+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE. - Volume 21, Issue 33, February 8, 2023. An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design and development. ++ISSUE 33 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: JAVASCRIPT. 07: MISCELLANEOUS. 08: PHP. 09: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS. 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. WCAG 2.2 Update: It's Time to Say Goodbye to the Parsing Criterion By Jonathan Avila. "…I think it is fair to say that some folks aren't very happy with the focus-appearance criterion proposed in WCAG 2.2. Hidde thought it adds too much complexity, and Eric didn't rate it.…" https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/wcag-22-update-its-time-say-goodbye-parsing-criterion-avila-cpwa/ Focus Appearance Thoughts By Alastair Campbell. "I think it is fair to say that some folks aren't very happy with the focus-appearance criterion proposed in WCAG 2.2. Hidde thought it adds too much complexity, and Eric didn't rate it." https://alastairc.uk/2023/02/focus-appearance-thoughts/ Modern Health, Frameworks, Performance, and Harm By Eric Bailey. "Performance, accessibility, and usability are more than inconvenient truths you can pretend don't exist. They have a direct impact on the quality of someone's life…" https://ericwbailey.website/published/modern-health-frameworks-performance-and-harm/ Mac VoiceOver Testing the Simple Way By Scott Vandehey. "Learning VoiceOver can feel overwhelming, so I'm here to give you a simple, repeatable process you can follow to make testing with VO as easy as possible…" https://cloudfour.com/thinks/mac-voiceover-testing-the-simple-way/ Accessible Writing is Just Good Writing By The Writer Team. "…In this article, we're going to touch on some of the core, foundational elements that make your content more accessible to a wider audience…" https://writer.com/blog/writing-accessible-content/ Setting Expectations for Asking ChatGPT Web Accessibility Questions By Scott O'Hara. "…this technology is still rather young, and what it regurgitates to you is going to be based on what it's learned from humans, who are also unfortunately often incorrect…" https://www.scottohara.me//blog/2023/01/31/ai-a11y-maybe-no.html Accessibility Lessons Learned from Blind Users Attending a User Research Study By Equal Entry. "Equal Entry held a user research study on virtual reality accessibility for blind users in New York City…" https://equalentry.com/accessibility-lessons-from-blind-users/ A Guide for Making apps Accessible By Appt Foundation. "…On this website you will find current statistics about the use of accessibility features on mobile phones, code documentation for iOS, Android and other platforms, official guidelines, in-depth articles and tips…" https://appt.org/en Twitter is getting rid of its free API tier. That's a nightmare for accessibility activists. By Chase DiBenedetto. "What will happen to all the good bots…" https://mashable.com/article/twitter-api-accessibility-bots +02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. The Guide to Responsive Design in 2023 and Beyond By Ahmad Shadeed. "When you think about building fluid layouts these days isn't about having fixed-width breakpoints anymore. Instead, the layouts we build today need to work on nearly any device size…" https://ishadeed.com/article/responsive-design/ The Different Names for Values in CSS By Chris Coyier. "body {font-size: 1.2rem;}. Code language: CSS (css) What is the value of font-size on the body? 1.2rem… right!? Kinda…" https://chriscoyier.net/2023/02/06/the-different-names-for-values-in-css/ Container Queries and Typography By Robin Berjon. "Back in 2013 when I started my career there were a few big problems with CSS…" https://www.robinrendle.com/notes/container-queries-and-typography/ +03: COLOR. Testing Colour Accessibility with Dev Tools By Michelle Barker. "I often use the WebAIM colour contrast checker to check my colours against WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) standards while building websites. Recently I noticed a handy feature in Firefox dev tools to make checking for sufficient colour contrast really easy…" https://css-irl.info/testing-colour-accessibility-with-dev-tools/ Hex Colors Aren't Great at Anything Except Being Popular By Chris Coyier. "Data in the 2022 Web Almanac says that the 6 and 3-digit hex color formats (#XXXXXX and #XXX) combined account for 74% of all color declarations. That's not surprising, or even really bad, but it's a little unfortunate as these color formats are the most boring and least capable of all…" https://chriscoyier.net/2023/02/01/hex-colors-arent-great-at-anything-except-being-popular/ +04: EVALUATION & TESTING. Discovery in Agile By Anna Kaley. "Scaling discovery work in Agile helps teams plan appropriately scoped activities around targeted questions and probable assumptions instead of arbitrary sprint timeframes." https://www.nngroup.com/articles/discovery-in-agile/ Omnichannel Journeys and Customer Experience: Study Guide By Kim Salazar. "Unsure where to start? Use this collection of links to our articles and videos to learn about what omnichannel customer journeys are, how to conduct research to evaluate them, and how to design journeys effectively." https://www.nngroup.com/articles/omnichannel-journeys-cx-study-guide/ How Variable Are UX Rating Scales? Data from 100,000 Responses By Jeff Sauro and Jim Lewis. "When working with UX metrics (e.g., rating scale data) you need to consider both the average and the variability of the responses…" https://measuringu.com/how-variable-are-ux-rating-scales-data-from-100000-responses/ +05: EVENTS. Annotating Designs for Accessibility February 9, 2023. 1 p.m. Australian Eastern Daylight Time. Online https://intopia.digital/articles/intopia-webinar-annotating-designs-for-accessibility/ The UX Case Study February 16, 2023. St Paul, Minnesota, U.S.A. https://uxpamn.org/event-5150499 Frontrunners JS/Web Conference March 10, 2023. Arlington, Virgina, U.S.A. https://www.meetup.com/dc-jug/events/291336254/ Beyond Tellerrand April 17-18, 2023. Düsseldorf, Germany https://beyondtellerrand.com/events/dusseldorf-2023 ACCESS 2023 April 27-28, 2023. Online https://www.3playmedia.com/access/ Virtua11y Web Accessibility Conference 2023 May 16-18, 2023. Online https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/virtua11y-web-accessibility-conference-2023-tickets-505953880677 THAT Conference July 24-27, 2023. Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin, U.S.A. https://that.us/events/wi/2023/ +06: JAVASCRIPT. How to Get the Last Matching Item in an Array With Vanilla JavaScript By Chris Ferdinandi. "Last week, I wrote about the Array.prototype.find() method and the Array.prototype.findIndex() method. They find the first item in an array that matches some criteria you specify (or it's index). Today, I want to talk about some companion methods that find the last matching item instead…" https://gomakethings.com/how-to-get-the-last-matching-item-in-an-array-with-vanilla-javascript/ Cancel Duplicate Fetch Requests in JavaScript Enhanced Forms By Austin Gil. "Avoid duplicate-request & race-condition when creating JavaScript enhanced forms…" https://austingil.com/cancel-duplicate-fetch-requests-in-javascript-enhanced-forms/ Comment on "Replace Create React App recommendation with Vite" GitHub Issue By Dan Gaearon. "…HTML is the cornerstone of the web - so why does creating a 'React app' produce an empty HTML file? Why are we not taking advantage of the most basic feature of the web-the ability to see content quickly before all the interactive code loads? Why do we wait to start loading the data until after all the client-side code has finished loading?…" https://github.com/reactjs/reactjs.org/pull/5487#issuecomment-1409720741 Everything You Need to Know About Javascript Accessibility (Video) By Karl Groves. Karl's F2E Summit 2015 presentation: "Is it really possible to understand JavaScript and accessibility in 40 minutes? This presentation will discuss touch on all of the major concerns with dynamic content and accessibility. It could be awesome or it could be a disaster, but one thing's for sure: there will be no slides, just live coding." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baR9OvL4g7w Speed for Who? By Andy Bell. "…developer experience really isn't important-especially when frameworks haven't even got the absolute baseline experience anywhere near where it needs to be to service a world wide web. A world wide web that's accessed with slow, expensive connections and cheap, underperforming hardware…" https://andy-bell.co.uk/speed-for-who/ A Historical Reference of React Criticism By Zach Leatherman. "There have been a number of criticisms levied at the React project over the years, some of them handled and some of them still wavering in the wind. In this post, I'll summarize the ones that are most prominent in my memory as a way of maintaining a record (primarily for my own use but maybe you'll find it useful too). If you have others, please send them my way…" https://www.zachleat.com/web/react-criticism/ +07: MISCELLANEOUS. W3C Re-Launched as a Public-Interest Non-Profit Organization By Amy van der Hiel. "The World Wide Web Consortium began the year 2023 by forming a new public-interest non-profit organization…" https://www.w3.org/2023/01/pressrelease-w3c-le-launched.html.en The NTIA Report on Mobile App Ecosystems By Bruce Lawson. "The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (part of US Dept of Commerce) Mobile App Competition Report came out yesterday (1 Feb). Along with fellow Open Web Advocacy chums, I briefed them and also personally commented…" https://brucelawson.co.uk/2023/the-ntia-report-on-mobile-app-ecosystems/ Interop 2023 CMS Checkin By Chris Coyier. "All the big players in the browser-makin' world have announced their 2023 Interop project, following in 2022's footsteps…" https://chriscoyier.net/2023/02/06/interop-2023-cms-checkin/ History of the Web, The Book By Jay Hoffmann. "Jay has put all of the chapters he has written on their own site. https://thehistoryoftheweb.com/book/ MacOS Can Remove Image Backgrounds #Shorts By Christian Heilmann. "Today I learned that MacOS can remove backgrounds from images, much like remove.bg does.…" https://christianheilmann.com/2023/02/06/macos-can-remove-image-backgrounds-shorts/ +08: PHP. Quick Tip: How To Manage Timezones in PHP By Claudio Ribeiro. "In this quick tip article, we'll explain the basics of timezone usage in PHP. Working with timezones is an essential skill for every programmer working with web applications. As PHP has been used mostly for web applications throughout the years, it has fairly simple yet comprehensive timezone support…" https://www.sitepoint.com/php-manage-timezones/ +09: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS. The Web Platform Is Back By Bertrand Delacretaz. "…many of us now think that requiring Web frameworks on top of the standards was a transition phase, which is coming to its end as the Web Platform reaches a new level of maturity…Staying close to the Web Platform, without adding more than strictly needed on top of it, will…" https://blog.developer.adobe.com/the-web-platform-is-back-fa5752fabdfc +10: USABILITY. Content Strategy 101 (Video) By Anna Kaley. "Content involves 4 phases: planning, creation, maintenance, and removal. Done right, this enhances the business value of digital content and its impact on the user experience." https://www.nngroup.com/videos/content-strategy-101/ Continuation: Gestalt Principle for User Interface Design (Video) By Megan Brown. "The eye automatically follows lines and curves, continuing them. Employ continuation to guide users along desired paths in the UI." https://www.nngroup.com/videos/continuation-gestalt/ How Optimized Videos Create a Better User Experience By Rob Binns. "…Videos can help you build your community, entertain and inform your audience, and establish your brand as a trusted, credible source…" https://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2023/02/how-optimized-videos-create-a-better-user-experience.php Forms, But Better (Video Series) By Adam Silver. https://www.youtube.com/@adambsilver +11: WEBWASTE & SUSTAINABILITY. 99% of Data Has Been Produced in the Last Ten Years By Gerry McGovern. "…When it comes to information and data, we have been sold the lie that it's all in the Cloud, that it's ethereal and immaterial. Digital is physical. Storing the current amount of data we have requires about 70 million servers. Each server caused between one and two tons of CO2 to manufacture, before we even consider the massive quantities of energy to run them, and the even more massive quantities of water to cool them…" https://gerrymcgovern.com/99-of-data-has-been-produced-in-the-last-ten-years/ [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.]