September 17, 2021: Weekly Roundup of Web Design and Development News

In this week’s web design and development news roundup, you’ll learn why it’s important to create an interview guide for user interviews, discover myths about web accessibility, find out how to get involved with Global WordPress Translation Day, 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

Underrated advice: Be kind.

😏

But being kind doesn’t mean being nice. It means supporting your friends and helping your neighbors.

It means having difficult conversations, giving uncomfortable feedback — and doing it from a place of love.

— Amanda Natividad (@amandanat) September 14, 2021

User Experience

• Make your research easier to analyze by creating an interview guide for user interviews, says Dan Berlin. Three key reasons: helps draw out project and research goals, makes sure your study stays on track, and prioritizes questions and allows you to maximize your time
• Get a better understanding of UX research as well as the tools to help you at the September 21, 2021 How to Approach UX Research Projects free 30-minute webinar with Laura Sweltz, UX research director at Viget.
• Rather than using Balsamiq or Figma to sketch a design, Tracy Osborn recommends you step back and use the power of pen and paper sketching to work through many ideas quickly. Why spend time  figuring out which button to use in a digital tool when you can work without restrictions?
• When Elie Sloïm started his journey in web quality assurance, the first question he started working on was
  

  What does quality mean for a web user?

  Twenty years later, he shares what he learned along the way in from user requirements to web risk management.

Accessibility

• I’ve been an advocate for web accessibility for over 15 years and it’s amazing how many misconceptions I’ve heard. Thank you to Alvaro Montoro for collecting myths about web accessibility and putting them to rest.
• In the free Can Everybody See My Screen? webinar on September 22, 2021, Doug Abrams will discuss challenges people with visual disabilities may face when attending a virtual presentation. In addition, Abrams will provide helpful techniques on making your presentation more accessible.
• I didn’t know, did you?
  

  📱🤌🏻 Did you know the multi-touch tech we have today on our capacitive touchscreen phones was created by a disabled person?

  Wayne Westerman had limited mobility interacting with touchpads and computers and pioneered multi-touch. Apple bought the company and invented the iPhone.

  — James Rath (@JamesRath) September 16, 2021

• Woohoo! Congrats to Laura Carlson and the Web Design Update newsletter on their 1,000th issue published on September 15, 2021. Did you know the newsletter started in 2002? I believe I first subscribed to it when I worked at the college, in 2008.

WordPress

• Have you registered? WPCampus 2021 Online, the free conference for accessibility and WordPress in higher education kicks off September 21 to 22, 2021.
• If you’ve wondered how to use the Full Site Editor to create a block-based theme, Alfredo Navas has you covered in their step-by-step tutorial. No HTML, no PHP. A theme built entirely with blocks.
• When you publish a post about the block editor, detailing issues you’ve had, don’t be surprised if you receive an email message from Automattic’s Developer Relations team. That’s what happened to Jeff Chandler recently, as he explains why he digs the Automattic Developer Relations team.
  

  Now, there is a team of people at Automattic who seek out these posts and try to establish a line of communication that can potentially lead to collaboration on addressing issues.

• Did you know 2021 marks the sixth Global WordPress Translation Day? This year, the event has been expanded to the entire month of September. Get involved; join one of the global WordPress Translation Day global events this month.

CSS and HTML

• Learn what you know (and what you don’t know) in this metadata quiz from Web Designer Depot. I scored 9 out of 10. What was your score?
• Impressive, isn’t it? Piet Mondrian’s CSS Grid created by Lasanja. All CSS and HTML, no JavaScript.

  See the Pen
  Piet Mondrian’s CSS Grid by Lasanja (@Lasanja___)
  on CodePen.

• Jen Kramer and Erika Lee launched their 15DaysOfCSS email course this week. If you haven’t signed up, you can still subscribe. Did I mention it’s free?
• It’s time to have some fun styling checkbox states. My favorite example? The last one, using box shadow.

What I Found Interesting

• Took me by surprise to learn Intuit has bought Mailchimp, the company known for its popular email marketing platform used by small businesses. I remember how excited people were in 2009, when Mailchimp offered a free plan.
• Did you know why it’s best to store apples away from bananas and citrus? Or why berry containers have holes in them? I learned why I need to store my pineapples upside down and other ways to keep fruit from spoiling.
• In Behind the Attraction, a Disney documentary series, my friend Virginia DeBolt discusses the Disney+ original 10-episode series highlighting how Disney’s rides and attractions round the world were made.

If you like what you’ve read today, share the post with your colleagues and friends.

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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.