Web Design Update: October 16, 2024

[Laura Carlson]

+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE.
- Volume 23, Issue 16, October 16, 2024.

An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web
design and development.

++ISSUE 16 CONTENTS.

SECTION ONE: New references.
What's new at the Web Design Reference site?
https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/
New links in these categories:

01: ACCESSIBILITY.
02: BOOKS.
03: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.
04: EVALUATION & TESTING.
05: EVENTS.
06: HTML.
07: MISCELLANEOUS.
08: NAVIGATION.
09: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.
10: TYPOGRAPHY.
11: USABILITY.
12: WEBWASTE & SUSTAINABILITY.

SECTION TWO:
13: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site?

[Contents ends.]


++ SECTION ONE: New references.

+01: ACCESSIBILITY.

Making the Web Accessible: A Focus on Cognitive Disabilities
By Melissa Morse.
"Let's explore what cognitive disabilities are, why they matter in
digital accessibility, and how to make the web more usable for
everyone…"
https://www.tpgi.com/making-the-web-accessible-a-focus-on-cognitive-disabilities/

How to Create Truly Accessible Forms With Caroline Jarrett (Video)
By Caroline Jarrett.
"In this talk, Caroline will explore through a specific question -how
to ask for a phone number? - the new WCAG 2.1 guidelines (September
23). See whether a typical design system can help us, and then
introduce the 'question protocol' - a method for examining and
challenging every question on your new form so that the form meets
user needs, conforms to the WCAG guidelines, and is accessible for
everyone…"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0RGA0eTYL0

Inclusive Design Patterns For 2025 (Video)
By Vitaly Friedman.
"…In this practical 3.5h-workshop, Vitaly will take a deep dive into
UX and design guidelines, hundreds of real-life examples, best
practices, and guidelines for truly accessible, inclusive, universal
design. Expect to leave with a toolbox of insights and practical
techniques to apply to any project…"
https://www.youtube.com/live/xEtKkLdAnvI
Vitaly's resources document:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZKV1P9pSbnCA6XE6MHoOPqN6VBjCZDFY30L2Nt9Mkb0/

Navigating Menus on Mobile: A Blind Diner's Accessibility Insights
By Michael Taylor.
"…As a blind screen reader user, I aim to show how mobile
accessibility best practices directly impact my experience…"
https://blog.usablenet.com/navigating-menus-on-mobile-a-blind-diners-accessibility-insights

PowerPoint Accessibility Checklist
By Dax Castro.
"…The following checklist is designed to help you evaluate your slide
deck content for usability…"
https://creativepro.com/powerpoint-accessibility-checklist/

AI for Accessibility Conformance Testing? Why?
By Steve Faulkner.
"I have noticed a number of people are advocating the use of AI/LLMs
(Large Language Models) for accessibility testing and/or code
remediation. My onging question is why?"
https://html5accessibility.com/stuff/2024/10/10/ai-for-accessibility-conformance-testing-why/

Reminder – Automatic Accessibility Testing Can Detect Inaccessibility
but Can't Detect Accessibility
By Bogdan Cerovac.
"We need to be aware of the limitation of the tools to be able to use
them properly and to prevent any bias.…"
https://cerovac.com/a11y/2024/10/reminder-automatic-accessibility-testing-can-detect-inaccessibility-but-cant-detect-accessibility/

ADA Title II and the University of Minnesota (UMN) (Video)
By Patricia Izek, Khaled Musa, Shane Nackerud, and Luke Kudryashov.
"This webinar will go over what types of content are included and what
the exceptions are. Most importantly, we will share what the
University has done in preparation to date, and what we are doing to
meet the compliance deadline. We will also share recommendations and
resources to help you raise awareness in your college or department."
https://mediaspace.umn.edu/media/t/1_3eyi2lvq/232711343

Captioning Lyrics and Copyright Laws
By Thomas Logan and Ken Nakata.
"…This is Thomas Logan from Equal Entry here with Ken Nakata of
Converge Accessibility . In this episode of A11yInsights, we're
talking about movies and TV shows that don't caption song lyrics when
they should be…"
https://equalentry.com/captioning-lyrics-copyright-laws/

Shopify, Accessibility Lawsuits & 'Compliance'
By Nic Chan.
"…Accessibility is affected by both content and code. An accessible
theme won't get you anywhere if you have inaccessible content (or
apps!). Not ever thinking about accessibility and wanting to not ever
think about it is indeed, ableist. 'Compliance' is a loaded term. A
perfect Accessibility Compliance Report (ACR) is not always perfect.
Disabled people have very little means by which to ask for access
other than complaints and litigation…"
https://www.nicchan.me/blog/shopify-accessibility-lawsuits-compliance/


+02: BOOKS.

Greenwood, Tom. Sustainable Web Design, Revised edition, Wholegrain Books, 2024.

Eric Meyer and Sara Wachter-Boettcher, Design for Real Life,
Originally published by A Book Apart. Now available directly from the
authors.
https://dfrlbook.com/


+03: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.

Learn CSS Grid - Part 2
By Miriam and Stacy Kvernmo.
"…this is part two of our dive into CSS grids. We address your
questions about strategy - demoing how we plan and apply grid layouts,
starting with a design and implementing in the browser…"
https://www.oddbird.net/2024/09/17/winging-it-12/


+04: EVALUATION & TESTING.

Should You Use the Mean or Median of the SUS?
By Jim Lewis and Jeff Sauro.
"…To investigate this question, we analyzed and compared SUS means and
medians collected from over 18,000 individuals who used the SUS to
rate the perceived usability of over 200 products and services. But
before we get to those results, it helps to understand the difference
between the median and mean and why you might choose one or the
other…"
https://measuringu.com/should-you-use-the-mean-or-median-of-the-sus/

How to Organize User Feedback with a Severity Scale
By Nick Lioudis.
"Why we think a severity scale is important at User Interviews — and
how it can make sense for your organization, too.…"
https://www.userinterviews.com/blog/user-feedback-severity-scale

Why Use 40 Participants in Quantitative UX Research? (Video)
By Page Laubheimer.
"40 is the optimal sample size for many quantitative UX studies,
ensuring a balance of precision, risk, and practicality."
https://www.nngroup.com/videos/why-40-participants-quantitative-research/

Getting into the Discovery Mindset
By Maria Rosala.
"Successful discovery requires teams to be open to uncovering 'unknown
unknowns.' Center your discovery efforts around problems rather than
solutions."
https://www.nngroup.com/articles/discovery-mindset/


+05: EVENTS.

Oregon and the DOJ Title II Rule with Adam McBride-Smith
October 22, 2024.
Online.
https://www.meetup.com/portland-accessibility-and-user-experience-meetup/events/302719198/

Creating an Accessibility Feedback Loop
October 24, 2024.
San Francisco, California, U.S.A.
https://www.meetup.com/a11ybay/events/303610130/

AI and Alternative Text
October 28, 2024.
Online.
https://www.meetup.com/accessibility-twin-cities/events/303064869/

How Continuous Accessibility Can Boost Your Accessibility Maturity
November 19, 2024.
Online and New York, New York, U.S.A.
https://www.meetup.com/a11ynyc/events/303624811/

Gaadys 2024
November 21, 2024.
San Francisco, California, U.S.A.
https://tickets.gaad.foundation/e/2/gaadys-2024

Thought Partner Program: Advancing Digital Accessibility in Higher Education
November 21-December 12, 2024.
Online
https://nercomp.org/learn-network/events/Dig_Access/


+06: HTML.

The blockquote Element
By Heydon Pickering.
"…So what is a <blockquote>? The 'block' part seems to denote a
block-level element—which it is. For inline (or 'text-level')
quotations, there is <q> instead. Both elements are based on the
common HTMLQuoteElement interface. Before HTML5, there was no
requirement that the quotation had to be from an external source…"
https://heydonworks.com/article/the-blockquote-element/

HTML Is for People
By Blake Watson.
"HTML isn't only for people working in the tech field. It's for
anybody, the way documents are for anybody. HTML is just another type
of document. A very special one-the one the web is built on.…"
https://htmlforpeople.com/


+07: MISCELLANEOUS.

Molly White, Citation Needed / Web3 Is Going Just Great (Video)
By Molly White.
Molly's presentation ath the August 2024 at XOXO Festival.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTaeVVAvk-c

Relaunching the Huge Website of a World-Leading University
By Clearleft.
"This is the story of how we worked with Imperial to transform its
website, aligning an ambitious new strategy with its bold new brand…"
https://clearleft.com/work/imperial


+08: NAVIGATION.

5 Tips for Avoiding Confusing Category Names
By Hoa Loranger and Taylor Dykes.
"Category and link labels should tell users what will happen when they
click on them."
https://www.nngroup.com/articles/category-names-suck/


+09: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.

On the 55th World Standards Day, My History of the Web and Relationship With W3C
By Coralie Mercier.
"Today is the 55th World Standards Day. The first one was declared in 1970…"
https://www.w3.org/blog/2024/on-the-55th-world-standards-day-my-history-of-the-web-and-relationship-with-w3c/


+10: TYPOGRAPHY.

Students Struggle to Read a New Font Introduced to the UM Website
By Sav Chavez.
"When the University of Montana relaunched their website on July 9,
feedback began rolling in from faculty, staff and University employees
struggling to read, understand, and retain information given in
headlines due to the new Serif font…"
https://www.montanakaimin.com/news/students-struggle-to-read-a-new-font-introduced-to-the-um-website/article_4ffd5fca-865c-11ef-8506-67160c9b1f63.html


+11: USABILITY.

Simplicity
By UX Collective.
"On removing complexity to add meaning…"
https://www.doc.cc/articles/simplicity

Software for All Ages: Tackling Ageism With Industry Experts
By Elaina Natario, Kelly Gebo, and Caro Sotillo Silva.
"October 9th, 2024 is Ageism Awareness Day and as society grows
increasingly diverse and interconnected, it's important to keep
inclusivity in mind when building mobile and web products. In support
of Ageism Awareness Day, we wanted to spread awareness and offer
actionable tips from experts…"
https://thoughtbot.com/blog/software-for-all-ages-tackling-ageism-with-industry-experts


+12: WEBWASTE & SUSTAINABILITY.

Extreme Secrecy of Data Centers
By Gerry McGovern.
"…Big Tech goes to huge efforts to deny academic institutions or other
research bodies access to data that would help highlight the harm Big
Tech does. 'Without better transparency and more reporting on the
issue, it's impossible to track the real environmental impacts of AI
models,' Kate Crawford, a research professor at USC Annenberg, who
specializes in the societal impacts of AI, told the Financial
Times…How much water do US data centers use? 'We don't really know,'
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory research scientist Dr. Arman
Shehabi explained. 'I never thought it could be worse transparency
than on the energy side, but we actually know less.' According to
Sebastian Moss, writing for Data Center Dynamics, 'We don't know how
much water data centers use. We just know it's a lot.'…"
https://gerrymcgovern.com/extreme-secrecy-of-data-centers/

[Section one ends.]


++ SECTION TWO:

+13: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site?

Accessibility Information.
https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/accessibility.html

Association Information.
https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/associations.html

Book Listings.
https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/books.html

Cascading Style Sheets Information.
https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/css.html

Color Information.
https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/color.html

Drupal Information.
https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/drupal.html

Evaluation & Testing Information.
https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/testing.html

Event Information.
https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/events.html

HTML Information.
https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/html.html

Information Architecture Information.
https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/architecture.html

JavaScript Information.
https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/javascript.html

Miscellaneous Web Information.
https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/misc.html

Navigation Information.
https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/navigation.html

PHP Information.
https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/php.html

Sites & Blogs Listing.
https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/sites.html

Standards, Guidelines & Pattern Information.
https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/standards.html

Tool Information.
https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/tools.html

Typography Information.
https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/type.html

Usability Information.
https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/usability.html

WebWaste & Sustainability Information.
https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/webwaste.html

XML Information.
https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/xml.html

[Section two ends.]


++END NOTES.


+ SUBSCRIPTION INFO.

WEB DESIGN UPDATE is available by subscription. For information on how
to subscribe and unsubscribe please visit:
https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/webdev_listserv.html
The Web Design Reference Site also has a RSS 2.0 feed for site updates.


+ TEXT EMAIL NEWSLETTER (TEN).

As a navigation aid for screen readers we do our best to conform to
the accessible Text Email Newsletter (TEN) guidelines. Please let me
know if there is anything else we can do to make navigation easier.
For TEN guideline information please visit:
http://www.headstar.com/ten


+ SIGN OFF.

Until next time,

Laura L. Carlson
Information Technology Systems and Services
University of Minnesota Duluth
Duluth, MN U.S.A. 55812-3009
mailto:lcar...@d.umn.edu


[Issue ends.]