In this week’s web design and development news roundup, you’ll learn about using the Pareto Principle to prioritize quantitative data, find helpful tips for getting started with WordPress accessibility, discover how to test for selector support with @supports 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
Good morning to the older patron who brought in his coin collection to show the library staff “because no one had seen it in awhile.”
Maybe we should do a library show and tell program where adults can just bring cool stuff they own to talk about?— David (@schaalfan) October 19, 2021
User Experience
- Evan Sunwall explains how to use the Pareto Principle to prioritize quantitative data. Key takeaway: when you prioritize the 20% of your website responsible for 80% of a critical metric, you’ll generate improvements with less effort.
- Have you taken the 2021 Design Tools survey? Share your tools and workflows with other designers in the annual survey (takes about seven minutes to complete). Survey results will be posted in the future.
- From this week’s Button Conference 2021:
“Non-content folks seem to think content work is about the words. It’s really about centering human needs…just like all other UX work”
– @annedoughertyThis needs to be said out loud more!#Button2021
— Vijay S Paul (@VijaySPaul) October 20, 2021
- Submissions deadline has been extended to October 25, 2021 for the User Experience Professionals Association (UXPA) 2022 conference.
- The Start page pattern for services offered by the UK National Health Service (NHS) is helpful for content designers. The pattern explains when to use a start page, the four main elements of the page, helpful tips for users, and what to consider for accessibility.
Accessibility
- For many people, it can be hard to say the words “disabled” or “disability.” Rather they use other words, like “differently-abled” or “challenged.” In Disability: let’s say the word, Emily Ogle explains why it’s important to say the words. And when you’re unsure, ask.
- With the help of students, the University of Southampton’s Digital Learning Team improved course content to make it more accessible. Learn about their Blackboard Ally tool at the free online Accessibility Allies at the University of Southampton webinar on November 2, 2021. Pre-registration is required.
- Always plan for accessibility at the start of a project, not as an afterthought. Here’s how you can get started with WordPress accessibility.
- Nice! A free online Smashing Hour with Sara Soueidan talking about accessibility, birds, and pizza on November 9, 2021.
- In part 5 of the first First Steps to an Accessible Website series, Jeff Singleton focuses on how to describe the purpose of a link using link text and surrounding context.
WordPress
- It’s out! The Pods new release (over 6 years and 2.7k+ commits went into the numerous features of the Pods 2.8 release) is now free for everyone.
- What are your thoughts about renaming Reusable Blocks? Because a proposal for renaming Reusable Blocks is looking for a better name that doesn’t get confused with patterns.
- It’s been an issue with WordPress since I started using it in 2006. And not only for casual users. Information on new WordPress features can be hard to find. Which is why the Detroit-area WordPress meetup groups I help lead include time at the beginning of every meetup to share latest WordPress news.
- Speaking of changes, with the upcoming release of WordPress 5.9 (expected December 2021) come some interface changes: when a block theme is active, links to the customizer will no longer display in the user interface.
CSS and HTML
- Good summary on how to respect users’ motion preferences with CSS. I agree: it would be good for browsers to provide reduced-motion toggles, rather than forcing people to figure it out on each site a person visits.
- Did you know you can test for selector support with @supports, not only property: value support? (I didn’t.)
- Personally, I’d love to have native HTML tabs. What do you think of Dave Rupert’s spicy-sections experiment?
With one HTML, we can solve two birds with one stone. We get an accordion and a tabs control from the same single element.
- Some of recent CSS solutions may be a bit too smart, says Michele Barker as she evaluates clever CSS solutions. Is it worth the investment of time and resources to create a non-obvious clever solution? That will confound future maintainers of the code?
- Placeholder images can be helpful in your designs, but generic placeholder images often look out-of-place. With Lorem.space, an online image placeholder generator tool, you can select categories for images to more closely match your theme.
What I Found Interesting
- Wow, a tree that tweets captured my attention. What kept me reading the story was learning how the tree’s messages are based on data from sensors on and around its trunk. The data (daily water use, sap flow dynamics, trunk growth, etc.) tells how the tree is affected by changes in its environment.
- Interesting to learn the Software Freedom Conservancy is taking Vizio to court for violating General Public License (GPL), on behalf on individual consumers. Not the defending copyright holders of the GPL code.
- Did you know October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month? When it comes to keeping sensitive and personal data safe, it’s up to everyone to do their part to protect it. Together.
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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.
