+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE. - Volume 19, Issue 50, June 9, 2021. An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design and development. ++ISSUE 50 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: COLOR. 04: EVALUATION & TESTING. 05: EVENTS. 06: HTML. 07: JAVASCRIPT. 08: MISCELLANEOUS. 09: NAVIGATION. 10: USABILITY. 11: WEBWASTE & SUSTAINABILITY. SECTION TWO: 12: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site? [Contents ends.] ++ SECTION ONE: New references. +01: ACCESSIBILITY. Empathy Cannot Sustain Action in Technology Accessibility By Sarah Horton. "…Through reviews of research and current practices, this opinion article explores the use of empathy and inclusive design for technology accessibility, highlights fundamental gaps, and proposes ways toward sustainable attention to accessibility and disability inclusion in our digital world…" https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomp.2021.617044/full Best Practices for Image Text Alternatives By Emily Lewis. "During Knowbility's Images: Alternative Content for Accessibility webinar, there were attendee questions we didn't have time to answer. Our team of experts answered these overflow questions and we're sharing them with everyone…" https://knowbility.org/blog/2021/best-practices-for-image-text-alternatives DWP Accessibility Manual Version 1.0.3 By GOV.UK "Guidance and best practice for building accessible services and meeting the Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations 2018…" https://accessibility-manual.dwp.gov.uk/ Assistive Technology Survey 2021 (Preliminary results) By Andrew Arch. "Around the world, surveys are conducted that focus on technologies used by people who are blind or have low vision. The largest of these is done by WebAIM in the United States, including their Screen Reader User Survey and Survey of Users with Low Vision. However, there is usually very low representation from Australia and New Zealand…" https://intopia.digital/articles/assistive-technology-survey-2021-preliminary-results/ Google Docs Switches to Canvas Rendering, Sidelining the DOM By Richard MacManus. "…in a sense, what Google Docs will be doing from now on is painting a document onto a webpage. While this approach has technical benefits (which I'll outline below), there are potential issues with rendering in Canvas - particularly in regards to accessibility…" https://thenewstack.io/google-docs-switches-to-canvas-rendering-sidelining-the-dom/ Takeaways from WordCamp Europe 2021: Enhancing the Accessibility of a Plugin, a Use Case By Deborah Edwards-Onoro. "At WordCamp Europe 2021, Rian Rietveld and Morgan Key presented Enhancing the Accessibility of a Plugin, a Use Case, sharing their experience of improving the accessibility of the Gravity Forms plugin.…" https://www.lireo.com/takeaways-from-wordcamp-europe-2021-enhancing-the-accessibility-of-a-plugin-a-use-case/ Winn-Dixie or Lose Dixie? By AAAtraq. "Winn-Dixie may have won their recent case (Case // D.C. Docket No. 1:16-cv-23020-RNS) against Juan Carlos Gil but doubt remains over whether there are any real beneficiaries from this decision…" https://www.einnews.com/pr_news/542554946/winn-dixie-or-lose-dixie Legal Update: May 2021 By Ken Nakata. "Welcome to the second in my series of monthly updates on web accessibility legal developments-my attempt to keep up with my Lexis feed while also letting you know what's going on in the world of web accessibility litigation…" https://convergeaccessibility.com/2021/06/02/legal-update-may-2021/ +02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. Inherit, Initial, Unset, Revert By Peter Paul Koch. "Today we're going to take a quick look at a few special CSS keywords you can use on any CSS property: inherit, initial, revert, and unset. Also, we will ask where and when to use them to the greatest effect, and if we need more of those keywords…" https://www.quirksmode.org/blog/archives/2021/06/inherit_initial.html Can I :has() By Brian Kardell. "…Today we're filing an intent to prototype, tackling yet another historically hard problem for the web: The :has() selector. In this post, I'd like to explain what this intent means, as well as why it matters, where it comes from and why I am very excited about it…" https://bkardell.com/blog/canihas.html New CSS Functional pseudo-class Selectors :is() and :where() By Adam Argyle. "These seemingly small additions to CSS selector syntax are going to have a big impact…" https://web.dev/css-is-and-where/ Ancestors and Descendants By Eric A Meyer. "…I know it's still fashionable to complain about how CSS is all janky and weird and unapproachable, but child, the wrinkles of today are a sunny park stroll compared to the jagged icebound cliff we faced at the dawn of CSS. Just a few examples, from waaaaay back in the day…" https://meyerweb.com/eric/thoughts/2021/06/02/ancestors-and-descendants/ Back in the CSSWG By Eric A Meyer. "…I'm returning to take back up the mantle I carried the first time around: testing CSS. I intend to focus on creating Web Platform Test entries demonstrating new CSS features, clarifying changes to existing specifications, and filling in areas of CSS that are under-tested…" https://meyerweb.com/eric/thoughts/2021/06/08/back-in-the-csswg/ +03: COLOR. Better in Black: Rethinking our Most Important Buttons By Spotify Encore Team. "We're changing Spotify's most important buttons. Here's why…" https://spotify.design/article/better-in-black-rethinking-our-most-important-buttons Using Color to Enhance Your Design By Kelley Gordon. "To support the user experience, colors need to be combined wisely so that they work together well, do not overwhelm, and communicate the same kind of information everywhere in the interface." https://www.nngroup.com/articles/color-enhance-design/ Fixing Contrast Issues, on Your Own Site and Elsewhere By Kilian Valkhof. "…fixes contrast issues on sites you visit, automatically …It does this while preserving the design of the website. All it does it bump the contrast for the elements that need it, leaving the rest alone…" https://kilianvalkhof.com/2021/accessibility/fixing-contrast-issues-on-your-own-site-and-elsewhere/ +04: EVALUATION & TESTING. Questionnaires in User Experience Research (Query) By Jurek Kirakowski. "The purpose of this list is really to give the interested reader a flavour of what is involved in creating a questionnaire, especially in our field of user experience research; and also, to give some practical advice on how to deploy and deal with the data arising from questionnaires…" https://uxp.ie/query/ 5 Facilitation Mistakes to Avoid During User Interviews By Therese Fessenden. "Some common mistakes to avoid in UX interviews include poor rapport, multitasking, leading, insufficient probing, and poorly managed observers." https://www.nngroup.com/articles/interview-facilitation-mistakes/ 'Does What I Need It to Do': Assessing an Alternate Usefulness Item By Jim Lewis and Jeff Sauro. "The UMUX-Lite is a two-item standardized questionnaire that, since its publication in 2013, has been adopted more and more by researchers who need a concise UX metric…" https://measuringu.com/UMUX-lite-does-what-I-need/ A/B Testing the Words in Your Product By Josh Pitzalis. "The problem with a lot of the content around A/B testing on the web is that it only covers landing pages and e-commerce websites. I want to be able to run A/B tests on the words inside my product experience…" https://usabilitygeek.com/a-b-testing-the-words-in-your-product/ +05: EVENTS. Universities at the Forefront of Digital Inclusion June 22, 2021. Online https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_5NhSzoTRQGGxIA2RVYN86w Info about the series: https://m-enabling.com/virtual-leadership-briefing-series/ Code September 17 & 24, 2021. Online https://www.webdirections.org/code/ StrategicA11y - Strategic Web Accessibility Workshop September 28-30, 2021. Logan, Utah, U.S.A. https://webaim.org/training/strategica11y/ +06: HTML. The Right Tag For The Job: Why You Should Use Semantic HTML By Sophie Koonin. "…Using semantic HTML as building blocks for a website will give you a lovely accessible foundation upon which to add your fancy CSS and whizzy JavaScript. You can use semantic elements in JS frameworks, too - I write React every day at work, and always use semantic elements. Your users (and/or your customers) will thank you for it." https://localghost.dev/2021/06/the-right-tag-for-the-job-why-you-should-use-semantic-html/ iframe Accessibility By Manuel Matuzović. "iframes should be named, if they contain meaningful content…" https://www.htmhell.dev/tips/iframe-accessibility/ +07: JAVASCRIPT. JavaScript Notes & Reference By Wes Bos. "Hey! Welcome to my Beginner JavaScript Notes + Reference…" https://wesbos.com/javascript Arrow Functions in Vanilla JS By Chris Ferdinandi. "Arrow functions were introduced to JavaScript in ES6…" https://gomakethings.com/arrow-functions-in-vanilla-js/ +08: MISCELLANEOUS. Human Rights and Technology By Australian Human Rights Commission. "Technology is essential. It should be fair. Australians want technology that is safe, fair and reliable. But we know that new technologies can threaten our human rights to equality, non-discrimination, privacy, safety from violence, access and more…" https://tech.humanrights.gov.au/ Download the Human Rights and Technology Project Final Report By Australian Human Rights Commission. "…a three-year national investigation into human rights risks posed by new and emerging technologies…" https://tech.humanrights.gov.au/downloads +09: NAVIGATION. Disabling a Link By Scott O'Hara. "With HTML alone there is no way to disable a hyperlink (an element), and have it be both exposed as a 'link' and as 'disabled'. Now, setting aside whether or not disabling a link is even a good idea (opinion: it's probably not), that hasn't stopped people from needing wanting to do it…" https://www.scottohara.me/blog/2021/05/28/disabled-links.html +10: USABILITY. What Are UX Errors of Omission and Commission? By Chris Rourk. "In UX we naturally try to identify and fix the errors of commission - the flaws we can see on an interface - rather than the errors of omission which result from some content or functionality that is not there but should be. After all its easier to see something that is there than something that's missing. But errors of omission are no less important and UX professionals and digital managers should beware of these…" https://uxmag.com/articles/what-are-ux-errors-of-omission-and-commission Dark Patterns that Mislead Consumers Are All Over the Internet By Alfred Ng and Sam Morris. "Think you can tell a dark pattern from an ethically designed prompt? Take our quiz to find out…" https://themarkup.org/2021/06/03/dark-patterns-that-mislead-consumers-are-all-over-the-internet I Helped Pioneer UX Design. What I See Today Disturbs Me. By Jesse James Garrett. "Where did we go wrong?…" https://www.fastcompany.com/90642462/i-helped-pioneer-ux-design-what-i-see-today-horrifies-me Response to: "I Helped Pioneer UX Design. What I See Today Disturbs Me." By Vivianne Castillo. "I have time today, so I'll start here: I can tell this piece was written by a White man. While it may be true that what @jjg sees today horrifies him, the reality is that it's ALWAYS been horrifying to UXers from marginalized communities. A brief thread…" https://twitter.com/vcastillo630/status/1400498030713913356 UX vs. UI (Video) By Sarah Gibbons. "User experience and user interface are highly related. Both are important, but what's the difference between UX and UI? (Often confused!)" https://www.nngroup.com/videos/ux-vs-ui/ Direct Manipulation in User Interfaces (Video) By Raluca Budiu. "Direct manipulation is an interaction technique in graphical user interfaces where users move depictions of objects around and get immediate feedback about their actions and the outcome of these actions." https://www.nngroup.com/videos/direct-manipulation-user-interfaces/ UX Paradise, Part 2: Draining the UX Swamp By Rolf Molich. "This story describes how Huxley, a new hire at Delta Market-a fictitious chain of more than 500 medium-to-large, high-end grocery stores-boosted the organization's competitiveness by raising Delta's UX maturity from low to high. Their journey, which required nine steps that any organization could easily pursue, took them from 2012 to 2019…" https://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2021/06/ux-paradise-part-2-draining-the-ux-swamp.php +11: WEBWASTE & SUSTAINABILITY. Do Not Track By Gerry McGovern. "Digital has become too much about the creation and collection of content and data. We are flooding the present with so much content that we are diminishing our critical abilities to think, plan and design for the long term… Fact. Most websites don't need any analytics. Or, at most, they need it on for a couple of months a year. Work to reduce the impulse to track, the urge to collect data." https://gerrymcgovern.com/do-not-track/ [Section one ends.] ++ SECTION TWO: +12: 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:lcarlson@d.umn.edu [Issue ends.]