+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE.
- Volume 18, Issue 16, October 17, 2019.

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: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.
03: EVALUATION & TESTING.
04: EVENTS.
05: HTML.
06: JAVASCRIPT.
07: MISCELLANEOUS.
08: TOOLS.
09: USABILITY.

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

[Contents ends.]


++ SECTION ONE: New references.

+01: ACCESSIBILITY.

An Introductory Guide to Understanding Cognitive Disabilities
By Glenda Sims & Jennie Delisi.
"There are five disability types that are commonly considered in digital accessibility: seeing, hearing, speaking, moving and thinking. For this article, 'thinking' includes disabilities that impact emotions, problem-solving, memory and other ways we use our brain."
https://www.deque.com/blog/an-introductory-guide-to-understanding-cognitive-disabilities/

Inclusive Design 24 (#ID24) (Videos)
By an array of experts from Arch to Zehe.
Entire playlist for the 24-hour online event that took place on October 10, 2019 is available.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLn7dsvRdQEfFd5n_h8gltIoTfzUE_zywu

Accessible States in Design Systems (Slides)
By Russ Weakley.
Russ' #ID24 slides.
https://www.slideshare.net/maxdesign/accessible-states-in-design-systems

Inclusive Design 24: The Tipping Point, How Performance Decisions Make Accessibility Differences
By Deborah Edwards-Onoro.
"In his The Tipping Point: How Performance Decisions Make Accessibility Differences presentation at Inclusive Design 24 2019 this month, Henri Helvetica discussed the relationship between performance and inclusive design…"
https://www.lireo.com/inclusive-design-24-the-tipping-point-how-performance-decisions-make-accessibility-differences/

Design Bias is Ruining Accessibility (Podcast)
By Keisha TK Dutes.
"…So, in today's episode, I'm talking to three activists who are using their voices to amplify the stories and the perspectives of disabled people and through that work they're completely changing the conversation about accessible technology…"
https://glitch.com/culture/function-episode-14/

How to Determine if Your Product is Accessible (Slides)
By Gian Wild.
Slides from Gian's October 14th webinar.
https://app.prezentt.com/presentations/1839/public/slides/1

Understanding Organizational Approaches to Accessibility (PDF)
By Rob Sinclair.
White Paper
https://gallery.mailchimp.com/c9e95602d3d7209e71c920bfa/files/ba1e42c0-42a6-4d78-ba1d-f63c3e813098/IAAP_ODC_WhitePaper_Final_BB_90619_.pdf

Scaling Accessibility
By Sheri Byrne-Haber.
"In an enterprise software world, accessibility isn't always about testing a handful of simple websites with homogeneous data and predictable release cycles. Sometimes accessibility has to scale."
https://medium.com/@sheribyrnehaber/scaling-accessibility-7117c944d98f

Accessibility Support
Open source project founded by Michael Fairchild.
"Will your code work with assistive technologies?…"
https://a11ysupport.io/

WCAG 2.1 and the Current State of Web Accessibility in Libraries
By Carli Spina.
"Despite the ongoing work needed in this area to ensure usability for individuals with disabilities, the release of WCAG 2.1 offers a perfect opportunity for libraries to expand their efforts to achieve and even exceed compliance with these standards, which are now designed with a specific aim of making web content accessible to previously underserved users…"
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/w/weave/12535642.0002.202?view=text;rgn=main

U.S. Supreme Court Passes on Domino's Case: Commenters Misunderstand
By Lainey Feingold.
"This is a post responding to some negative comments about an announcement by the United States Supreme Court. The Court said that a lawsuit against Domino's Pizza about web access can stay in the court system. The lawsuit is also about the Domino's mobile application. This is good news for people who care about making sure websites and apps work for people with disabilities. Some people think the Domino's website does not need to be accessible because blind people can call on the phone. Domino's will be able to argue this if the case does not settle."
https://www.lflegal.com/2019/10/dominos-comments/


+02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.

Can We Please Style the <select> Control?!
By Greg Whitworth.
"When working in Product Management one important aspect to determine the importance of a bug or feature in the product is how the person responds to the question or task you have them do…"
http://gwhitworth.com/blog/2019/10/can-we-please-style-select/

Avoid 100vh On Mobile Web
By chanind.github.io.
"…The core issue is that mobile browsers (I'm looking at you, Chrome and Safari) have a 'helpful' feature where the address bar is sometimes visible and sometimes hidden, changing the visible size of the viewport…"
https://chanind.github.io/javascript/2019/09/28/avoid-100vh-on-mobile-web.html


+03: EVALUATION & TESTING.

Beyond Automatic Accessibility Testing: 6 Things I Check on Every Website I Build
By Manuel Matuzovic. 
"I just finished an accessibility audit for a client and I decided to share some quick checks I perform in every site I audit and build. It's something that you can apply to your project right away, you don't have to learn a tool or a software…"
https://www.matuzo.at/blog/beyond-automatic-accessibility-testing-6-things-i-check-on-every-website-i-build/

Accessibility Testing with the NVDA Screenreader (Video)
By Matt Isner.
"This is a guide for developers on how to install and configure the NVDA screen reader for Windows for accessibility testing…" 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vx1vSd5uYS8

The Challenge of Identifying UX Success Metrics
By Jared M. Spool.
"…Our metrics need to grow as our understanding of our users grows. And with every growth spurt, we'll become one step closer to a design-mature organization."
https://playbook.uie.com/blog/the-challenge-of-identifying-ux-success-metrics

Vanity Metrics: Add Context to Add Meaning
By Aurora Harley.
"Tracked analytics metrics should be actionable: variations in a meaningful, relatively stable metric reflect change in the user experience. In contrast, vanity metrics appear impressive, but their fluctuations are not operational."
https://www.nngroup.com/articles/vanity-metrics/


+04: EVENTS.

Digital Accessibility - The First Steps
October 31, 2019.
Online
https://zoom.us/webinar/register/2015700479448/WN_di2zBNF8QBu3vfrpzTg8bA

Online WCAG by Example Workshop
November 7, 2019.
Online
https://knowbility.org/services/training/wcag-by-example-workshop/

WCAG2 for Developers and Content Authors Workshop
November 12, 2019.
San Francisco, California, U.S.A.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/wcag2-for-developers-and-content-authors-workshop-tickets-74475443055

The Best Way to Create Audio Description
November 21, 2019.
Online
https://go.3playmedia.com/wbn-11-21-2019-equalentry

ARIA Basics Webinar
December 4, 2019.
Online
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/aria-basics-free-webinar-registration-73703102965

dotCSS 2019
December 4, 2019.
Paris, France
https://www.dotcss.io/

dotJS 2019
December 5, 2019.
Paris, France
https://www.dotjs.io/

The Marketer's Toolkit for Accessible Digital Media
December 16, 2019.
Online
https://go.3playmedia.com/wbn-12-16-2019-marketing


+05: HTML.

The Teletype Text Element Lives On… at Least on This Site
By Chris Coyier.
"It was this: <tt>…"
https://css-tricks.com/the-teletype-text-element-lives-on-at-least-on-this-site/

Upgrade Your HTML, or: On Writing Better Markup
By Jens Oliver Meiert.
"…The unedited initial introduction for my next (super-short) book, and book series: Upgrade Your HTML."
https://meiert.com/en/blog/upgrade-your-html/

A Breakdown of HTML Usage Across ~8 Million Pages (& What It Means for Modern SEO)
By Catalin Rosu.
"Not long ago, my colleagues and I at Advanced Web Ranking came up with an HTML study based on about 8 million index pages gathered from the top twenty Google results for more than 30 million keywords…"
https://moz.com/blog/a-breakdown-of-html-usage-across-8-million-pages


+06: JAVASCRIPT.

You Really Don't Need All that JavaScript, I Promise (Video)
By Stuart Langridge.
Transcript, video and slides of Stuart's jscamp.ro closing keynote talk are available.
https://kryogenix.org/code/dont-need-that-js/

How Accessibility Taught Me to be Better at JavaScript, Part One
By Lindsey Kopacz.
"…I started learning about JavaScript BECAUSE of accessibility, not in spite of it…"
https://www.a11ywithlindsey.com/blog/how-accessibility-taught-better-javascript-part-one

The 'P' in Progressive Enhancement Stands for 'Pragmatism'
By Andy Bell.
"…With a Progressive Enhancement mindset, support actually means support. We're not trying to create an identical experience: we're creating a viable experience instead…"
https://hankchizljaw.com/wrote/the-p-in-progressive-enhancement-stands-for-pragmatism/


+07: MISCELLANEOUS.

Smashing / Web We Want Video Pitch (Video)
By Adrian Roselli.
"At Smashing Conference in New York on Tuesday, October 15, Microsoft is hosting a lunch session as part of its The Web We Want initiative. Developers are pitching their wants. I was invited to pitch my request, but since I will not be at the conference I was asked for a five minute video…"
https://adrianroselli.com/2019/10/smashing-web-we-want-video-pitch.html

The World-Wide Work
By Ethan Marcotte.
"…After all, it's our design thinking, our engineering, our planning, our work that's made the Web what it is today. Collectively, we have quite literally designed and built some of these systems. When we work together-when we move together, what's to stop us from redesigning these systems?…"
https://ethanmarcotte.com/wrote/the-world-wide-work/

The Web of Now: Balancing Man and Machine (Video)
By Chris Heilmann.
Chris' Paris Web talk. "In this talk we'll look at some harsh realities that we're not immune to automatization through machine learning and that we need to find a better way to get heard…"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qmnw5HW7VFw

The Term 'Responsive Web Design' has Failed
By Frances Berriman.
"Desperate times call for desperate measures, and although Alex's recent slide is a bit full on, it's not entirely wrong…"
https://fberriman.com/2019/10/07/the-term-responsive-web-design-has-failed/


+08: TOOLS.

Accessibility Tools and Plugins that Designers Should be Using
By Sheri Byrne-Haber.
"The article 'Best Chrome Plugins Designers should be using' did not contain any accessibility plugins…" There, I fixed that for you…"
https://uxdesign.cc/accessibility-tools-and-plugins-that-designers-should-be-using-d9b409a71bc5


+09: USABILITY.

Placeholders in Form Fields are Harmful (Video)
By Katie Sherwin.
"Data-entry form fields on websites are crucial for ecommerce and many other applications. Fields need labels and (sometimes) instructions, but placing this text inside the field lowers usability and accessibility and should be avoided."
https://www.nngroup.com/videos/placeholders-form-fields/

These Three (Popular) Approaches to Implementing 'Live Chat' are Often Highly Disruptive for Users
By Rebecca Hugo. 
"…Instead of being perceived as a helpful feature, most users generally perceive live chat as just another annoying, site-initiated distraction when it appears…During our large-scale usability testing, we experienced 3 popular approaches to live chat that can each cause issues for the user, depending on functionality, response, and placement…"
https://baymard.com/blog/live-chat-usability-issues

10 Ways to Use Exit-Intent Popups to Improve UX
By Kim Flaherty.
"Exit intent popups can provide a good customer experience and offer benefits to users who are about to leave a website."
https://www.nngroup.com/articles/exit-intent-good-ux/

What is a Conversion Rate, and What does it Mean for UX? (Video)
By Kathryn Whitenton.
"Conversions measure whether users take a desired action on your website, so they are a great metric for tracking design improvements (or lack of same). But non-UX factors can impact conversion rates, so beware."
https://www.nngroup.com/videos/conversion-rate-and-ux/

Decision Biases Affecting UX Practitioners (Video)
By Aurora Harley.
"It's not just users who are subject to illogical thinking: designers and UX professionals can also make sub-optimal design decisions by falling prey to the same decision biases, such as framing effects when analyzing usability data."
https://www.nngroup.com/videos/decision-biases-ux-practitioners/


[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

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:lcarlson@d.umn.edu 


[Issue ends.]