Prescriptive and Descriptive Information Architectures | Jorge Arango
Interesting—this is exactly the same framing I used to talk about design systems a few years ago.
Link tags: labels
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Improving the information architecture of the Smart Pension member app | Design and tech | Smart – retirement, savings and financial wellbeing
Here’s a really excellent, clearly-written case study that unfortunately includes this accurate observation:
In recent years the practice of information architecture has fallen out of fashion, which is a shame as you can’t design something successfully without it. If a user can’t find a feature, it’s game over - the feature may as well not exist as far as they’re concerned.
I also like this insight:
Burger menus are effective… at hiding things.
Design Titles
Keep refreshing until you find your next job title.
How-to: Create accessible forms - The A11Y Project
Another five pieces of sweet, sweet low-hanging fruit:
- Always label your inputs.
- Highlight input element on focus.
- Break long forms into smaller sections.
- Provide error messages.
- Avoid horizontal layout forms unless necessary.
5 most annoying website features I face as a blind person every single day by Holly Tuke
Five pieces of low-hanging fruit:
- Unlabelled links and buttons
- No image descriptions
- Poor use of headings
- Inaccessible web forms
- Auto-playing audio and video
The difference between aria-label and aria-labelledby - Tink - Léonie Watson
A handy reminder from Léonie (though remember that the best solution is to avoid the problem in the first place—if you avoid using ARIA, do that).
Naming things to improve accessibility
Some good advice from Hidde, based on his recent talk Six ways to make your site more accessible.
The ineffectiveness of lonely icons | Matt Wilcox, Web Developer & Tinkerer
When in doubt, label your icons.
When not in doubt, you probably should be.
I’m a Web Designer - Andy Bell
Something that I am increasingly uncomfortable with is our industry’s obsession with job titles. I understand that the landscape has gotten a lot more complex than when I started out in 2009, but I do think the sheer volume and variation in titles isn’t overly helpful in communicating what people actually do.
I share Andy’s concern. I kinda wish that the title for this open job role at Clearleft could’ve just said “Person”.
Don’t Use The Placeholder Attribute — Smashing Magazine
A lot of the issues here are with abuses of the placeholder attribute—using it as a label, using it for additional information, etc.—whereas using it quite literally as a placeholder can be thought of as an enhancement (I almost always preface mine with “e.g.”).
Still, there’s no getting around that terrible colour contrast issue: if the contrast were greater, it would look too much like an actual pre-filled value, and that’s potentially worse.
UX In Contact Forms: Essentials To Turn Leads Into Conversions — Smashing Magazine
The answers to these questions about forms are useful for just about any website:
- Is It OK To Place A Form In Two Columns?
- Where Should Labels Be Placed?
- Can We Use Placeholder Text Instead Of A Label?
- How To Lessen The Cognitive Load Of A Form?
- Are Buttons Considered Part Of A Form’s UX?
- Is It Possible To Ease The Process Of Filling A Form?
- Does The User’s Location Influence A Form’s UX?
Revisiting the Float Label pattern with CSS — That Emil is Emil Björklund
A clever technique by Emil to implement the “float label” pattern using CSS. It all hinges on browsers supporting the :placeholder-shown pseudo-class which, alas, is not universal.
I was hoping that maybe @supports could come to the rescue (so that a better fallback could be crafted), but that tests for properties and values, not selectors. Damn!
Thomas Byttebier - The best icon is a text label
A look at the risks of relying on a purely graphical icon for interface actions. When in doubt, label it.
Labelmask | Brad Frost Web
I really like this interface idea from Brad that provides the utility of input masks but without the accessibility problems.
41Latitude - Google Maps & Label Readability
An examination into the legibility of labels on online mapping services.
Journalism Warning Labels « Tom Scott
Excellent! Warning labels for bad journalism for you to print off and stick on.