Web Design Update: January 29, 2025

[Laura Carlson]

+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE.
- Volume 25, Issue, January 29, 2025.

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

++ISSUE 31 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: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.
03: EVALUATION & TESTING.
04: EVENTS.
05: HTML.
06: MISCELLANEOUS.
07: TOOLS.
08: USABILITY.
09: WEBWASTE & SUSTAINABILITY.

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

[Contents ends.]


++ SECTION ONE: New references.

+01: ACCESSIBILITY.

Creating Accessibility Systems to Fix Accessibility Issues
By Devon Persing.
"…one way to see if you're moving in the right direction is to consider what types of activities you're doing around accessibility work…"
https://assistivlabs.com/articles/accessibility-systems

How To Create Accessible Content
By Princeton University.
"Content accessibility checklist…"
https://digital.accessibility.princeton.edu/checklist

Mobile Accessibility Advent Calendar Part 3
By Mark Steadman.
"Let's talk assistive technology on Android…"
https://dev.to/steady5063/mobile-accessibility-advent-calendar-part-3-5g1g

Accessibility Essentials Every Front-End Developer Should Know
By Martijn Hols.
"Many developers view accessibility as an overwhelming task, requiring a lot of extra effort or specialized knowledge. But a few basic practices can make a significant impact…"
https://martijnhols.nl/blog/accessibility-essentials-every-front-end-developer-should-know

The Four Most Dangerous Words to People with Disabilities
By Sheri Byrne-Haber.
"…At least they tried…"
https://buttondown.com/access-ability/archive/the-four-most-dangerous-words-to-people-with/

Translate aria-label Test Case
By Steve Faulkner.
"…tip: ARIA attributes which are candidates for translation when HTML translate…"
https://codepen.io/stevef/pen/xbKyabz

A Guide to Audio Description for Inclusive Presentations and Webinars
By Lolly Lijewski.
"…In this article, we'll explore when to hire a professional to produce AD and when to self-produce AD, focusing on best practices for self-produced AD in virtual events…"
https://mn.gov/mnit/media/blog/?id=38-666047

We're Entering a Dark Period in US
By Ashlee M Boyer.
"White House home page has a bunch of links with…"
https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:6pjsxq4f4wvihelm4lphbk5e/post/3lgbvqtibck2s

Ending Radical And Wasteful Government DEI Programs And Preferencing
By The Whitehouse.
"…The Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), assisted by the Attorney General and the Director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), shall coordinate the termination of all discriminatory programs, including illegal DEI and 'diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility' (DEIA) mandates, policies, programs, preferences, and activities in the Federal Government, under whatever name they appear…"
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/ending-radical-and-wasteful-government-dei-programs-and-preferencing/

Federal Digital Accessibility Disappearance on Trump Day One
By Eve Hill.
"This article is about something that United States president did during his first day in office…"
https://www.lflegal.com/2025/01/week-one-digital-access-threat/

Legal Update: January 2025
By Ken Nakata.
"…In general, January was a mix of news on both the judicial and legislative fronts…"
https://convergeaccessibility.com/2025/01/27/legal-update-january-2025/


+02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.

Revisiting CSS Multi-Column Layout
By Andy Clarke.
"…Perhaps because, before the web, I'd worked in print, I was over-excited at the prospect of dividing content into columns without needing extra markup purely there for presentation. I've used Multi-Column Layout regularly ever since. Yet, CSS Columns remains one of the most underused CSS layout tools. I wonder why that is?…"
https://css-tricks.com/revisiting-css-multi-column-layout/

6 CSS Snippets Every Front-End Developer Should Know In 2025
By Adam Argyl.
" I think every front-end developer should know how to enable page transitions, transition a <dialog>, popover, and <details>, animate light n' dark gradient text, type safe their CSS system, and add springy easing to animation.…"
https://nerdy.dev/6-css-snippets-every-front-end-developer-should-know-in-2025


+03: EVALUATION & TESTING.

To Weight or Not to Weight
By Jim Lewis and Jeff Sauro.
"…Due to its risks, the consensus about weighting is that it is a method of last resort…"
https://measuringu.com/to-weight-or-not-to-weight/

10 Tips for Unmoderated User Testing
By Neil Turner.
"…Unmoderated user testing can be a very quick and efficient way to get user feedback. However, it's a different beast to moderated user testing. If you're thinking of utilising unmoderated user testing, here are 10 tips for getting the most out of it…"
https://www.uxforthemasses.com/unmoderated-user-testing/

Getting Strategic About Research (feat. Kate Towsey, author of Research that Scales) (Video)
By Nielsen Norman Group.
"As tech layoffs and budget cuts dominate the start of the year, UX teams are navigating a critical challenge: proving the value of research while doing more with less. In this episode, NN/g Director of Research Maria Rosala sits down with ResearchOps pioneer Kate Towsey to explore how ResearchOps can help teams think strategically about the impact and efficiency of their research…"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvvirCHogTw


+04: EVENTS.

Teach Access Student Academy
February 20-21, 2025.
Online
https://teachaccess.org/student-programs/

The Zero Project Conference 2025
March 5-7, 2025.
Online
https://zerocon25.zeroproject.org/components/46390

ADA Litigation Update
March 19, 2025.
Online
https://accessibilityonline.org/ada-legal/session/?id=111155

DrupalCon
March 24-27, 2025.
Atlanta Georgia, U.S.A.
https://events.drupal.org/atlanta2025

Information Architecture Conference
May 1-3, 2025.
Philadelphia Pennsylvania, U.S.A.
https://www.theiaconference.com/

Beyond Tellerrand
May 5-6, 2025.
Düsseldorf, Germany
https://beyondtellerrand.com/events/dusseldorf-2025

UDXDX USA 2025
May 12-14, 2025.
Online and New York, New York, U.S.A.
https://uxdx.com/usa/2025/

John Slatin AccessU 2025
May 12-15, 2025.
Online and Austin, Texas, U.S.A.
https://knowbility.org/programs/john-slatin-accessu-2025


+05: HTML.

(The Return of) Tables, Tequila and Beer
By Steve Faulkner.
"…The advice and common expert opinion is that in the case of the example table, scope is required on th elements to provide appropriate semantics. When looking at the information exposed in the accessibility tree in modern browsers it becomes clear that scope is not needed…"
https://html5accessibility.com/stuff/2020/12/22/the-return-of-tables-tequila-and-beer/


+06: MISCELLANEOUS.

Was A Deaf Person's Dream of Seeing Captioned Broadway Show Finally Realized?
By Meryl K. Evans.
"The article is about a Meryl K. Evans' experience with captioned Broadway shows. …"
https://meryl.net/captioned-broadway-show/

Exploring AI, Web Development, and Accessibility in Tech with Stefan Judis (Video)
By Christian Heilmann and Dan Cranney.
"The session features a discussion with front-end development expert Stefan, focusing on the new AI tool Deep Seek and its implications for data privacy. Key topics include Google's JavaScript requirement for search, the importance of accessibility in web development, and the craftsmanship in software creation. The conversation also covers the evolution of JavaScript runtimes and the challenges of adopting new frameworks, emphasizing efficient coding practices…"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3l4pGi0Jw4

Build for the Web, Build on the Web, Build with the Web
By Harry Roberts.
"If you're going to build for the web, build on the web and build with the web…"
https://csswizardry.com/2025/01/build-for-the-web-build-on-the-web-build-with-the-web/

Ladybird and the Old-World Boulevardier
By Steve Faulkner.
"Mike[tm]Smith has been a friend and mentor of mine for many years. I first interviewed him 10 years ago about his work on the W3C HTML checker. Today he is talking about the Ladybird browser…"
https://html5accessibility.com/stuff/2025/01/27/ladybird-and-the-old-world-boulevardier/

So, You Want to Push a Web Platform Feature?
By Yoav Weiss.
"…This is my attempt to have somewhere I can send browser-curious folks to. So, in this post, I'll try to outline why you may want to contribute to browsers and how you may go about doing that. I hope some of y'all may find it useful…"
https://blog.yoav.ws/posts/so_you_want_to_push_a_web_platform_feature/


+07: TOOLS.

Release of Sa11y 4.0
By Adam Chaboryk.
"Sa11y 4 features a simplified settings interface, several new accessibility checks for content authors and developers, improved color contrast testing, additional properties for custom implementations, and more."
https://github.com/ryersondmp/sa11y/releases/tag/4.0.0


+08: USABILITY.

Destination Pages vs. Transition Pages
By Huei-Hsin Wang.
"Destination pages fulfill users' information needs through detailed content, while transition pages guide them toward these destinations through navigation and brief overviews. Content prioritization based on user goals and information needs is key in designing both pages."
https://www.nngroup.com/videos/destination-pages-vs-transition-pages/

Drop-Down Usability: When You Should (and Shouldn’t) Use Them
By Lars Söderlund.
"…Drop-downs can seem to be a simple solution to a simple problem: when designing an interface that has several options for users to choose from, provide a selectable drop-down that displays those options. Unfortunately, drop-downs are often not the simple solution they seem to be…"
https://baymard.com/blog/drop-down-usability


+09: WEBWASTE & SUSTAINABILITY.

Handbook of Sustainable Design of Digital Services
By Institute for Sustainable IT UE
"8 Families, 61 recommendations - 516 criteria…"
https://gr491.isit-europe.org/en/

Which Are the Best Android and iOS Web Browsers to Use? (Edition 2024)
By Maëva Rondeau.
"…On Android, Firefox has the lowest overall energy consumption and is the browser that transfers the least data. Duck Duck Go is more restrained when it comes to features and uses less RAM than its rivals. On iOS, Chrome is the browser that consumes less energy than Safari overall. Safari transfers more data during the URL writing stage, whereas Chrome generates a lot of data transfer when it is launched."
https://greenspector.com/en/which-are-the-best-android-and-ios-web-browsers-to-use-edition-2024/

Backstage: Carbon Aware SDK (Podcast)
By Vaughan Knights.
"In this episode, we go behind the scenes of the Carbon Aware SDK, a groundbreaking tool enabling developers to reduce software emissions by running workloads where and when energy is greenest…"
https://podcasts.castplus.fm/e/vnw4pr38-backstage-carbon-aware-sdk


[Section one ends.]


++ SECTION TWO:

+10: 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.


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+ 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.]