Smashing Newsletter: Issue #528

Editorial

There is something magical in bringing people and teams together. This week, we’re at our very last conference of the year: SmashingConf New York! With 12 speakers and almost 400 attendees in the magnificent New World Stages venue, we’re looking forward to two days of single-track talks, two workshop days, and loads of side events!

As we are chasing ways to boost our workflows, sometimes we overlook lovely little websites; the kind that exist just to put a smile on someone’s face, or spark curiosity, or help discover things we’d never stumble upon otherwise. We dedicate this issue to lovely little adventures on the web — small discoveries that often leave a lasting impression, because they are so unique and memorable.

Smashing Inhouse Workshops in Berlin, Germany — See you there? Full-day workshops in Berlin with Vitaly Friedman.

On another note, we’ve just launched new full-day workshops in Berlin 🇩🇪 — we’d love to meet you and your wonderful team there:

🎛️ Designing For Complex UI in 2026 (Oct 27)
⏳ How To Measure UX and Design Impact (Oct 28)

We hope that you’ll enjoy exploring the fun and useful gems in today’s newsletter; nothing too serious, and nothing too work-related. Happy browsing and exploration, everyone! 🎉🥳

— Iris

1. A Small World Inside Your Browser

Imagine you’re a messenger on a tiny planet. Equipped with your messenger bag, you set out to fulfill your mission: finding and delivering letters and packages to the residents. That’s the storyline of Messenger, a simple but breathtaking browser game created by Abeto.

The game takes you across the small, curved planet, through the alleyways of a small seaside town, and up its mountaintops. On your journey, you’ll not only meet the residents, each of them with their very special story and request, but also pass by fellow messengers with whom you can communicate through emojis. The game was created with WebGL and Three.js and runs just as smoothly in mobile browsers as it does on desktop. A stellar example of what is possible in browsers today. (cm)

2. Generative Design Experiments

Are you up for some generative design experiments? Then Generativ Design is for you. The playground lets you manipulate programmatically-generated graphics to produce unique outputs.

Created by Yasuhiro Yokota as a research prototype that combines generative art with practical applications for visual identity, the site features 26 graphical compositions, shapes, and visual effects for you to tinker with: randomly intersecting lines, organic shapes, text arranged in geometrical patterns, visualizations of tree rings, and much more. Each graphic comes with a set of sliders that make it easy to adjust its parameters and see the output change in real-time. Once you’re happy with the result, you can download it as a PNG. Nice! (cm)

3. Unconventional Web Design Inspiration

Although users mainly use their smartphones to browse the web today, desktop websites are still the main reference for designers looking for web design inspiration. To embrace the mobile-first reality we live in, Loadmo.re takes a different approach: The web design showcase is dedicated to mobile websites only. And, well, the sites that you’ll find in the collection are anything but ordinary.

Whether it’s a bookshop-inspired website where content is framed like windows, a site that uses experimental audio-reactive visuals, or a homepage where you can play around with gravity and draggable elements, the more than 360 featured mobile sites are full of creative ideas. You can filter the collection by tags or just scroll through it for some random inspiration. Enjoy! (cm)

4. Minimalism Life

Whether it’s art, design, or living, minimalism is a principle that can be applied to many different areas. Minimalism Life is here to shine a light on all these different nuances. So whether you want to dive deeper into minimalist art or learn more about adopting a minimalist lifestyle, the collaborative hub is a treasure chest of resources.

Minimalism Life is curated and maintained by Nate Grant and Sarvesh Pansare as an attempt to deal with the chaos that life throws at us. It inspires to live with less, build good habits, and embrace what truly matters to build a simple and low-maintenance life in the future.

A completely minimalist lifestyle might not be for everyone, of course, but removing distractions and discovering what truly adds value to your life can help bring more clarity and focus to your everyday life — and that’s something we all need in this fast-paced time, right? (cm)

5. Upcoming Workshops and Conferences

That’s right! We run online workshops on frontend and design, be it accessibility, performance, or design patterns. In fact, we have a couple of workshops coming up soon, and we thought that, you know, you might want to join in as well.

Smashing Online Events — With online workshops, we aim to give you the same experience and access to experts as in an in-person workshop from wherever you are.

As always, here’s a quick overview:

Designing Websites That Convert UX
with Paul Boag. Sep 30 – Oct 9
Advanced Design Systems Workflow
with Brad Frost. Oct 1–10
Live UX Training + video course UX
with Vitaly Friedman. Oct 17 – Nov 17
Designing Better Products Masterclass UX UX
with Stéphanie Walter. Oct 21 – Nov 4
Design Patterns For AI Interfaces UX UX
with Vitaly Friedman. Oct 30 – Nov 13
Jump to all workshops →

6. Mushroom Color Atlas

Mushrooms are fascinating little things. Their complex underground networks play a critical role in ecosystems, connecting plants and fungi and enabling communication and resource sharing among them. You might have heard about that already, but mushrooms carry yet another fascinating secret — one that might not seem too obvious given their often rather modest looks: there’s a whole universe of color lurking inside them.

Julie Beeler is a master in making this hidden color universe visible. She uses mushrooms to create vivid dyes and pigments, and documents her color experiments in the Mushroom Color Atlas. Ranging from deep burgundy shades, light lilacs, and peach tones to warm browns, yellows, and rich greens, it’s incredible to see the kaleidoscope of colors that the fungi kingdom brings forth. A very special source of color inspiration and a great reminder that beauty can be discovered almost anywhere — we only need to look closely. (cm)

7. Star Wars Galaxy Map

“A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…” You don’t have to be a Star Wars fan to know the famous quote. However, if you happen to have a sweet spot for the stories settled in the galaxy, then the Star Wars Galaxy map is for you.

The Star Wars Galaxy map gives you an overview of the galaxy that is home to trillions of beings living on millions of worlds governed over millennia of galactic history. From the Deep Core to the Outer Rim and Unknown Regions, the map shows the planets and the five major trade routes that connect the different parts of the galaxy. Happy exploring, and may the force be with you! (cm)

8. Meet Accessible UX Research, A Brand-New Smashing Book 📚

In the past few years, we were very lucky to have worked together with some talented, caring people from the web community to publish their wealth of experience as printed books. For our newest book, we have teamed up with Dr. Michele A. Williams: Meet “Accessible UX Research.”

“Accessible UX Research” is your practical guide to making UX research more inclusive of participants with different needs — from planning and recruiting to facilitation, asking better questions, avoiding bias, and building trust. Print edition shipping Fall 2025. eBook also available for download in Fall 2025. Pre-order the book, and save off the full price.

That’s All, Folks!

Thank you so much for reading and for your support in helping us keep the web dev and design community strong with our newsletter. See you next time!

This newsletter issue was written and edited by Geoff Graham (gg), Cosima Mielke (cm), Vitaly Friedman (vf), and Iris Lješnjanin (il).

October 7, 2025 Smashing Newsletter: Issue #528

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