Reading
Accessibility for Vestibular Disorders: How My Temporary Disability Changed My Perspective by Facundo Corradini.
It’s from April 2019 but the point very much still stands… making things accessible isn’t a thing you do just for 'other’ people – you do it for everyone. At any moment, someone might find themselves needing to approach or use something in a different way, and what we build and design should be mindful of that fact.
I’ve touched on vestibular triggers before, and this post covers some of that same ground around reduced-motion queries, as well as considering dark mode, parallax, font sizing, and the effect of a seemingly innocuous slanted angle.
I learned the hard way that there are plenty of “invisible conditions” that are just as important to take into consideration: vestibular disorders, cognitive differences, dyslexia, and color blindness, just to name a few. I was totally neglecting those most of the time, barely addressing the issues in order to pass automated tests, which means I was unintentionally annoying some users by making websites inaccessible to them.
Neumorphism the right way — A 2020 Design Trend by David Ofiare.
A look at what is allegedly a hot new trend of thinking that work shown on dribbble is work that should make it into real applications.
Neumorphism (or Neo-skeuomorphism) is a modern iteration of a style of designing web elements, frames, screens, etc. known as Skeuomorphism. SO, Neumorphism is a witty (right?) combo of the words “New” and “Skeuomorphism”.
I am decidedly not a fan of this style of design, not only from an aesthetic point of view, but also from a 'having to build it’ point of view, and an accessibility point of view. Nonetheless, the term is being bandied around a fair bit lately, so it’s probably worth getting familiar. Know your enemy. Not knocking David btw, he’s not advocating for a mass take-up of this style, and manages to provide a nuanced overview of it (a nua-neu-skeuomorphic overview? 🤔), but I have my reservations.
Watching
Ladhood on iPlayer.
I was a big fan of Pls Like (which I also highly recommend) and this has a lot in common, not least that it’s written by / stars Liam Williams.
Adapted from an original BBC Radio 4 series, Ladhood straddles two timelines as Liam explores the roots of modern-day masculinity, by delving into the memories of his own misspent adolescence in Garforth, (a Leeds suburb) during the early noughties.
Only 6 short episodes long (very bingeable), Ladhood manages to somehow capture a lot of my own teenage years despite me growing up a few years earlier, 300 miles away. Tbh, I’m sure that a lot of the things in it apply to a lot of people; those teenage situations and feelings are universal. But still, this really resonated. It’s like a slightly more realistic Inbetweeners.
The rap episode in particular – holy shit. Fond, fond, cringe-worthy memories of the first time I hosted a recording session in my bedroom. Good times.
