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Responding positively to accessibility push back
Positive responses to accessibility resistance to win the changes that delight customers, end users and colleagues.
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Advanced HTML: Liberate focus order from the hell of tabindex
Focus order, and making sure each element can be tabbed-on to at the right time, is crucial for usability, accessibility and happy customers.
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Screen reader basics for designers and engineers
If you're designing or building anything for digital devices – including websites, web apps and native apps – it's essential you test your work using a screen reader.
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Separating the content layer from the presentation layers
Content and presentation are two very different things, but are often designed and built as though they were the same. Treating them separately gives us much better content and the opportunity for myriad presentations.
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Useful accessibility links and resources
A list of useful links for anyone wanting to learn more about some of the important legal and technical topics relating to accessibility in digital products.
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Beyond the mouse – how people actually interact with your website or app
It's easy to think everyone interacts with their devices in the same way we do. But there are many different ways. And we can take some simple, practical steps to give everyone a great experience.
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WCAG 2.2 TLDR (Too Long; Didn't Read)
You should read the full WCAG 2.2 guidelines, or at least the comparison with WCAG 2.1. But if that's a bit TLDR for now, here's a quick summary of each new bit.
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Accessibility settings on smartphones
Discover how hard it can be for some people to use the Web, how alternate an experience it can be, and how amazing it is when things are designed and built properly.
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Accessibility testing – faking it with Stylus
Doing accessibility evaluations for a website or web app can be a slow process. Anything that can speed you up and make checking certain things easier is a good thing.
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Introduction to accessibility
If you've heard about accessibility, but don't yet know much about it, or where to start to play your own part in helping customers and users, this is for you.
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Cascade UI restyle transformation
There was a huge amount of planning, work and detail involved in delivering Cascade's new UI. Read about the key elements of the project and see some screenshots.
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The six simple components of accessibility conformance
At its heart, accessibility conformance is about giving the right people in your organisation responsibility for making it happen, with clear and simple objectives.
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Is HTML code? Who cares?
Arguing over what HTML is or whose responsibility it is, misses the point. Knowing who cares and doing something about it is the important thing.
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The five keys to a successful SaaS transformation project
You need this transformation project to go well. You need it to be successful. The future of your business probably depends on it. So where do you start?
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Quickly add dark mode capability to your web app or website for improved accessibility
Dark mode is an accessibility feature that it turns out isn't all that hard to implement
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We need a more accessible way to disable things
The convention for displaying disabled controls is to make them light grey, or semi-opaque. We need a more accessible solution.
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Temporary disabilities – everyone’s included
Disabilities can be temporary and non-medical and could easily affect any user – including those with other pre-existing conditions.
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Textburst UX/UI transformation project
Textburst was good, but it deserved to be great. And with the help of some talented devs, we made it so.
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Florence Light UI, UX, product and brand design
Florence Light is a text-message based patient support service. It also looks great and is ridiculously easy to use.
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Florence Light branding and website
Florence Light needed a name, a logo, brand, tone of voice, website and collateral.
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Mediaburst GDPR compliance and UX
Unlike many organisations, we had our sites, apps and processes ready before the GDPR deadline. And, as far as users could tell, we did it without a whimper.
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How to know when a design is right
Whether you’re a designer or a client, at some point during a project you’ll need to decide if the design you have is the right solution. In reality, you’ll probably have to ask yourself this question a number of times. If you’re the designer, you probably ask yourself that with every move of the pen or mouse.
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Vox pops filming tips
Vox pops are simple-looking videos, interviewing a selection of real people, edited together in a no-nonsense sequence. Should be a doddle.
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Changing careers from print to web design
I’ve been asked for advice from a number of designers over the years on how best to go about switching from print to web design – before I made websites and videos, I started my career as a brand and print designer. It’s a big transition to go through.
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A decade of learning at an awesome agency
I celebrated ten years at leading PR agency, Citypress, finishing as Head of Digital. Having come from a print and branding design background originally, I was asked some questions about how my role evolved over the years. Here’s what I said.
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Five ways to get approval quicker
Whether you’re a designer, account handler, or client seeking internal approvals, getting sign off on a project can sometimes be the hardest part. You get endless rounds of amends, unclear feedback and the whole process seems to take forever.
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Five ways to tell if your website is well made
As a website owner it can often feel like a gamble when employing a freelancer or agency to build and manage your website. So how can you find out if the site you get is well built?
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Avoiding the 5 most common problems with website amends
As a client (or someone on an account team representing them), you’ll often want to make copy changes to a project. Which is fine. It’s your prerogative, right?
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9 ways to future-proof your website
If anyone tells you they can future proof your website, don’t believe them. It’s impossible. But there are steps you can take to ensure your website has the maximum possible adaptability over time.
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Simple CMS HTML code for Content Managers
Following on from my post about why writers and content managers need to learn a little bit of code, here's a short yet comprehensive guide to the HTML basics you need to know.
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Basic HTML – writers and content managers need to learn to code
If you have responsibility for updating a website's content – either as the website's owner or a content manager, you'll no doubt have come across its content management system (CMS). But you may not yet have learned the basics of how to code html in to make it look good.
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The 8 key components of a good design brief
Here are the eight key components of a good design brief. Follow these steps when writing your brief and you'll have a great chance of getting something back that'll work.
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How to choose the best design from those presented
Selecting and approving a design from those presented by a designer can be a tough job. There are lots of things to consider and always the worry that you might make the wrong decision.
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Budget filming kit question
I was asked this week to help someone out with specifying a basic video filming kit. He didn't want to 'spend thousands' on a professional level setup, but needed enough to not look amateurish.