In this week’s web design and development news roundup, you’ll learn about the dark patterns in autofill, find a helpful 30-minute video on social media accessibility, discover the impressive tinman illustration created with CSS and one div element, 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.
The key is not “time management” but “energy management” – spend time being with people who give you energy, eat/exercise/sleep to give you maximum energy, and then avoid energy-draining people – and you will see your productivity and effectiveness soar.
— Janet Bannister (@jebannister) October 12, 2021
Tweet of the Week
User Experience
- Designers and developers can build trust and credibility in their work by making good use of autofill and autocomplete features, says Alvaro Montoro in The Autofill Dark Pattern.
State clearly which data will be collected.
- While storyboarding is often associated with envisioning and planning out films and commercials, they’re also excellent tools for designers to tell stories. One way to use storyboard in your design process: validate your understanding of your user research.
- People need to see and understand how it benefits them.
People you’re trying to persuade to do user research or improve #Design or #UX have to see themselves and their goals and their struggles in everything you do and say.
Which means your message has to be “here’s how that helps you get what you already want.”
— Joe Natoli 🎃 (@joenatoli) October 15, 2021
- As one of my favorite sites to learn about user experience and usability, I’m glad to see Nielsen Norman Group publish collections of their helpful articles and videos on specific topics. This week’s collection, with a recommended reading order: study guide for remote usability testing. Worth bookmarking!
Accessibility
- Excellent news! YouTube is rolling out the ability to add an audio described track to videos. Good tip from Gareth Ford Williams: integrate the audio described script before the final edit of your video.
- Microsoft announced two new one-hour Accessibility Learning Webinars where anyone with a disability can learn about the latest accessibility features. Windows 11 Accessibility Overview is October 27, 2021 and Using Windows 11 with a Screen Reader is November 17, 2021.
- I was excited to read this tweet from Andrew Hayward, who works on the Twitter accessibility team. My response to Andrew: make choice once and allow it to carry over to other browsers and apps.
If you could choose to get a reminder before you Tweeted an image without a description, would you want/expect that choice to carry over from your browser to your phone (for example)? Or would you rather have the option to set them up differently? Right answers only. pic.twitter.com/o6Ln8Q7JwN
— Andrew Hayward (@arhayward) October 14, 2021
- Alexa Heinrich shares basic best practices on how you can make social media accessible to everyone in her 30-minute Accessibility in Social Media video. You’ll find helpful tips and examples as well as talking points for educating stakeholders and decision makers about the importance of accessibility in content creation and social media strategy.
- If you have low vision or have visual impairments, these 5 Mac accessibility tips can help you see and work more productively on your Mac.
WordPress
- Glad to read this post from my friend Marcy Diaz who shares her experience converting her own site to use a custom Full Site Editor theme. She shares the benefits and issues as well as numerous resources to get you started on your own Full Site Editor theme.
- What was once a common protection recommendation is no more, says Chris Wiegman as he advises you to stop hiding wp-admin on your site. Why? Numerous reasons, including it could break your site.
- I agree with Jeff Chandler in his thoughts on document tools in the post editor: categories and tags should be integrated in the editor. It’s natural for me to want to add that info while I’m writing, not as an afterthought.
- Adding testimonials to your site are a powerful way to convince prospective clients to choose your business over others. Will Morris highlights three ways to add client testimonials to your site. Note: using the Widget for Google Reviews plugin requires you have a Google Search Console account with an attached billing account (you may be charged for using their API).
CSS and HTML
- Twenty-seven years ago this week, Håkon Wium Lie published the first proposal of Cascading HTML style sheets. Hat tip to Web Design Museum.
- Impressive work from Lynn Fisher in creating the tin woodman illustration from the Wizard of Oz, in CSS with one
divelement.See the Pen
Single div CSS tin woodman by Lynn Fisher (@lynnandtonic)
on CodePen. - When was the last time you saw the CSS typewriter effect on a website? I remember how popular it was several years ago. Author Matt Nikonorov provides warnings about using the effect sparingly. If you choose to use the typewriter effect in your designs, conduct usability testing to make sure it doesn’t cause issues for assistive technology users.
- If you’ve been creating websites as long as I have (since 1997), you’ll remember the Box Acid Test, which tested if web browsers supported CSS. This month marks the 23rd birthday of the Box Acid Test, created by Todd Farhner. (Hat tip to Web Design Museum.)
- State of the Browser 2021, an in-person and virtual conference, will be held October 30, 2021. Featuring Rachel Andrew, Heydon Pickering, and several other talented speakers, the conference is a single track. Tickets are available now (and they’re very reasonably priced.)
What I Found Interesting
- John Mueller (who works at Google) confirms there is no “sandbox” effect when a site moves to a new URL as he described what happens when a site moves to a new URL. His answer that Google processes site moves quickly was reassuring.
- Good tips from my friend Randy Clark on what to do when you receive a one-star Google review you missed. First tip: apologize for not responding quickly.
- Did you know Chrome checks IP addresses of linked pages on a page and preloads those pages? I didn’t know. Find out 10 ways to make Chrome use less disk space.
- Good to read the latest recommendations from Wirecutter on the best external hard drives. Hard to believe cost for a 4TB drive has dropped to less than $150 (US dollars). Personal note: after my Drobo hard drive failed a couple years ago, I’ve become a fan of portable hard drives.
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.
