As Artificial Intelligence becomes more widespread and pervasive, the transition to a data-driven age poses a conundrum for many: Will AI replace me at my job? Can it become smarter than humans? Who is making the important decisions, and who is accountable? AI is becoming more and more complex, and tools like ChatGPT, Siri, and Alexa are already a part of everyday life to an extent where even experts struggle to grasp and explain the functionality in a tangible way. How can we expect the average human to trust such a system? Trust matters not only in decision-making processes but also in order ..read more

This article is a sponsored by iA So, you’ve created a thing. That thing could be anything, say a product the world never knew it needed or maybe a stellar SaaS app that makes everyone way more productive. You had a brilliant idea and took the initiative to make it happen. It’s time to put it on the market! But wait… how much money are you going to charge for this thing? That’s often a way more difficult question to answer than it might seem. I mean, slap a price on the tin, and that’s it, right? The truth is that pricing a product or service is one of the more challenging aspects of product d ..read more

No doubt you’ve had to style a <select> menu before. And when you do, you often have had to reach far down in your CSS arsenal of tricks or rely on JavaScript to get anything near the level of customization you want. It’s a long-running headache in the front-end world. Well, thanks to the efforts of the Open UI community, we have a new <selectmenu> element to look forward to, and its purpose is to provide CSS styling affordances to selection menus in ways we’ve never had before. We’re going to demonstrate an initial implementation of <selectmenu> in this article. But we’ll th ..read more

There’s an artist in everyone. Some bring their ideas to life with digital tools, others capture the perfect moment with a camera or love to grab pen and paper to create little doodles or pieces of lettering. And even if you think you’re far from being an artist, well, it might just be hidden deep inside of you. So why not explore it? For more than twelve years already, our monthly wallpapers series has been the perfect opportunity to do just that: to break out of your daily routine and get fully immersed in a creative little project. This month was no exception, of course. In this collection ..read more

Creating an effective handoff process from design to development is a critical step in any product development cycle. However, as any designer knows, it can be a nerve-wracking experience to send your carefully crafted design off to the dev team. It’s like waiting for a cake to bake — you can’t help but wonder how it will evolve in the oven and how it will taste when you take it out of the oven. The relationship between designers and developers has always been a little rocky. Despite tools like Figma’s Inspect feature (which allows developers to inspect designs and potentially convert them to ..read more

Today, we are very happy to announce our new book: Success at Scale, a curated collection of best-practice case studies capturing how production sites of different sizes tackle performance, accessibility, capabilities, and developer experience at scale. Case studies are from industry experts with guidance that stands the test of time. Join Addy Osmani, your curator, as we dive into a nuanced look at several key topics that will teach you tips and tricks that may help you optimize your own sites. The book will also include short interviews with each contributor on what additional lessons, chall ..read more

As software development continues to evolve, so too do the methodologies and approaches used to create it. In recent years, Agile methodologies have gained widespread adoption as a modern approach to software development, with a focus on flexibility, collaboration, and delivering working software in short increments. This is a key differentiator when it comes to other development workflows. One of the key benefits of Agile methodologies is its impact on the quality of the code that ships. Code quality is an essential aspect of software development, as high-quality code is critical to ensure th ..read more

In this episode of the Smashing Podcast, we’re talking about Web Platform Baseline. What is it, and how can it help determine your browser support policy? Drew McLellan talks to expert Rachel Andrew to find out. Show Notes Rachel Andrew on LinkedIn Personal website Weekly Update How To Boost Your Design Workflow With Setapp written by Rachel How Designing Sticky Menus: UX Guidelines written by Vitaly Friedman Solving Media Object Float Issues With CSS Block Formatting Contexts written by Gabriel Shoyombo Design Patterns Are A Better Way To Collaborate On Your Design System written by Ben Cl ..read more

As someone who has worked with beginner designers for decades, I have observed a certain common problem. They often get overwhelmed with design tasks such as creating presentations, a personal website, mocking up an app idea, or even making menus or cards. It’s not due to a lack of ability and skills but rather because of unfamiliarity with the rules and systems that graphic designers are trained to understand. To fill this gap, I have compiled some simple principles that are quick and easy to learn yet can greatly enhance any design project. In this article, we’ll focus on the four key elemen ..read more

If you work in software development, you probably know a thing or two about using and maintaining third-party packages. While third-party tooling has its fair share of downsides, there are plenty of advantages as well. The efficiency you get from code that someone else has already written speeds up development and is hard to deny. Sure, there are all sorts of considerations to take in before plopping code from a third party — accessibility, technical debt, and security, to name a few — but the benefits may make taking on those considerations worthwhile for your team. Upgrades are also part of ..read more