A List Apart, for people who make websites

Q. How do you create services for situations you can’t imagine? Or design products that work on devices yet to be invented? A. Designing for the Unexpected by Cathy Dutton https://alistapart.com/article/designing-for-the-unexpected/ ... Illustration: Dougal MacPherson for A List Apart. #design #ux #productdesign #uxdesign #userexperience

As devices diversify in dizzying ways, how can we be sure that our web work will stay relevant? Cathy Dutton shares how practitioners can perfect designs for the paradigms of the present *and* the unseen twists of the future. https://alistapart.com/article/designing-for-the-unexpected/ #ux #visualdesign #uxdesign #userexperience #multidevicedesign #webstandards #futurefriendly #forwardcompatible

Receiving feedback can be stressful: will an open-ended question attract helpful guidance or harsh criticism? In Part 2 of an ALA series, Erin Folletto Casali coaches us through a process to ensure that feedback always lands gracefully. https://alistapart.com//asynchronous-design-critique-givin

Giving actionable feedback is one of your most important tasks as a designer, lead, or stakeholder. It’s even tougher and more essential in the asynchronous environment of distributed work. Erin Casali shares a framework to empower others without deflating them. https://alistapart.com//async-design-critique-giving-feed/

New! If, like many folks during the pandemic, you’ve begun confusing burnout for achievement, Donna Bungard will show you how to recognize that you’re low on fuel and give you a map of rest stops where you can refill your tank. https://alistapart.com/article/thats-not-my-burnout/

Personas, long a cornerstone of user research, portray abstract, static, context-free caricatures instead of people. Emanuela Cozzi and Lennart Overkamp share a better way to shape our designs to meet real human needs. https://alistapart.com/arti/beware-the-cut-n-paste-persona/

Those immersive experiences are so hot right now, but your content may not be ready. Preston So shares how to recast your fixed web content to create new experiences and prepare for an unpredictable future. https://alistapart.com/article/immersive-content-strategy/ #ContentStrategy #UX #usability #VR #XR #CS... Illustration by Dougal MacPherson for A List Apart.

Publish global, think local. Discover how to use your website as a communication tool to gain new markets in different cultures. (Hint: Translating your content may not be enough.) https://alistapart.com//do-you-need-to-localize-your-webs/ #cs #ContentStrategy #internationalization #localization

Get better work with Northwestern’s Online MS in Information Design and Strategy. Choose from tracks in content strategy, data science and analytics, and learning design. https://sps.northwestern.edu/ala #ux #IxD #designeducation

Outside reading: The value of inclusive design in a competition between rivals in the community conversation space. #UX #inclusion

JavaScript gives us many ways to do things, but deciding which way can be tricky. Laurie Barth shares a tale of two experts who solve this problem in different ways, giving insight into how to make these decisions for your team. https://alistapart.com/article/human-readable-javascript/

When we design for ourselves, we exclude anyone who is not like us. But breaking out of our experience bubbles can be hard. Fortunately, Reginé Gilbert is here with a helpful mnemonic for approaching our design work from a fresh perspective. https://alistapart.com/article/keeping-a-fresh-design-mind/

Everyone’s a good manager when their team is functioning perfectly. But what do you do when your team screws up? Liam Nugent tells how to face reality when work goes poorly, and shares practical steps to get your team back on track. https://alistapart.com/a/dysfunctional-teams-back-on-track/

Matt E. Patterson shows why a new WebSockets-driven approach is catching web developers’ attention, and how it can mean faster, easier development that results in an experience every bit as rich as client-side SPAs! https://alistapart.com//the-future-of-web-software-is-htm/

Thank you to our sponsor: Northwestern’s Online MS in Information Design and Strategy. Choose from tracks in content strategy, data science and analytics, and learning design. https://sps.northwestern.edu/ala

If you find yourself wrestling with CSS layout, it’s likely you’re making decisions for browsers they should be making themselves. https://every-layout.dev/

After the launch, everyone is happy for a while (except the customers, of course) because in many organizations what is important is to be seen to be doing things and producing and launching things, rather than to do something useful. Gerry McGovern https://alistapart.com/article/webwaste

In this excerpt from Creative Culture, Justin Dauer walks us through many ways in which an organizations’ culture and the design work that it does play off of one another. https://alistapart.com/article/creative-culture-excerpt/

Behavior change design creates entrancing and effective products. In this excerpt from Chapter 9 of her new book, Amy Bucher shares insights into using personalization to create meaningful user experiences. https://alistapart.com/article/engaged-excerpt

From banking to civil services to education, the Internet intersects every part of our lives in a way that was unthinkable 20 years ago. And yet the web remains inaccessible to vast swathes of people, with code issues far from the only roadblock. Olu Niyiawosusi explores the complexity of true accessibly, and offers a thoughtful approach to building a safer and more welcoming web. https://alistapart.com/article/building-the-woke-web

While it may seem counterintuitive, many people with color vision deficiencies are actually quite attuned to both color and its usability gaps. In this article, Noah Glushien shares the ins and outs of creating a successful career in web, despite being color blind. https://alistapart.com//a-designers-life-with-color-visio/

How much do you really know about color? Find out in this free excerpt from Stephen Anderson and Karl Fast’s Figure It Outnew from Rosenfeld Media. https://alistapart.com/article/figure-it-out

In Designing Value, an excerpt from The Jobs To Be Done Playbook, Jim Kalbach gives advice on creating a jobs-driven roadmap and using "job stories" to solve specific design problems. https://alistapart.com/article/jobs-to-be-done

It’s an important time to be in voice design, but it’s not without its own challenges. Content in voice-driven interfaces can vary wildly from that of traditional websites, which might leave many of us wondering about our existing approaches to usability testing. In this piece, Preston So not only casts these challenges as opportunities, but also as advantages for the medium itself. https://alistapart.com//usability-testing-for-voice-content

Every day, people visit sites that offer no cultural mental models to fall back on. Effective visual systems can eliminate their guesswork and frustration. Learn how in this excerpt from Senongo Akpem’s brand-new Cross-Cultural Design (A Book Apart). https://alistapart.com/article/cross-cultural-design

Standards for Writing Accessibly by Michael J. Metts & Andy Welfle A List Apart is pleased to present this excerpt from *Writing is Designing*, available now from Rosenfeld Media. https://alistapart.com/art/standards-for-writing-accessibly