The State of The Advernet

“The Website Obesity Crisis”

The Advernet. It’s bringing me down man. I’ve been feeling really negative about the future of the web.

But now I’m happy because I watched a really smart and funny video about the web that incorporates Howard Taft, Russian literature, Chickenshit Minimalism, youth, love and lard.

Anyone who uses the web, and Christ, that’s a lot of humanoids, should find this 53 minutes well spent. And developers and designers and the like should benefit as well.

A screenshot from a video of Howard Taft talking on the telephone
This is a screenshot which looks like an embedded video complete with a nonfunctioning play button. This is known as a perceived affordance and that’s not a good thing. Don’t do it.
It’s a keynote delivered by Maciej Ceglowski.

You’ll find many valuable tips like this code snipet:
code snippet text reads: "make sure the critical elements of  your site load first" the "stop there"

You may now watch the video

Starbucks Wants Your Business

Especially if you’re a wheelchair user

A Starbucks sign blocks the side walk
Dave Nold

A clever ploy by Starbucks to divert wheelchair users away from Noah’s Bagels? (Noah’s is right next store)

And good luck if you were planing on using the convenient curb cut just beyond the sign.

When you see something like this, go into the store and pleasantly suggest that they remove the barrier. I didn’t do that and for that I will forever feel… Whatever. Next time, I promise.

Amazon Video: Captions are good for business

Portion of T.V. Image and caption
Dave Nold
In 2012 DREDF secured an historic settlement in National Association of the Deaf, et al. v. Netflix, ensuring 100% closed captions in Netflix’s on–demand streaming content within two years.

“DREDF hopes that this is the beginning of opening the Internet for our country’s 48 million deaf and hard of hearing individuals in streamed entertainment, education, government benefits, and more. We’re so pleased that Netflix worked jointly with plaintiffs to devise a reasonable and workable way to achieve 100% captioning. The Decree is a model for the streaming entertainment industry.” – Arlene Mayerson

Last week, Amazon decided to not put up a fight and agreed to caption 100% of it’s massive inventory by December 31, 2016.

The trend is heartening.

Next stop: Audio Description.