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UI / UX Design news and articles

UI / UX Design

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25 articles

Smashing Magazine

~1 min readMay 5, 2026

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.

Smashing Magazine

~1 min readMay 1, 2026

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 needed?

Smashing Magazine

~1 min readApr 22, 2026

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.

Smashing Magazine

~1 min readApr 20, 2026

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.

Smashing Magazine

~1 min readApr 10, 2026

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.

Smashing Magazine

~1 min readApr 1, 2026

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.

Smashing Magazine

~1 min readMar 26, 2026

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?

Smashing Magazine

~1 min readMar 24, 2026

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.

Smashing Magazine

~1 min readMar 19, 2026

Modal vs. Separate Page: UX Decision Tree

How to choose between modals and pages, when to avoid modals, and how to determine the right level of interruption or navigation. Brought to you by Smart Interface Design Patterns, a **friendly video course on UX** and design patterns by Vitaly.

Smashing Magazine

~1 min readMar 17, 2026

Anime vs. Marvel/DC: Designing Digital Products With Emotion In Flow

Design is about pacing and feelings as much as pixels and patterns. Alan Cohen explores Emotion in Flow and Emotion in Conflict, showing how anime like Dan Da Dan and superhero films like James Gunn’s Superman manage emotional shifts and translating those ideas into practical patterns for product design.

Smashing Magazine

~1 min readMar 12, 2026

Beyond `border-radius`: What The CSS `corner-shape` Property Unlocks For Everyday UI

For years, developers have been hacking around the limitations of `border-radius`, using clip-path, SVG masks, and fragile workarounds just to get anything other than round corners. The new `corner-shape` property finally changes that, opening the door to beveled, scooped, and squircle corners.

Smashing Magazine

~1 min readMar 10, 2026

Building Dynamic Forms In React And Next.js

Some forms stay UI, while others quietly become rule engines. Here’s why these two different approaches exist and how to choose between them.

Smashing Magazine

~1 min readMar 9, 2026

Persuasive Design: Ten Years Later

Many product teams still lean on usability improvements and isolated behavioral tweaks to address weak activation, drop-offs, and low retention – only to see results plateau or slip into shallow gamification. Anders Toxboe updates persuasive design for today’s reality, clarifying what has actually held up over the last decade.

Smashing Magazine

~1 min readMar 6, 2026

Human Strategy In An AI-Accelerated Workflow

UX design is entering a new phase, with designers shifting from makers of outputs to directors of intent. AI can now generate wireframes, prototypes, and even design systems in minutes, but UX has never been only about creating interfaces. It’s about navigating ambiguity, advocating for humans in systems optimised for efficiency, and solving their problems through thoughtful design.

Smashing Magazine

~1 min readMar 3, 2026

Now Shipping: Accessible UX Research, A New Smashing Book By Michele Williams

Our newest Smashing Book, “Accessible UX Research” by Michele Williams, is finally shipping worldwide — and we couldn’t be happier! This book is about research, but you’ll also learn about assistive technology, different types of disability, and how to build accessibility into the entire design process. This thoughtful book will get you thinking about ways to make your UX research more inclusive and thorough, no matter your budget or timeline. Jump to the book details or order your copy now.

Smashing Magazine

~1 min readMar 2, 2026

Getting Started With The Popover API

What happens if you rebuild a single tooltip using the browser’s native model without the aid of a library? The Popover API turns tooltips from something you simulate into something the browser actually understands. Opening and closing, keyboard interaction, Escape handling, and much of the accessibility now come from the platform itself, not from ad-hoc JavaScript.

Smashing Magazine

~1 min readFeb 26, 2026

Say Cheese! Meet SmashingConf Amsterdam 🇳🇱

Meet our brand new conference for designers and UI engineers who love the web. That’s [SmashingConf Amsterdam](https://smashingconf.com/amsterdam-2026), taking place in the legendary Pathé Tuschinski, on April 13–16, 2026.

Smashing Magazine

~1 min readFeb 23, 2026

A Designer’s Guide To Eco-Friendly Interfaces

Every high-resolution hero image, autoplay video, and complex JavaScript animation carries a cost. Sustainable UX challenges the era of “unlimited pixels” and reframes performance as responsibility. In 2026, truly sophisticated design is defined not by how much it adds, but by how thoughtfully it reduces its footprint.

Smashing Magazine

~1 min readFeb 18, 2026

Designing A Streak System: The UX And Psychology Of Streaks

What makes streaks so powerful and addictive? To design them well, you need to understand how they align with human psychology. Victor Ayomipo breaks down the UX and design principles behind effective streak systems.

Smashing Magazine

~1 min readFeb 13, 2026

Building Digital Trust: An Empathy-Centred UX Framework For Mental Health Apps

Designing for mental health means designing for vulnerability. Empathy-Centred UX becomes not a “nice to have” but a fundamental design requirement. Here’s a practical framework for building trust-first mental health products.

Smashing Magazine

~1 min readFeb 11, 2026

Designing For Agentic AI: Practical UX Patterns For Control, Consent, And Accountability

Autonomy is an output of a technical system. Trustworthiness is an output of a design process. Here are concrete design patterns, operational frameworks, and organizational practices for building agentic systems that are not only powerful but also transparent, controllable, and trustworthy.

Smashing Magazine

~1 min readFeb 3, 2026

Combobox vs. Multiselect vs. Listbox: How To Choose The Right One

Combobox vs. Multi-Select vs. Listbox vs. Dual Listbox? How they are different, what purpose they serve, and how to choose the right one. Brought to you by Design Patterns For AI Interfaces, **friendly video courses on UX** and design patterns by Vitaly.

Smashing Magazine

~1 min readJan 22, 2026

Beyond Generative: The Rise Of Agentic AI And User-Centric Design

Developing effective agentic AI requires a new research playbook. When systems plan, decide, and act on our behalf, UX moves beyond usability testing into the realm of trust, consent, and accountability. Victor Yocco outlines the research methods needed to design agentic AI systems responsibly.

Smashing Magazine

~1 min readJan 20, 2026

Rethinking “Pixel Perfect” Web Design

Amit Sheen takes a hard look at the “Pixel Perfect” legacy concept, explaining why it’s failing us and redefining what “perfection” actually looks like in a multi-device, fluid world.

Smashing Magazine

~1 min readJan 12, 2026

UX And Product Designer’s Career Paths In 2026

How to shape your career path for 2026, with decision trees for designers and a UX skills self-assessment matrix. The only limits for tomorrow are the doubts we have today. Brought to you by Smart Interface Design Patterns, a **friendly video course on UX** and design patterns by Vitaly.