Pixels of the Week – December 13, 2020

This content is 3 years old. Remember that the following content might be outdated.

Every day, I share on twitter and LinkedIn a list of curated articles I read, resources and tools about UX Design, User Research, UI and mobile design, HTML, CSS, the web industry, some process, some inspiration, etc. This is an archive of everything I shared this week.

#Now – what I’m up to

This week I published a  little gift for you: my “User Research and UX Design Starter Kit“. New version includes: my user interview cheatsheet, some more user journey maps, more links to help you. (if you got V1 last year, I already emailed you the link to V2)

I  also virtually attended the Chrome Dev Summit. They built a really cool little online world for participants to play with.

TL;DNR the one you should not miss

#CSS

Creating a full bleed CSS utility (aka a block that can bleed out of the edges of the main container) by Andy Bell

Interesting article

#User Research

User Research: Is It Worth It?” Yes it is. While I agree PhD level is not mandatory to do research, I don’t think it’s “feasible for anyone”: you still need a lot of skills (training) to conduct valuable research, those takes time to acquire.

#JTBD #Psychology

An interesting case study by @GrowthDotDesign on how Jobs-to-be-done are often misused (or not at all!). I’m amazed at how long and annoying the headspace user onboarding while users “just want to meditate”

#Design

I am smiling and nodding at most of the things written here: “100 lessons for the year to come“. Also now I have like 30 articles to read to point 8 might be hard haha. More seriously thank you @uxdesigncc for that nice summary.

#CSS

  • Back to CSS basics people, today: “The Rules of Margin Collapse“, a great read on what margins are (and are not) and how they work. This is usually one of those “CSS aha moments” for many people ^^ by Josh W. Comeau (@joshwcomeau)
  • More CSS aha moments: “What Makes CSS Hard To Master” by Tim Severien (@TimSeverien)

#Accessibility #AdventCalendar

Hugo “Kitty”Giraudel (@HugoGiraudel) shares one accessibility tip a day for the whole month in this really nice little accessibility advent calendar.
#Job Titles

Design job titles explained“. This is based on an analysis of 200 job ads. I think it kind of reflects the current “job title mess”: whatever the title, companies expect designers who can do it all at different levels (research, ux designer, ui design,…)

Inspiration, fun experiments and great ideas

#3D

Paarsec is an italian graphic designer and 3D artist you should totally follow on Instagram

#Illustration #Typography

Viral – Letters on Lockdown is a collaboration between Béatrice Bloomfield, Laurène Boglio, Marion Bizet and Estelle Monteillet to create a typeface that illustrates the quarantining of 2020

#CSS #Animation

Wow, pure CSS Monument Valley II by Julia Miocene (@julia_miocene)

#Accessibility

Alt-text is an essential part of web accessibility. It is often overlooked or understood through the lens of compliance, as an unwelcome burden to be met with minimum effort. How can we instead approach alt-text thoughtfully and creatively?

#Food #Culture

I like the “I came for the food and stayed for the history”, so here we have “Fried Chicken: Easy Recipe, Complicated History” (Content Warning: racism, slavery and images of raw meat after 13′ where the recipe part starts)

Podcasts

#Podcast

99% Invisible is about all the thought that goes into the things we don’t think about — the unnoticed architecture and design that shape our world. They currently have an interesting series of episodes on homelessness

Useful tools and resources that will make your life easy

#UX #Abuse

Abusability Test Your Product“, a platform that tells you what potential harm or abuse can come out of some of the features you are building into your product.

#Photos #Diversity

Nappy is a collection of beautiful photos of Black and Brown people you can use for free in your projects. (created by @shademgmt)

#Books

We need diverse voices to build a better design industry. Here are some “Design Books by Womxn & People of Color

#Tool #Mindmap

Kinopio  is just the cutest mind mapping tool ever. I just enjoy drawing boxes and adding lines, it is kind of relaxing with this pastel design ^^
(created by Pirijan @pketh)

#Font

I love this Ellograph typeface so much! It’s a beautiful monospaced typeface that comes in roman and cursive italic

#Icons

eosdesignsystem is a pack with more than 1000 free icons for your project. There’s also a few animated ones in the list which is quite nice!