Alt tags do not save a layout that falls apart at 150% zoom. Setting up Figma variable modes for 100, 120, 150 and 200 percent, seeing what breaks when you toggle them, and the rem-based CSS that keeps the scaling honest.
Scott Wilson came out of a liver transplant with an organ donation campaign to run, not time to debug a slider. Why he had his site built for him instead of assembling it himself.
Modals are interruptive by design. Four checks for deciding between a modal, a side drawer and a dedicated page, plus the tasks each one is actually good for.
Adding delight everywhere backfires. This post compares how anime handles a tonal shift against the Marvel background-gag habit, then covers Don Norman’s three levels and the microinteractions that hold a flow together.
Ten years of persuasive design taught me that badges do not fix retention. This is how I use the COM-B model to work out whether a user is stuck on capability, opportunity or motivation before adding a nudge.
Chromium made the native select element styleable. This walks through appearance: base-select, the ::picker pseudo-element, sibling-index() for per-option maths, and the anchor positioning that makes a radial picker possible, without giving up keyboard support.
A pass through the CSS landing in browsers now: random() and random-item(), clip-path folded corners, the containing-block catch in anchor positioning, and tabular-nums for WooCommerce dashboards that refuse to sit still.
SmashingConf Amsterdam runs in April 2026 at the Pathé Tuschinski. What pulled me in is the live-work format: speakers working through CSS and accessibility problems on stage instead of walking an audience through finished slides.
Chromium ships corner-shape, so beveled and scooped corners no longer need clip-path or SVG masks. What each value does, how it pairs with border-radius, and how to ship it behind @supports while Firefox and Safari get plain rounded corners.
Monikka Spruyt left corporate training to start Connect Holistic Health, and handed the site build to WordPress design experts instead of learning the stack herself. Why that trade usually pays off.