Web Design Update: July 8, 2020

[Laura Carlson]

+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE.
- Volume 19, Issue 02, July 08, 2020.

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

++ISSUE 02 CONTENTS.

SECTION ONE: New references.
What's new at the Web Design Reference site?
http://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: NAVIGATION.
08: USABILITY.

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

[Contents ends.]


++ SECTION ONE: New references.

+01: ACCESSIBILITY.

#accessiBe Will Get You Sued
By Adrian Roselli.
"…The title is hyperbolic. You will not get sued as soon as you put
accessiBe’s overlay on your site. However, you will be using a product
that generates more errors than not using it. The accessiBe overlay
also produces a worse experience. Users who care little about WCAG but
understand their rights to equal access can file a complaint and put
you on the hook for fixing the core issues. Another third-party hack
will not help. Using accessiBe’s overlay widget is a pre-preemptive
admission that you know your work is inaccessible and that you took
the shortest possible route to find the easiest possible workaround…"
https://adrianroselli.com/2020/06/accessibe-will-get-you-sued.html

Understanding SC 2.5.1 Pointer Gestures
By Sathish Kumar.
"All functionality that uses multipoint or path-based gestures for
operation can be operated with a single pointer without a path-based
gesture, unless a multipoint or path-based gesture is essential. This
requirement applies to web content that interprets pointer actions
(i.e. this does not apply to actions that are required to operate the
user agent or assistive technology)…"
https://www.digitala11y.com/understanding-sc-2-5-1-pointer-gestures/

Request for Comment
By Alastair Campbell.
"How much difference, in difficultly/feasibility, would it be for the
Reflow SC to use 'down to 320px' instead of 'at 320px'?
https://w3.org/TR/WCAG21/#reflow Both for implementation and testing."
https://twitter.com/alastc/status/1280535723561623552

Accessibility for Product Managers
By Peter van Grieken.
"This is a starter guide for product managers about delivering
accessible websites. Each person on your team has their own specific
responsibility, but as a PM you need to keep an overview of what needs
to be done to deliver accessible websites…"
https://accessibility-for-teams.com/accessibility-for-product-managers

We Need More Inclusive Web Performance Metrics
By Scott Jehl.
"…In our ongoing push for practices that produce inclusive and
accessible experiences by default, we need our performance metrics to
be inclusive as well…"
https://www.filamentgroup.com/lab/a11y-ready/

View of Beyond Accessibility
By Julian Kilker.
"…Design processes that overlook the experiences and needs of edge
users result in systems that further isolate and disempower them. As
the examples in this paper demonstrate, many of us can easily be (or
already are) affected by edge scenarios. Design changes, even minor
ones, force users to relearn how to operate in their digital
environments and how to identify cues and react if it appears to not
function properly…"
https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/10572/9475

Twitter's Voice Tweets Upset Users Again Over Accessibility
By Ann-Marie Alcántara.
"Tech companies emphasize speed in new products at the expense of
accessibility, advocates say…"
https://www.wsj.com/articles/twitters-voice-tweets-upset-users-again-over-accessibility-11593612001

Twitter Introduced Voice Tweets, but They Are Inaccessible to Deaf People
By Tamara Kamis.
"Twitter's new feature can't be used by the hard of hearing community,
bringing attention to other technology that excludes people with
disabilities…"
https://studybreaks.com/thoughts/voice-tweets/


+02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.

Fluid Images in a Variable Proportion Layout
By Lari Maza.
"Creating fluid images when they stand alone in a layout is easy
enough nowadays. However, with more sophisticated interfaces we often
have to place images inside responsive elements, like this card…"
https://css-tricks.com/fluid-images-in-a-variable-proportion-layout/

Uncommon CSS Properties
By Ahmed Shadeed.
"…In this article, I will go through some different CSS properties
that I hope you find them interesting. For some properties, I will try
to show the browser support for them, and apply the progressive
enhancement approach, so you can be encouraged to use it without the
fear of saying 'This is not supported in browser X, what should I
do?'…"
https://ishadeed.com/article/uncommon-css/

CSS News July 2020
By Rachel Andrew.
"In this article, Rachel Andrew takes a look at some of the
interesting CSS features that are making their way into browsers right
now…"
https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2020/07/css-news-july-2020/


+03: EVALUATION & TESTING.

8 Tips For Writing A Smarter Usability Test Script
By Sean McGowan.
"…I polled a few of the members of Codal's user experience design team
to learn how they build a usability test script from scratch…"
https://usabilitygeek.com/tips-for-writing-usability-test-script/

Don't A/B Test Yourself Off a Cliff (Video)
By Page Laubheimer.
"A/B testing often focuses on incremental improvements to isolated
parts of the user experience, leading to the risk of cumulatively poor
experience that's worse than the sum of its parts."
https://www.nngroup.com/videos/dont-ab-test-yourself-cliff/

User Research When Social Distancing (Video)
By David Travis.
"'How can I do user research when I'm social distancing?' Here are 30 ideas."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3qDt4iAT3s

How to Create Bulletproof Survey Questions (Video)
By David Travis.
"I answer the question, "My boss has asked me to do a survey with our
customers. Any tips on writing good survey questions?'"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nCGXMK8XQI

Can You Re-use Usability Test Participants? (Video)
By David Travis.
"I answer the question, "'I'm iterating my design for the 'Gift Giver'
app as part of the course. Do I have to test this iteration with
completely different users to those that I tested for the initial
design?'"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drLFmckp3IA

Why You Don't Need User Representatives (Video)
By David Travis.
"I answer the question, 'What would you call someone who is made a
user representative in a project, e.g. user lead/advocate/champion?'"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHrbGC4AsF0


+04: EVENTS.

Buying Websites, Technology and Tech Services: Tools and Tips for
Accessible Procurement
July 9, 2020.
Online
https://www.accessibilityonline.org/adaonline2020/session/?id=110822

Intro to Word Document Accessibility
July 21, 2020.
Online
https://accessibility.deque.com/intro-to-word-document-accessibility

Smashing Conference New York
October 20-21, 2020.
New York, New York, U.S.A.
https://smashingconf.com/ny-2020/

The Forest and the Trees: Scaling for Enterprise-Level Digital Accessibility
October 21, 2020.
Online
https://www.accessibilityassociation.org/content.asp?admin=Y&contentid=646


+05: HTML.

Always Bet on HTML - Being Misunderstood
By Christian Heilmann.
"A few weeks ago Chris Ferdinandi wrote an ode to HTML called Always
bet on HTML in which he once again praises the benefits of HTML as a
base for your products on the web. He is correct and makes a lot of
great points. However, we made these points for 20+ years and people
keep underestimating the benefits of starting with a solid HTML base.
Maybe it is time to look at the reasons why people might be less
enthused about HTML than Chris (and me) are…"
https://christianheilmann.com/2020/07/06/always-bet-on-html-being-misunderstood/


+06: MISCELLANEOUS.

Connecting the Dots
By Justin Dauer.
"Companies often tout their 'culture' as a reason to you should
consider working there, but often what they pass off as culture
amounts to little more than a foosball table and free snacks. In this
excerpt from Creative Culture, Justin Dauer draws direct connections
between an organizations' true culture and the design work that it
does."
https://alistapart.com/article/creative-culture-excerpt/


+07: NAVIGATION.

Journey Mapping in Real Life: A Survey of UX Practitioners
By Kate Kaplan.
"Practitioners struggle with standardizing a method for journey
mapping, but believe the activity is crucial for creating shared
vision. Although insights are critical for communicating findings,
they are the least often included in journey maps."
https://www.nngroup.com/articles/journey-mapping-ux-practitioners/


+08: USABILITY.

UX Roadmaps: Definition and Components
By Sarah Gibbons.
A UX roadmap is a high-level, living artifact that prioritizes and
communicates a UX team's future work and problems to solve."
https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ux-roadmaps/

Designing Mobile Tables
By Steven Hoober.
"…This is another of those columns in which I haven't prescribed any
one true way of solving design problems, but have given you options
and guidelines. This is, in part, because needs and information can
vary, but mostly because constraints do…"
https://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2020/07/designing-mobile-tables.php

Getting Started with Online Form Design
By Megan O'Malley.
"Whether creating new forms or trying to optimize existing ones, these
best practices will help new and experienced designers think like
their site visitors and build forms that users actually want to
submit…"
https://www.uxbooth.com/articles/getting-started-with-online-form-design/


[Section one ends.]


++ SECTION TWO:

+09: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

XML Information.
http://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:
http://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.]