Thudfactor Link Roundup #2

This week's links lean more towards the technical / business side of things.

I’ve spent a fair amount of time in the last week in accessibility-land, so you get a few of those links, some more web development stuff, and three articles that are more about the human processes of doing things than the technical requirements.

Accessibility (and adjacent)

The Oxymoron of “Data-Driven Innovation”

I had to sit with this one. Chelsea Troy explains why it’s so hard to be creative when you’re building for the majority.

FEMA Will No Longer Go Door-to-Door to Assist Disaster Victims

Trust me, this Mother Jones article is related to Chelsea’s post above. But it’s another demonstration of how “efficiency” often means deciding who gets abandoned.

Accessible Rickrolling

Heydon Pickering explains how to build an accessible Rickroll as a means of explaining that “parallel experience” does not necessarily mean providing a pleasant experience.

Web Development

A (Limited) Defense of Footnotes

Stuart Langridge responds to Jake Archibald’s broadside against my favorite academic affectation. Heydon’s point from the post above is also relevant to this debate.

Removal Techniques and Implications

Vincent Valentin has created a matrix of all the ways you can remove elements from a web page and their consequences. There is no single “best practice” for hiding content; it all depends on what you want to do.

LTeX+

I do most of my writing in VSCode, using Markdown. LTeX has been valuable to me as a spelling / grammar / style-checker.

Penpot

Penpot is an alternative to Figma. I used it to make the headline comp for my post on markup for fancy headings, so I think it’s worth a look. Power Figma-users are more qualified to evaluate it, though.

Big Think

We Tried That

Sometimes when you propose a solution or plan of action, you get this response. I know I’ve certainly said it myself. But have we really tried that? Different people under different circumstances might lead to better outcomes.

Please Exceed Your Authority

Somewhere between doing everything by the book and the “ask forgiveness, not permission” philosophy is a gray area where you can make a difference without alienating everyone else.

Gift Link: It’s Time to End the Battle Between Waterfall and Agile

The idea that agile is rigid and resists innovation seems really weird to me, but there’s no denying that much of the certification process has encouraged process-duplication over introspection. This HBR article shows how and why you might blend the oil-and-water of Agile and Waterfall.