The web is no stranger to taking HTML elements and transforming them to look, act, and feel like something completely different. A common example of this is the switch, or toggle, component. We would hide a checkbox beneath several layers of styles, define the ARIA role as “switch,” and then ship. However, this approach posed certain usability issues...

Naming is hard. As designers and developers, we often struggle finding the right name — for a design token, colors, UI components, HTML classes, and variables. Sometimes, the names we choose are too generic, so it’s difficult to understand what exactly is meant. And sometimes they are too specific, leaving little room for flexibility and re-use. In...

Establishing layouts in CSS is something that we, as developers, often delegate to whatever framework we’re most comfortable using. And even though it’s possible to configure a framework to get just what we need out of it, how often have you integrated an entire CSS library simply for its layout features? I’m sure many of us have done it at some point,...

Both hiding and disabling features can be utterly confusing to users. And for both, we need very, very good reasons. Let’s take a closer look at what we need to consider when it comes to hiding and disabling — and possible alternatives that help enhance the UX. This article is part of our ongoing series on design patterns. It’s also an upcoming...

Do you recognize this situation? The marketing and business teams talk about their customers, and each team thinks they have the same understanding of the problem and what needs to be done. Then, they’re including the Product and UX team in the conversation around how to best serve a particular customer group and where to invest in development and marketing...

Media queries have been around almost as long as CSS itself — and with no flex, no grid, no responsive units, and no math functions, media queries were the most pragmatic choice available to make a somewhat responsive website. In the early 2010s, with the proliferation of mobile devices and the timely publication of Ethan Marcotte’s classic article...