In this week’s web design and development news roundup, you’ll learn about the current state of checkout UX, find out what to expect in the upcoming WordPress 5.8.2 version, discover a helpful online course for responsive web design, 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
In a world where you can be anything, be the person who ends meetings early
— Laura (@Loewhaley) October 13, 2021
User Experience
- For many user experience practitioners, the answer is five to the question of how many participants for a UX interview. Maria Rosala explains why there isn’t a golden number; it depends.
- Baymard Institute reviewed over 37,000 checkout user interface elements for their benchmark study of the current state of checkout UX. One of their findings: average e-commerce site has 31 preventable UX issues in checkout.
- World Usability Day returns November 11, 2021 with a range of online events, including all-day conferences, panel discussions, presentations, and lightning talks. I’m planning to attend several events, join me?
- I just learned about the online UX Research Meetup and Event Guide. Each month they publish UX Research events for that month, focusing on events in English. While most events are free, some charge a low fee.
- Have you noticed these three design trends on websites? Personally, I’m not a fan of animation that readers can’t turn off in the the peek-a-boo trend. I see that as a usability issue.
Accessibility
- Join Ted Drake, Intuit’s Global Accessibility Leader for Accessibility Insights, a webinar on November 9, 2021. Hosted by AbilityNet, Drake will talk about the future of tech and digital inclusion as well as Intuit’s inclusion and diversity practices. The webinar is free but requires pre-registration.
- To learn web accessibility, you need to learn HTML.
When people ask me how they can learn accessibility I always tell them they have to start by really understanding HTML. They say “I want to hire someone to teach me accessibility, not HTML.” That’s like saying “I want to be a SCOTUS justice but I don’t want to go to learn law.”
— 🎃 Est-HELL 🦇 (@estellevw) November 4, 2021
- Lainey Feingold shares her latest legal update, an accessibility overlay edition highlighting four recent legal development. There’s some news to be hopeful about, but it’s very concerning to learn two web access advocates are being sued by an overlay company.
- I’ve updated my post of accessibility and inclusive design meetup groups around the world. Almost 50 groups! Since groups have moved online for their events, everyone can attend.
- Microsoft is accepting project proposals focused on low-cost assistive technology for disabled people outside of the United States, especially in low- and middle-income communities. Deadline to submit the AI for Accessibility Grant Application is January 12, 2022.
WordPress
- The first release candidate for WordPress 5.8.2 is available for download and testing. Final release is expected November 10, 2021.
- In episode 19 of WP Briefing, WordPress’s executive director Josepha Haden Chomphosy discusses the People of WordPress series, highlighting the work of HeroPress and Topher DeRosia.
- Interesting news: Automattic has acquired WPScan, the WordPress vulnerability database used by many WordPress designers and developers. Like Jeff Chandler, I’m curious what the future is for WPScan, given it’s used by Jetpack Scan.
- Thanks to PootlePress for this helpful beginners guide to creating Custom Posts with the Advanced Custom Fields plugin and Gutenberg Full Site Editing. Worth bookmarking!
CSS and HTML
- Wonderful to learn about Jeremy Keith’s new Learn Responsive Design free online course. Five modules are currently available; 11 more modules coming soon. In his latest post about writing for web.dev, Keith discusses Chrome Dev Summit and argues about Google’s monopoly. (I completely agree with his comments about AMP and Chrome competing only as a web browser.)
- Spread the word about these Developer Tools secrets that shouldn’t be secrets from Christian Heilmann. The secrets apply to all Chromium browsers, which includes Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Brave, and others.
- Oh yes, I remember the browser wars of the late 1990’s. I had only been designing websites for a few years. The wars between Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, and Opera captured the attention of everyone who worked on the web.
- Helpful! Fontfacer.io allows you to drop all your font files onto their page and autogenerates all the CSS font rules you need to add to your site.
What I Found Interesting
- While Google Search Console still recommends submitting to the community forums first, you can now report urgent issues within Google Search Console itself.
- I admit it, I like tent camping. But if you’d prefer a bit more comfort, at a rather inexpensive cost, check out the pop-up cabin that’s a huge step over a cramped little tent.
- New for me, Image Upscaler is a free online tool that uses artificial intelligence to increase the size of images.
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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.
