While there’s no definitive playbook for building an accessibility culture, Dani shares lessons from his experience in shaping it through habits rather than mandates. https://smashingmagazine.com/2025/04/fostering-accessibility-culture/
Dark mode isn’t just a trendy aesthetic. It’s a gateway to more inclusive digital experiences, but only if designed thoughtfully. Discover how to craft dark modes that don’t just look good but work for everyone, from those with light sensitivity to machine learning algorithms. https://smashingmagazine.com/2025/04/inclusive-dark-mode-designing-accessible-dark-themes/
“Gilding the lily” isn’t always bad. In design, a touch of metaphorical gold — a subtle animated transition, a hint of color, or added depth in a drop shadow — can help communicate a level of care and attention that builds trust. But first? You need a lily. Nail the fundamentals. Then, gild it carefully. https://smashingmagazine.com/2025/04/gild-just-one-lily/
Animation makes things clearer, especially for designers and front-end developers working on UI, prototypes, or interactive visuals. Manim is a tool that lets you create smooth and dynamic animations, not just for the design field but also in math, coding, and beyond, to explain complex ideas or simply make everything a little bit more interactive. https://smashingmagazine.com/2025/04/using-manim-making-ui-animations/
When passion for accessibility meets business indifference, what bridges the gap? Gloria Diaz Alonso shares how she turned frustration into strategy — by learning to speak the language of business. https://smashingmagazine.com/2025/04/how-build-business-case-promote-accessibility-b2b-products/
In this article, Edoardo Dusi shares the engineering and architectural choices made by the team at Storyblok and how real-world migration challenges were addressed using modern PHP practices. https://smashingmagazine.com/2025/04/building-drupal-storyblok-migration-tool-engineering-perspective/
Companies have been turning their attention to “synthetic,” AI-driven user testing. However, as convenient as it might seem, it’s dangerous, expensive, and usually diminishes user value. Let’s take a closer look at why exactly it is problematic and how we can argue against it to make a case for UX research with real users. Part of Smart Interface Design Patterns by yours truly. https://smashingmagazine.com/2025/03/how-to-argue-against-ai-first-resea
The beginning of the new month is the perfect opportunity to give your desktop a makeover. If you’re looking for some beautiful and unique wallpapers to cater for a bit of inspiration this April, well, this post has got you covered. https://smashingmagazine.com/2025/03/desktop-wallpaper-calendars-april-2025/
HTML <video> is the de facto element we turn to for embedding video content, but it comes with constraints. For example, it downloads the video file linearly over HTTP, which leads to performance hiccups, especially for large videos consumed on slower connections. But with adaptive bitrate streaming, we can split the video into multiple segments at different bitrates and resolutions.
https://smashingmagazine.com/2025/03/adaptive-video-streaming-dashjs-react/
You probably already know that you can use developer tools in your browser to make on-the-spot changes to a webpage — simply click the node in the Inspector and make your edits. But have you tried document.designMode? Victor Ayomipo explains how it can be used to preview content changes and demonstrates several use cases where it comes in handy for everything from basic content editing to improving team collaboration.
https://smashingmagazine.com/2025/03/previewing-content-changes-work-d