+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE. - Volume 22, Issue 52, June 18, 2024. An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design and development. ++ISSUE 52 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: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE. 08: JAVASCRIPT. 09: MISCELLANEOUS. 10: TOOLS. 11: TYPOGRAPHY. 12: USABILITY. 13: WEBWASTE & SUSTAINABILITY. SECTION TWO: 14: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site? [Contents ends.] ++ SECTION ONE: New references. +01: ACCESSIBILITY. Web Accessibility for Web Designers & Developers (Video) By Dennis E. Lembrée. "Join renowned web accessibility professional Dennis Lembree for a full day of training. This training starts with a background on disability, guidelines, and law. Many techniques for designing and developing an accessible website are then explained; basic through advanced levels are covered. The main topics include content structure, images, forms, tables, CSS, and ARIA. Techniques on writing for accessibility and testing for accessibility are also covered. If you are involved in web design or development, don't miss this wealth of practical knowledge…" https://fulldaymaterials.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/GMT20240529-145927_Recording_2048x1152.mp4 Dennis' slides: https://fulldaymaterials.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/INDATA_Web_A11y_Training_May2024.pdf Your Eight-Step PDF Accessibility Checklist By Kyle Paciello. "…In this article, you'll get a brief overview of what PDF accessibility is and why it's so important. We'll also provide you with an easy, eight-step checklist that you can use to help ensure your PDFs are fully accessible…" https://www.deque.com/blog/your-eight-step-pdf-accessibility-checklist/ A11y Juice - Phone It in Edition By Steve Faulkner. "You ever get the feeling that some big corporations want you to abandon the open web, in favour of the walled gardens of their apps?…" https://html5accessibility.com/stuff/2024/06/16/a11y-juice-phone-it-in-edition/ How To Make A Strong Case For Accessibility By Vitaly Friedman. "With things to keep in mind, strategies and practical techniques to convince stakeholders to support and promote accessibility efforts…" https://smart-interface-design-patterns.com/articles/accessibility-strong-case/ First Public Working Draft: Accessibility Conformance Testing (ACT) Rules Format 1.1 By W3C Accessibility Guidelines Working Group. "The Accessibility Guidelines Working Group has published a First Public Working Draft of Accessibility Conformance Testing (ACT) Rules Format 1.1, which defines a format for writing accessibility test rules…" https://www.w3.org/news/2024/first-public-working-draft-accessibility-conformance-testing-act-rules-format-1-1/ Higher Ed and the Revised Title II Requirements (Video) By Center for Inclusive Design and Innovation (CIDI) at Georgia Tech. "View our recorded webinar to learn how updates to Title II will impact Higher Education, and how the Center for Inclusive Design and Innovation (CIDI) at Georgia Tech may be able to assist you in meeting these new requirements…" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebJzV3rcwIA Can ADA Title II Local Government Accessibility Be Efficient? A Response to Richard Hunt By Access Armada. "Are the new DOJ regulations realistic?…" https://www.accessarmada.com/blog/can-ada-title-ii-accessibility-be-efficient-a-response-to-richard-hunt/ The Supreme Court's Latest Gun Ruling-And Why it May Affect Web Accessibility By Ken Nakata. "…I couldn't help but think about how the Supreme Court's opinion made it a very bad idea for the Department of Justice to issue a Title III web accessibility regulation. This blog explains the connection…" https://convergeaccessibility.com/2024/06/17/the-supreme-courts-latest-gun-ruling-and-why-it-may-affect-web-accessibility/ Federal Court Website Accessibility Lawsuit Filings Took a Dip in 2023 By Kristina M. Launey & Minh N. Vu. "Plaintiffs filed 2,794 website accessibility lawsuits in federal court in 2023 - a 14% decrease from 2022…" https://www.adatitleiii.com/2024/06/federal-court-website-accessibility-lawsuit-filings-took-a-dip-in-2023/ +02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. Learn Grid Now, Container Queries Can Wait By Miriam Suzanne. "…There's no rush to rip out all your media queries, and replace them with containers. You'll be fine waiting for widely available support and your next scheduled re-factor. But if you're still avoiding grid - whatever your reasons - you are, in fact, missing out. CSS grid is one of the best features in CSS, and one of the biggest time-savers on every site we build…" https://www.oddbird.net/2024/06/13/css-layout/ How to Use Rem Units in CSS for Accessible Design By Florian Schroiff. "Learn what rem units are, how they differ from other units, and how to apply them for optimal, scalable, and responsive designs." https://www.a11y-collective.com/blog/what-is-rem-in-css/ Use of ch Unit Considered Inappropriate (In certain circumstances) By Richard Rutter. "…When did we start using the ch unit to specify the maximum length for a line of text?…" https://clagnut.com/blog/2432/ +03: COLOR. Intro to Colour Contrast By Javier Cuello. "Colour contrast makes a big part of the user experience for all users. Accessibility guidelines however, are not always easy to follow. In this article we will see how to meet the requirements with practical examples…" https://goodpractices.design/articles/colour-contrast +04: EVALUATION & TESTING. UX and NPS Benchmarks of U.S. Government Websites (2024) By Emily Short, Jeff Sauro, and Jim Lewis. "…An analysis of the user experience of five federal government websites found: 1.) The user experience differs widely by site… 2.) People seem to trust U.S. government websites… 3.) Findability challenges were a major problem… 4.) Sometimes the amount of information was overwhelming… 5.) Complex language was hard to understand… 6.) Lack of customer support can be problematic…" https://measuringu.com/federal-government-benchmark-2024/ +05: EVENTS. A11yTokyo Meetup In-Person Networking Session and Lightning Talk June 20, 2024. Cybozu, Chuo City, Nihonbashi, Japan https://www.meetup.com/a11ytokyo/events/301381445/ Cascading Layouts with Miriam Suzanne June 24-26, 2024. Online https://www.oddbird.net/workshops/cascading-layouts/ Accessibility in Social Media - Funka Foundation June 28, 2024. Online https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_UCED04byTkizBqoC7kFZLg#/registration Help Audit Nonprofit Websites for Accessibility June 28 and 29, 2024. Online https://www.meetup.com/atlanta-accessibility-meetup/events/301154182/ San Diego Accessibility and Inclusive Design Meetup July 11, 2024. San Diego, California, U.S.A. https://www.meetup.com/a11ysd/events/301454628/ Fast and Budget-Friendly User Research and Testing with Paul Boag July 11-25 2024. Online https://smashingconf.com/online-workshops/workshops/research-testing-paul-boag/ Behavioral Design Workshop with Susan Weinschenk and Guthrie Weinschenk September 5, 2024. Online https://smashingconf.com/online-workshops/workshops/behavioral-design-susan-guthrie-weinschenk/ Twin Cities Drupal Camp Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.A. September 12-13, 2024. https://2024.twincitiesdrupal.org/ +06: HTML. Semantic Code in HTML: What Is It and Does It Still Matter? By Paul Boag. "Semantic code in HTML is still important in modern web development. It can improve accessibility, SEO, maintainability, cross-device compatibility, future-proofing, collaboration, and page load times. In this post, I explain how you can ensure your code is semantic even if you are using a framework or website builder app…" https://boagworld.com/dev/semantic-code-in-html/ +07: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE. Card Sorting: Pushing Users Beyond Terminology Matches By Samhita Tankala and Jakob Nielsen. "Labels in a card sorting study must be neutral to prevent keyword matching and encourage careful, conceptual groupings from users. " https://www.nngroup.com/articles/card-sorting-terminology-matches/ +08: JAVASCRIPT. Every Website and Web App Should Have a Service Worker By Chris Ferdinandi. "A service worker is a special type of JavaScript file that acts like middleware for your site…" https://gomakethings.com/every-website-and-web-app-should-have-a-service-worker/ What Does aria-hidden=true Actually Do to Interactive Elements? By Bogdan Cerovac. "Everybody knows that we must not use aria-hidden on interactive elements. But why is that a problem? I decided to check for myself, so that I can explain it better the next time I will be asked.…" https://cerovac.com/a11y/2024/06/what-does-aria-hiddentrue-actually-do-to-interactive-elements/ TC39 - the Song By Bruce Lawson. "…I get so excited writing JavaScript I'm pretty easy-going but now I use Strict…" https://brucelawson.co.uk/2024/tc39-the-song/ +09: MISCELLANEOUS. Stéphanie Walter on Neurospicy (Interview) By Jorge Arango. "…When I'm talking about cognitive accessibility, it's about designing for people with learning disabilities, but also for people who have different perceptions…" https://theinformed.life/2024/06/16/episode-142-stephanie-walter/ Quick Tip: How to Turn off DuckDuckGo's Artificial Intelligence (AI) Assist Feature for Search By Deborah Edwards-Oñoro. "If you use DuckDuckGo as your search engine, be aware the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Assist feature is turned on by default. For people who don't want AI used in their DuckDuckGo search results, you'll need to turn AI Assist off in each of your browsers (desktop and mobile) as well as in the DuckDuckGo app…" https://www.lireo.com/quick-tip-how-to-turn-off-duckduckgos-artificial-intelligence-ai-assist-feature-for-search/ See What's New in Firefox! By Mozilla. "…Links and other focusable elements are now tab-navigable by default on macOS, instead of following macOS' 'Keyboard navigation' setting. This is a more accessible default and matches the default in all other platforms. A checkbox in the settings page still allows users to restore the old behavior…" https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/127.0/releasenotes/#note-790143 +10: TOOLS. Author-friendly Content Quality Assurance with Editoria11y with John Jameson (Video) By A11yTalks. "…a checker that works like spellcheck by automatically highlighting issues inline when they view their new page, with simple tooltips written for a non-technical audience…" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4bce514--M +11: TYPOGRAPHY. Typographer vs. Accessibility (Video) By Oliver Schöndorfer. "Designing for accessibility sucks! It is limiting creative expression, making things look ugly, and is mostly for the blind anyway. But is that really true? How can sublime typography and accessibility go hand in hand…" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQkCBdEEWCE +12: USABILITY. What Is Cognitive Load? (Video) By Maddie Brown. "Follow these 3 tips to reduce cognitive load and help your users: avoid visual clutter, build on existing mental models, and offload tasks." https://www.nngroup.com/videos/cognitive-load/ 2-Page Login Pattern, And How To Fix It By Vitaly Friedman. "The 2-page login pattern is becoming pervasive. Here are the reasons behind this design choice and alternative solutions to create a more efficient and user-friendly authentication experience…" https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2024/06/2-page-login-pattern-how-fix-it/ UX Design Begins With Content. Don't Outsource It to AI By Pavel Samsonov. "As if AI-generated 'user research' wasn't bad enough, now I am seeing designers advance LLMs for generating UI content - forgetting the most important design adage, 'form follows function'…" https://uxmag.com/articles/ux-design-begins-with-content-dont-outsource-it-to-ai Do Users Prefer Chatbots Over Humans? It Depends… By Maria Panagiotidi. "…the integration of chatbots in customer service offers both challenges and opportunities for enhancing user experience…" https://uxpsychology.substack.com/p/do-users-prefer-chatbots-over-humans +13: WEBWASTE & SUSTAINABILITY. Can Charities Lead the Way to a More Humane Web? By Tom Greenwood. "…if your organisation cares about protecting the environment then embedding sustainability thinking into your digital communications is an essential step that will have social benefits too…" https://www.wholegraindigital.com/blog/charities-lead-humane-web/ [Section one ends.] ++ SECTION TWO: +14: 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.]