iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Alena Nikolaeva @alenanik.github.io · 25/08/2026

when your company is using gitlab 🫠

GitHub contributions chart is half-empty starting from May

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Alena Nikolaeva @alenanik.github.io · 15/01/2026

The end of the year was really fun

GitHub Conntributions calendar. A lot of activity from mid September till end of the December

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Alena Nikolaeva @alenanik.github.io · 02/12/2025

Ramp table UI is honestly so good. Fully functional with the keyboard (not fully accessible as there are a few color contrast failures, but it’s functional), and the focus ring is styled. ✨

Requests table in Ramp website. 4 tabs: all, needs action, pending, drafts. Table lists Requests. Other columns: Frequncy, Payment methods, Start date, Auto-lock date. Main CTA Request in yellow-green color is in the right top corner. A button “Cuatomize columns” is focused with the focus ring shown in black.

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Alena Nikolaeva @alenanik.github.io · 07/09/2025

Las Olympus son increíbles, tengo una que parece un plasticorrio barato (no quiere decir que era barata 😆) de los finales de los 90, y las fotos salen increíbles para lo torpe que soy yo!

Modern Spanish buildings (beige, creme and red) and clear blue sky

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Alena Nikolaeva @alenanik.github.io · 26/08/2025

“First thing I learned was to really listen. Hear the words people use and reflect them in the UI. […] excellent design doesn’t have to be fancy. Sometimes excellence is a few well-placed words.”

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Alena Nikolaeva @alenanik.github.io · 19/08/2025

Back to school (last of my summer books)

Two books on the table: O'REILLY
Practical Programming for Biological Data
Covers Python 3 and Bioinformatics programming

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Alena Nikolaeva @alenanik.github.io · 06/07/2025

Reading “The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech’s Hype and Create the Future We Want” by Alex Hanna and Emily M. Bender and hoping that my baby’s first word will not be AI because of it. So far liking it!

A hand holding an open book and little baby feet are seen under the book

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Alena Nikolaeva @alenanik.github.io · 10/06/2025

New notifications are absolutely unreadable (imagine in bright day light with a baby in one hand) meaning that its needed to be adjusted in settings 🤷🏼‍♀️ Why not to make it work out of the box?

iPhone in the hand featuring new Liquid Glass effect (messages white text is barely visible)

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Alena Nikolaeva @alenanik.github.io · 28/04/2025

The descriptions of images of text are so rare in the emails, I celebrate every single one #accessibility

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Alena Nikolaeva @alenanik.github.io · 17/04/2025

Just received March pictures from the film lab and they turned out so nostalgic ✨

Leaves of a tree with the sunshine behind it and blue sky

Oranges trees and orange blossoms with the sunshine and the blue sky

A street on a sunny day: people are waiting to cross the street near the shop “Mario Puerto”

The sea (a bit far away), beach, plants and flowers (yellow, green and brown) closer to the viewer

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Alena Nikolaeva @alenanik.github.io · 07/04/2025

AI responding to emails on companies behalf just makes us all go thought a useless extra step. I will always request human to confirm, and the human will read my original email anyways. 🙄

Hola! Lamento mucho escuchar que tus tuppers llegaron dañados. Voy a pasar tu solicitud al equipo correspondiente para que puedan ayudarte con el reembolso. Gracias por tu paciencia y comprensión. 😊

Saludos,

Esta respuesta fue creada por Inteligencia Artificial. Si necesitas más ayuda un humano te contactará.

This response was created by AI. If you need more help a human will contact you.

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Alena Nikolaeva @alenanik.github.io · 18/03/2025

Un día hago la charla de todo lo que encuentro, porque una web de reclamación sobre accesibilidad con 16 errores críticos de accesibilidad da para hablar

La web de la administración pública. Contenido:

INICIO
PROCEDIMIENTOS
MIS EXPEDIENTES
MIS NOTIFICACIONES
AYUDA
Reclamación sobre accesibilidad de los sitios web y aplicaciones para dispositivos
móviles
Formulario para enviar sus reciamaciones sobre accesiblidad de los sitios web y apicaciones para dispositivos moviles

Un error está abierto y muestra un link vacío con el contraste que falla.

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Alena Nikolaeva @alenanik.github.io · 13/03/2025

Year 2025: not able to see hotel rooms to book because the web is not responsive 😤

Website that looks broken on the mobile device: home, hotel, restaurant, events, room and suites, booking. No images are shown of the rooms or hotel.

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Alena Nikolaeva @alenanik.github.io · 05/02/2025

Health insurance website: The calendar “picker” is not accessible via keyboard, colour contrast is failing, buttons are empty and… (wait for it) the form is time sensitive. 😳 At this point just let it be the regular text input!

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Alena Nikolaeva @alenanik.github.io · 25/01/2025

Que ilusión volver a la sala de @bilbostack.com a disfrutar de las charlas en vez de hablar yo 😂 Buen rollito y comida de Bilbao ❤️

Un slide “a JavaScript le quedan 2 años “ en el escenario

El slide de la charla con texto “"El 50% de las profesionales de la tecnología abandonan el sector antes de cumplir 35 años"

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Alena Nikolaeva @alenanik.github.io · 11/01/2025

I saw so many of them recently! You can barely see them 😄

A few green parrot birds on the green grass, it’s hard to spot them because the colour of the grass is exactly the color of the parrots

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Alena Nikolaeva @alenanik.github.io · 08/01/2025

Interesting design choice: Spotify feature that doesn’t allow to read the show’s reviews before listening at least one episode. Wondering if it can an issue for users (with hearing impairments?) who might prefer to rely on reviews before committing to listen

Listen to the show first!
Only listeners to this show can rate it. Check out a few episodes then come back and give your feedback.

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Alena Nikolaeva @alenanik.github.io · 02/01/2025

Zero config cute terminal that uses JetBrains Mono 🩷 ghostty.org

An image of a ghost made with symbols, letters and numbers in white and border in blue making a funny face

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Alena Nikolaeva @alenanik.github.io · 31/12/2024

An example of how problematic images that include instructions without alternative text are problematic for blind users when they need to do a return or exchange of gifts 🎁 during holiday season:

3 steps of instructions illustrated with images. The inspector (Chrome dev tools) is open with the following code snippet highlighted: <img style=“border-box; color: 9000800;*>
cing style="box-sizing: border-box; border-style: none;
height: auto; max-width: 100%;" src="/hc/article attachment” width=“226” height=“344”>

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Alena Nikolaeva @alenanik.github.io · 23/12/2024

One of my favorite generative arts accounts is by Saskia Freeke. She uploads a geometric shape a day, everyday and it’s really inspiring ✨ www.instagram.com/sasj_nl/

A grid of 9 images of geometric shapes with bright colours and diverse colour palettes. The majority of the shapes are triangle, square and stars

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Alena Nikolaeva @alenanik.github.io · 12/12/2024

Noticed that Prague has this really awesome app to buy public transport tickets, and it has the list of accessibility facilities and their statuses. Clicking on “out of order” will show you the reason and the platform where it’s broken. ❤️

The list of accessibility facilities: out of order, partially operational, fully operational

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Alena Nikolaeva @alenanik.github.io · 08/12/2024

I saw a coffee tree and the cherry for the first time today in the tiniest cafe in Prague, it made my day!

Coffee tree leaves in warm ambient light of the coffeeshop

Coffee cherry (2 cherries) and the tree in the same warm light of the coffee shop.

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Alena Nikolaeva @alenanik.github.io · 04/12/2024

It’s like a childhood friend saying goodbye 💔

In Vision Customers,
As we enter the final month of In Vision service, we'd like to remind you that all in Vision services will shut down on December 31, 2024, at 11:59 PM ET (see the full announcement here). On this date, all content in your InVision account will be permanently and irreversibly deleted. We will send two final reminders in the middle, and at the end of December.

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Alena Nikolaeva @alenanik.github.io · 02/12/2024

Bilbostack shared cute pics from last year. I don’t complain 🥰 (thanks @vgaltes.com) See ya this year!

Alena wearing a black jacket and a ponytail is standing in front of her slides (yellow background) giving a talk

Computer (MacBook) with GitHub, Tinybird, Xata and a few other companies logos

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Alena Nikolaeva @alenanik.github.io · 29/11/2024

Lovely that Google has articles on how to setup screen reader to navigate Google docs, Sheets, Slides and other products from different clients. A lot to learn from it! support.google.com/accounts/ans...

Get help reading text on a screen
If you need help reading text on a screen, you can turn on accessibility settings for a few Google products in your Google Account.
Tabs: Computer,AndroidiPhone & iPad.

Turn screen reader on or off
The screen reader setting applies only to Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, and Drawings on a browser, like Chrome. When you use these products, a screen reader can read text on your screen aloud.
For this setting to work, you need to have a screen reader, like NVDA, JAWS, VoiceOver, or ChromeVox.
1. Open your Google Account . You might need to sign in.
2. On the left, click Personal info.
3. Under "General preferences for the web," click Accessibility.
4. Turn Screen reader on or off.
You might need to follow extra steps to set up your screen reader for Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, and Drawings.

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Alena Nikolaeva @alenanik.github.io · 25/11/2024

My favorite hobby is to look for accessibility features in products and find creepy tracking toggles instead.

Setting toggles:

Privacy settings
Information collection
Allow information collection for analytics
Location Features
Allow use of location for Duolingo features

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Alena Nikolaeva @alenanik.github.io · 21/11/2024

Small steps that lead to bigger changes start in design, that’s the real beauty of it for me 🙌🏻

Create Accessibility annotation kit Jira ticket

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Alena Nikolaeva @alenanik.github.io · 15/11/2024

Accessibility violation and dark pattern classic: hiding the link and not highlighting it with different color and the underline.

Copyright (C) 2022 perfumerias.com, Todos los derechos reservados. Si deseas darte de baja en los servicios ofrecidos por perfumerias haz click aquí.

“Aquí” is invisible link that has the same could as surrounding text

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Alena Nikolaeva @alenanik.github.io · 13/11/2024

Spotted another example of accessibility setting on the landing page of Wio bank wio.io I wouldn’t exacted it to be part of navigation menu and the trigger (A+) is not the most intuitive but wow, a11y feature on the landing is really something 🙌🏻

Change Font Size a to A, change contrast Wio Colour to High Contrast

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Alena Nikolaeva @alenanik.github.io · 11/11/2024

I really like this example from Typeform where accessibility “checker” is build-into product. For any kind of builders, where user creates form, website or any other option for “others to use” it really is a must. Well done 👍🏻

Accessibility options menu is open: accessibility, colour, alt text, content and other issues are listed in sections with the status badge on the side

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Alena Nikolaeva @alenanik.github.io · 09/11/2024

Icon buttons are cute, but you’d be surprised how often there is no hidden text or accessible name provided. When there are no labels provided or aria-hidden is placed, it’s a barrier for screen reader users. “Home”, “Trash” , “Copy” labels are just not there and it’s not as safe as regular buttons

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Alena Nikolaeva @alenanik.github.io · 08/11/2024

Officially replaced X to 🦋 in black apps folder

Apps in Home Screen sorted by colours: white, green, red, blue, gray, black (only one blue app is there), blue, rainbow

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Alena Nikolaeva @alenanik.github.io · 06/11/2024

The thing I learned today that that you can never ever ever name you tokens by how typography looks like: h2, h3, h4, h5, h6. It will not be used correctly and will lead to incorrect heading order. Look at the beauty I found while testing today: h6 as navigation items and paragraphs 🙈 #a11y

The list of headings in headingsMap extension: 6 - Workspace
6 - Finance
6 - Hub
6 - All payments
6 - Expenses
6 - Payslips
6 - Bank accounts
6 - Tax documents
1 - Payslips
6 - Contract
6 - Period
3 - Payslips
6 - Payslips will be available once payment ...
2 - For May 23rd to Jun 23rd, 2024
4 - From Deel
4 - Work cycle
4 - For May 23rd to Jun 23rd, 2024
4 - Payslip
4 - Download payslip
4 - Download payslip
4 - Questions about your payslip?

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