New EU Guidelines For AI Labelling
New EU guidelines, why AI sparkles aren’t enough, when AI labels are required, and what the rules mean for AI-powered features and products.
Articles on Smashing Magazine — For Web Designers And Developers
Recent content in Articles on Smashing Magazine — For Web Designers And Developers
Latest posts
Building Tactile UX: Honoring Intentional Design With Lottie
When tasked with building a highly interactive, tactile web experience, the architecture must serve the art direction. In this article, Alexey Kopytin explains their architectural rationale for building a digital stress-relief squeeze toy game using Lottie animations, DOM events, and distance-based math to maintain absolute control over their designers’ intentional motion.
How Baseline Can Help You Ship Less JavaScript
The gap between “you need a library for this” and “the browser does this” keeps closing. A practical guide to auditing your dependencies and finding what the web platform can now handle for you.
Small Joys And Big Adventures (August 2026 Wallpapers Edition)
Whether you’re enjoying some well-earned time off this August or are jumping headfirst into a new project, how about some new desktop wallpapers to accompany you on all those big and small adventures the month might bring? Well, we’ve got you covered!
The Bull And Bear Case For Digital Design In The Age Of AI
As AI reshapes product design, it could give designers greater autonomy or expose the gaps that autonomy makes harder to hide. Exploring both the bull and bear cases, Andy Budd examines what happens when designers need less permission to act.
Thinking Outside The Box: Digital Design In The AI Era
Many of the AI tools we interact with take the form of text boxes. But what if there was a different way to interact with AI? Oleksii Hrzhehorzhevskyi explores a different approach to creating a new AI assistant and how designers can navigate the field as AI continues to change it.
Weaponizing And Defending The React Flight Protocol: Deserialization Sinks In RSCs
While React Server Components rely on the custom Flight protocol to stream interactive UIs, this same mechanism introduces powerful deserialization sinks that attackers can exploit. Durgesh Pawar breaks down the mechanics behind the CVSS 10.0 “React2Shell” vulnerability to show how protocol manipulation can lead to remote code execution.
When It Makes Sense To “Block” The Main Thread
The common rule of thumb is to never “block” the browser’s main thread when running JavaScript tasks. But is this a hard rule? Victor Ayomipo describes a use case he encountered involving a screenshot extension where he made an exception to the rule and decided that blocking the main thread was absolutely the right thing to do.
No, People Don’t Want More AI In Their Life
Many companies assume everyone craves new AI features. But the reality is that most people don't want more AI — at least not in the way most AI leaders envision it. Brought to you by Design Patterns For AI Interfaces , **friendly video courses on UX** and design patterns by Vitaly.
From Kickoff To First Concept: How To Turn Brand Strategy Into Visual Direction
The strongest visual concepts don’t start in Figma. They start with the right questions. Explore the pre-concept phase of brand identity design, where teams research brand context, uncover hidden assumptions with stakeholders, and turn shared direction into a visual foundation before a single concept is created.
Designing For Distressed Users: Why Mental Health Apps Shouldn’t Follow Every UI Fashion
Many UI trends are designed to capture attention and signal innovation, but those goals often conflict with the needs of mental health apps: reducing cognitive strain, fostering trust, and providing a sense of refuge. Kat Homan introduces an evaluation framework that helps designers assess whether trendy visual and interaction patterns support or undermine the unique goals of mental health…
Meet Kirki: WordPress’s First Visual Builder With An Infinite Canvas
We have been building websites inside boxes for years on WordPress. Let’s take a closer look at [Kirki](https://kirki.com/), the first freeform visual builder with an infinite canvas, and explore how it redefines the experience with cleaner performance, full design freedom, and zero plugin dependency.
Users Don’t Need More Tools: They Need Seamless Integrations
A closer look at why users don’t need more tools in their daily lives. What they need are seamless integrations of useful features to match already existing, established mental models. Brought to you by Design Patterns For AI Interfaces , **friendly video course on UX** and design patterns by Vitaly.
Matching AI Modality To User Intent: Designing The Right Interface
We’ve fallen into conversational tunnel vision, defaulting every AI capability into a chat-based interface simply because LLMs are trained on dialogue data. But great UX is about matching modality to users’ context, intent, and cognitive load, so the interface adapts to the user, not the other way around.
Why Accessibility Is An Operational Capability, Not A Feature
Teams can generate UI faster than ever, but they still have to guarantee that what they ship is usable, secure, and maintainable. Accessibility as an operational capability rather than a compliance checklist or end-of-project audit, and what that looks like in practice.
Snapshots Of Summer (July 2026 Wallpapers Edition)
July is just around the corner, and that means... It’s time for some new desktop wallpapers! As every month, the wallpapers in this collection were created by the community for the community and can be downloaded for free. Enjoy!
Designing With Uncertainty: How AI Supercharges Probabilistic Thinking
In a world where AI is informing more design choices, it’s easy to mistake predictions for certainties. This article introduces Probabilistic Design, a mindset that allows UX and product teams to accept uncertainty, decipher AI outputs with nuance, and make smart, adaptive decisions.
The Impact Of Humanoid Robots On Humanity
We have officially moved past the era of humanoid robots as mere public relations stunts. As they become increasingly lifelike, society may soon face profound social, psychological, and ethical challenges. What happens when the boundary between humans and machines becomes almost impossible to distinguish?
The Benefits Of Cognitive Inclusion In UX Research
Findings from an exploratory user research study highlighting the unique insights and practical UX recommendations shared by participants with cognitive disabilities.
How To Make Your Design System AI-Ready
Practical guide on how to reduce drifts, minimize mistakes, maintain context, and improve the quality of AI-generated prototypes. Brought to you by Design Patterns For AI Interfaces , **friendly video course on UX** and design patterns by Vitaly.
June Is For Exploring (2026 Wallpapers Edition)
Let’s kick off June — and the beginning of summer — with some fresh inspiration! Artists and designers from across the globe once again tickled their creativity to welcome the new month with a new collection of desktop wallpapers. Enjoy!
Algorithmic Theming Engines: Building Self-Correcting Color Systems With `contrast-color()`
Seventy percent of websites still fail basic WCAG contrast checks in 2025. After years of design system tooling, accessibility linters, and JavaScript libraries, nothing moved the needle. We didn’t need better libraries. We needed better CSS. `contrast-color()` is that better CSS.
Your Prototype Is Not Being Honest With Your Users (And Here’s How To Fix It)
There’s a moment in almost every usability session where a participant pauses at the login screen, types something, and glances up: checking whether they’re “doing it right.” That pause is a clear sign. They’ve already clocked that this isn’t a real app, and every data point collected after that moment is filtered through that awareness.
Four Levels Of Customer Understanding
What people say, feel, think, and do are often very different things. To understand the underlying reasons for user behavior, it helps to look beyond the surface and explore hidden motivations, root causes, and the different layers of reality that shape how people act. Brought to you by Measuring UX Impact , **friendly video course on UX** and design patterns by Vitaly.
Advanced Tree Counting: Mathematical Layouts With `sibling-index()` And `sibling-count()`
Meet `sibling-index()` and `sibling-count()`. Staggered cascade effect in one line of CSS without `:nth-child()` rules or JS workarounds. Works for 5 items or 5,000.
Ten Data-Backed Truths Of User Experience ROI
Every extra second of friction has a measurable business cost. Carrie Webster shares ten data-backed UX facts that link user experience directly to revenue, retention, and long-term growth.
Practical Interface Patterns For AI Transparency (Part 2)
Why traditional loading patterns like spinners fail in agentic AI experiences, and how interface patterns that reveal the system’s process, status, and decision-making can improve transparency and build user trust.
The Architecture Of Local-First Web Development
An honest perspective on building local-first web apps in 2026, written for developers who’ve been doing this long enough to be skeptical of silver bullets.
Rethinking The Experience Of System Tools
Design always starts with function — function shapes form. But if that function can’t be made completely invisible and people still have to interact with it, it inevitably becomes part of their experience. In this article, Kyrylo Levashov shares four common software design assumptions.
Designing Stable Interfaces For Streaming Content
Streaming UIs are an easy concept on the surface, but are quite complicated in practice. There are many considerations that need to be accounted for, from layout shifts and motion preferences to proper markup and various states, that may not be instantly obvious. What happens if the stream is interrupted? Can users tab through the UI on the keyboard as it shifts? What ARIA attributes might be…
A Fresh View In May (2026 Wallpapers Edition)
Let’s welcome May with a new collection of desktop wallpapers! Following our monthly tradition, the wallpapers were created by the community for the community and can be downloaded for free. Enjoy!
The “Bug-Free” Workforce: How AI Efficiency Is Subtly Disrupting The Interactions That Build Strong Teams
AI tools are eliminating the need to “bug” colleagues for help, but the informal interactions they replace are the very scaffolding that builds team trust, belonging, and innovation. Casey Hudetz and Eric Olive explore the research and potential impacts behind that risk and offer practical strategies for maintaining human connection while leveraging AI’s strengths.
The UX Designer’s Nightmare: When “Production-Ready” Becomes A Design Deliverable
In a rush to embrace AI, the industry is redefining what it means to be a UX designer, blurring the line between design and engineering. Carrie Webster explores what’s gained, what’s lost, and why designers need to remain the guardians of the user experience.
Session Timeouts: The Overlooked Accessibility Barrier In Authentication Design
Poorly handled session timeouts are more than a technical inconvenience. They can become serious accessibility barriers that interrupt essential online tasks, especially for people with disabilities. Here is how to implement thoughtful session management that improves usability, reduces frustration, and helps create a more accessible and respectful web.
How To Improve UX In Legacy Systems
Practical guidelines for driving UX impact in organizations with legacy systems and broken processes. Brought to you by Measuring UX Impact , **friendly video course on UX** and design patterns by Vitaly.
Identifying Necessary Transparency Moments In Agentic AI (Part 1)
Designing for agentic AI requires attention to both the system’s behavior and the transparency of its actions. Between the black box and the data dump lies a more thoughtful approach. Victor Yocco explores how to map decision points and reveal the right moments to build trust through clarity, not noise.
A Practical Guide To Design Principles
Design principles with references, examples, and methods for quick look-up. Brought to you by Design Patterns For AI Interfaces , **friendly video courses on UX** and design patterns by Vitaly.
The Joy Of A Fresh Beginning (April 2026 Wallpapers Edition)
With the new month just around the corner, could there be a better occasion to freshen up your desktop? If you’re looking for some unique and inspiring wallpapers to accompany you on all those adventures that April may bring — and maybe spark some new ideas, too — well, this post has got you covered.
The Site-Search Paradox: Why The Big Box Always Wins
Success in modern UX isn’t about having the most content. It’s about having the most findable content. Yet even with more data and better tools than ever, internal search often fails, leaving users to rely on global search engines to find a single page on a local site. Why does the “Big Box” still win, and how can we bring users back?
Testing Font Scaling For Accessibility With Figma Variables
Accessibility works best when it blends into everyday design workflows. The goal isn’t a big transformation, but simple work processes that fit naturally into a team’s routine. With Figma variables, testing font size increases becomes part of the design flow itself, making accessibility feel almost inevitable rather than optional.