Dispatches From The Internets

Designing Progressive Enhancement Into The Academic Manuscript

This piece offers some really great ideas here for progressively enhancing academic papers in the digital space. For example:

  1. Start with embedding a lightweight static figure (a snapshot) of the key output of the code. This should represent whatever state the author deems fit to best convey the key finding/narrative contribution of the code in question. This will only serve as the minimum viable experience for skimming purposes (Casual engagement), but also as a safe baseline for when the content is being accessed through less capable devices, as a printable/PDF compatible output, and as a valid snapshot of what state the data was in when it was peer-reviewed (where applicable).
  2. Allow the user to switch the static figure to an interactive output where supported, providing whatever level of UI is needed to appreciate the output in full.
  3. Where appropriate, allow the user to dig behind the output of the interactive figure and directly look at the code behind it. You may at this stage allow minor edits to the algorithm and the ability to run it again in-situ to view the output.
  4. If the user wants to engage further, for example intending to fork or modify the code, or do anything more complex, provide links to the most appropriate external resource where the user can benefit from a more appropriate environment or UI to do their work (e.g., the original GitHub and/or data repository, or an online IDE).

Breaking the Grid

Dave Rupert points out some instances where your grid layouts may not render exactly as intended.

Software development 450 words per minute

No monitors, no problem. Tuukka Ojala on his experience of being a blind developer.

Speech or braille alone can’t paint an accurate representation of how a window is laid out visually. All the information is presented to me in a linear fashion. If you copy a web page and paste it into notepad you get a rough idea of how web pages look to me. It’s just a bunch of lines stacked on top of another with most of the formatting stripped out. However, a screen reader can pick up on the semantics used in the HTML of the web page, so that links, headings, form fields etc. are announced to me correctly. That’s right: I don’t know that a check box is a check box if it’s only styled to look like one. However, more on that later; I’ll be devoting an entire post to this subject. Just remember that the example I just gave is a crime against humanity.

Remember Palm’s WebOS? Maybe not, but Apple and Google definitely do

WebOS… so far ahead of its time:

  • Web code for apps (see PWAs),
  • Multiple synchronized calendars,
  • Unified social media & contact management,
  • Curved displays
  • Wireless charging
  • Integrated text and Web messaging
  • Unintrusive notifications
  • “Cards” for running apps
  • No home button (it used swipe instead)

And all of these features were available eight years ago!

Categories land in the Web App Manifest

Starting in early May, Rob Dolin began advocating for adding a categories member to the Web App Manifest spec. It was something we’d been discussing for a while now. It’s a feature that will be incredibly useful to users, especially as it relates to PWAs in the Windows Store, other app stores, and in catalogs. This weekend, our hard work paid off and it was added to the spec!