Smashing Newsletter: Issue #540

Editorial

A new year is always an invitation to rethink, review, and reimagine. In this final Smashing newsletter of 2025, we’re taking a moment to look ahead at the opportunities and challenges that await us — from emerging CSS and JavaScript features to UX, AI and email design.

To kick off the new year, here’s a quick overview of our upcoming online workshops:

Smashing Online Events — Friendly, inclusive, helpful. That’s our upcoming online workshops.

Behavioral Design Workshop UX
with Susan and Guthrie Weinschenk. Jan 15– 29
Deep Dive On Accessibility Testing Dev
with Manuel Matuzović. Jan 19 – Feb 2
Building With AI For Everyone Free
with Christine Vallaure. Jan 20
Design Patterns For AI Interfaces UX
with Vitaly Friedman. Feb 16 – Mar 2
Measure UX + Design Patterns (Bundle Package) UX
with Vitaly Friedman.
Jump to all workshops →

As the last hours of the year approach, we sincerely wish you a wonderful, peaceful, and incredibly positive 2026 — full of magical surprises and remarkable adventures. Stay healthy, happy, and wonderfully smashing as you are — sent from the very bottom of our hearts.

We hope to see you here 🌷, there 🧭 and also over here 🍫 in wonderful and truly magical 2026! 🎉🥳

Stay smashing,
— Vitaly

1. State, Logic, And Native Power: CSS Wrapped 2025

2025 was an exciting year for CSS, with many new CSS features that enable us, developers, to do things that once were very hard to achieve. To celebrate these milestones and acknowledge the hard work of browser developers and the web community who made it all possible, Brecht De Ruyte unpacks all the highlights in a fantastic overview to get you up-to-date on the latest advancements in CSS — dig in!

2. State Of UX In 2025

We live in a time of late-stage UX, characterized by its market saturation, heavy focus on financial growth, commoditization, automation, and increased financialization. How can designers navigate this landscape in 2026?

The State of UX in 2025 by the UX Collective takes a critical look at how UX is changing and highlights opportunities for how we, as designers, can evolve to find and keep our place in the field.

3. The State Of Web Dev AI 2025

How are we actually using and building with AI these days? Sacha Greif wanted to find out, so he launched a State of Web Dev AI survey to learn more about how we think about AI and how we put AI to work.

4. Smashing Conferences In 2026

You plan to boost your design or development skills next year? With three SmashingConfs on the schedule for 2026, we’ve got your back! They are the perfect opportunity to get even better at your craft — and meet friendly, like-minded people.

Meet the first SmashingConf Amsterdam 2026 🇳🇱 on April 13–16, 2026 — a conference for designers and UI engineers, with UX, design systems, accessibility, CSS and design patterns — while enjoying the gezelligheid that Amsterdam has to offer!

Our 13th SmashingConf Freiburg 🇩🇪 for front-end developers and designers. September 7–10, 2026, on design systems, AI, accessibility, CSS, performance, and cutting-edge front-end.

We also can’t wait to be back in Antwerp for a new edition of SmashingConf Antwerp 🇧🇪 on October 12–15, 2026. A lovely, friendly, inclusive conference for designers who love UIs, UX, waffles, chocolate, and fries.

5. State Of AI In 2025

Once a year, Benedict Evans puts together a big presentation exploring strategic trends in the tech industry and exploring how AI is evolving, and what changes are coming our way. In November, Benedict released an updated version of his presentation (PDF, along with video recordings of him presenting it.

6. State Of CSS And JavaScript

What can we expect from CSS in the next few years? And what features and tools to learn next? That’s exactly what the State of CSS wants to find out. For their 2025 report, they surveyed developers worldwide to identify upcoming trends and help developers make technological choices. Browser vendors also use the survey data to prioritize features. The State of JavaScript follows the same goal for JavaScript. Worth reading!

7. Email Design For 2026

So many years later, still nothing performs better in reaching the audience than good old-fashioned email. But with email design, things are changing as well — from personalization to gamification. In their Email Design Trends for 2026, Nataly Birch and Andrian Valeanu take a closer look at upcoming email design trends to help you stay ahead of the curve.

8. Accessible UX Research, eBook Now Available For Download 📚

We’ve got exciting news! eBook versions of Accessible UX Research, a new Smashing Book by Michele A. Williams, are now available for download! Which means soon the book will go to the printer. Order the eBook for instant download now or reserve your print copy at the presale price.

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. Download a free sample (PDF, 2.3MB) or get the eBook right away.

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).

December 30, 2025 Smashing Newsletter: Issue #540

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