provide a logical, step-by-step progression and clear instructions.
-
Baymard Institute explains what four pitfalls to avoid when displaying price discounts on a product pages. When the price isn’t clear or unsatisfactory, people may never explore the product’s images, description, or reviews. One pitfall to avoid: locating discounts far away from the product price.
-
Abbreviations can be confusing to people. And time-consuming.
As an…
— Shit User Story (@ShitUserStory) May 26, 2022
– employee in tech
I want…
– Everything abbreviated, even when the abbreviation itself takes longer to say than the original, before you even account for the fact that you have to say the original thing for clarification
so that…
– I can save time pic.twitter.com/9aod09u7Vb -
Trying to remember what email address we used for an old online account can be frustrating. REI made it easy for me to get the information. Which is why I give REI a UX win for their look up membership feature.
-
In part 2 of their lessons from project management and UX research collaboration, PH and Anna Lee Anda noted the importance of having a knowledge sharing plan.
We had a few critical team members leave soon after the project.
It would have been good if we were more rigorous about documenting this all ahead so that would have been foundational knowledge for the team.
Accessibility
-
NV Access released version 2022.1 of NVDA (NonVisual Desktop Access), the free screen reader for Microsoft Windows. Note: for Microsoft Office users on 16.0.1500 and higher on Windows 11, NVDA will use UI Automation to access Microsoft Word documents by default.
-
Congrats to the Louisville airport and GoodMaps for using technology to help blind and visually-impaired users navigate the airport. Using GoodMaps technology to create digital maps of building interiors, the GoodMaps Explore apps allows blind and visually impaired users to find restrooms, food options, retail stores, water fountains, charging stations, and more.
-
I wish we all had that magic wand Hidde mentions in accessibility from different perspectives. As a freelance developer, Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) auditor, and full-time member of the Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Accessibility Initiative, Hidde de Vries has a unique perspective to share.
In the majority of cases, an inaccessible pattern can be addressed in code, by developers.
Might some focus on developer experience be a sensible means to an end?
-
Mark your calendar! My friend Rachele DiTullio is giving her talk The Web is Inherently Accessible on June 8, 2022. The free TPGi webinar is for front-end developers or anyone using HTML to create web content. You’ll learn how design choices can make the web inaccessible.
WordPress
-
Released earlier this week, WordPress 6.0 “Arturo” brings with it an improved writing experience (you can finally select across multiple blocks!), style switching, a new color panel design, and more.
-
Kristen Wright has rounded up the top 20 new features & improvements in WordPress 6.0. I was interested to learn about the new Post Author Biography block, which displays the author biography. (I’m currently using GeneratePress code to create it on this blog. I’d be glad to move it to a core block.)
-
In the latest WP Tavern Jukebox podcast episode, host Nathan Wrigley chats with Mark Root-Wiley about creating standards for CSS in WordPress. As Root-Wiley says,
It’s time for the CSS to be better, organized, more consistent, and just communicated better.
-
I was excited to learn WordPress.com introduced their new WordPress Starter plan, a $5/month plan for people looking for simple websites, without a lot of functionality (beyond what’s provided with blocks). What I didn’t like: the new plan comes with ads. Customers paying for a hosting plan don’t want ads on their website. Do better, WordPress.com.
CSS and HTML
-
Fun comic from my friend Alvaro Montoro explaining how CSS combinators work. Did you know there are five CSS combinators? I didn’t know about the column combinator, but learned it’s experimental and not currently supported in browsers.
-
After using plugins to create table of contents, it’s refreshing to read an article on creating the perfect table of contents with only HTML and CSS. Thanks to Nicholas C. Zakas for making sure their solution was also screen reader friendly.
-
Daniel Yuschick walks you though how to manage accessible design system themes with
CSS color-contrast(). Which helps you enforce contrast and accessibility in your user interfaces. Note: The CSS color-contrast function is an experimental feature, whose purpose is to select greatest contrasting color from a list when compared against a base color. -
In a good craftsman never blames their tools, Chris Ferdinandi reminds us it doesn’t matter if you use Sublime Text or a free code editor. Or a $350 microphone or $20 headset with built-in microphone for your podcast. Take the time to learn your tools and practice your craft.
What I Found Interesting
-
Real product reviews from blogs and community sites are a solution for driving conversions is one of the many learnings from the 2022 Global Search Central Virtual Unconference. Somehow I missed announcements of this year’s event.
-
In this week’s Wonder Tools newsletter, Jeremy Caplan highlights Listy, a free app for making lists of your favorite things. Available on Mac, iOS, or Android, Listy doesn’t require you to register or login.
-
I remember when Management by Walking Around was a popular phrase. But with COVID and how much people use Zoom (and its equivalents), that phrase may have changed to Management by Zooming Around. Learn 5 things managers fear about Zoom and why they shouldn’t.
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.
