A look at Accessible UX Research, the new Smashing Magazine book by Dr. Michele Williams, and why passing a WCAG checklist is not the same as being usable. Includes the nav menu ARIA fix I keep applying to custom themes.
Mobile menus in WordPress 7.0 are template parts you edit in the Site Editor. This covers the navigation-overlay area, the theme.json registration, the close block you should add yourself, and the full-screen-only limit in this first release.
Popover API and Dialog API solve different problems: one is for light non-modal UI, the other for true modals that block the page. This post breaks down when to use each, with working code.
Interop 2026 is the browser pact making CSS Anchor Positioning, View Transitions, and scroll-driven animations a baseline reality. Here is what it means for WordPress developers still relying on JS hacks.
The Popover API gives WordPress developers a native, declarative way to build accessible tooltips and menus, without the JavaScript libraries and manual ARIA syncing tooltips used to require.
Interop 2026 sets the browser targets for the year. A look at the modern CSS features behind it: style queries with =, declarative dialogs via the Invoker Commands API, the :heading pseudo-class in Safari TP, and middle truncation without JavaScript.
Gutenberg 22.6 adds a server-side Icon block, visual revision diffing, and real-time collaboration via Yjs. It’s a stability-focused release ahead of WordPress 7.0.
WordPress sites carry more digital weight than they need. This post covers dark-first themes, lighter image formats like AVIF, and trimming the “digital fat” that slows sites down and drains batteries.
Amy Kamala and Jb Audras take over as WordPress core team reps for 2026. The job is administrative: run Dev Chat, move updates between teams, keep the release cycle predictable. No vote was needed this year.
Thomas Walichiewicz proposed a :near() selector so CSS can react when a pointer gets close to an element. It would replace the usual pointermove distance math, though the CSS Working Group is still weighing the fingerprinting risk.