How To Make Your Design System AI-Ready
hello@smashingmagazine.com (Vitaly Friedman) |
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.... read more
June Is For Exploring (2026 Wallpapers Edition)
hello@smashingmagazine.com (Cosima Mielke) |
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!... read more
Algorithmic Theming Engines: Building Self-Correcting Color Systems With `contrast-color()`
hello@smashingmagazine.com (Durgesh Pawar) |
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.... read more
Your Prototype Is Not Being Honest With Your Users (And Here’s How To Fix It)
hello@smashingmagazine.com (Eric Joseph L.) |
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 mom... read more
Four Levels Of Customer Understanding
hello@smashingmagazine.com (Vitaly Friedman) |
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... read more
Advanced Tree Counting: Mathematical Layouts With `sibling-index()` And `sibling-count()`
hello@smashingmagazine.com (Durgesh Pawar) |
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.... read more
Ten Data-Backed Truths Of User Experience ROI
hello@smashingmagazine.com (Carrie Webster) |
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.... read more
Practical Interface Patterns For AI Transparency (Part 2)
hello@smashingmagazine.com (Victor Yocco) |
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.... read more
The Architecture Of Local-First Web Development
hello@smashingmagazine.com (Durgesh Pawar) |
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.... read more
Rethinking The Experience Of System Tools
hello@smashingmagazine.com (Kyrylo Levashov) |
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.... read more