January 27, 2026 Smashing Newsletter: Issue #543
This newsletter issue was sent out to 179,028 subscribers on Tuesday, January 27, 2026.
Editorial
Designing for complex interfaces is challenging. There are plenty of dependencies, entry points, volumes of data, nested filters, bulk operations — and often with a sprinkle of legacy and opinionated stakeholders.
In this newsletter, we look at some of the UX challenges and design patterns to deal with complex navigation, icon labels, modals, toasts — and make them a bit easier to use, and a bit harder to make mistakes with. And if you‘d like to dive deeper, we have a video course and online workshops on just that.
We’re also getting ready for a new round of workshops and SmashingConfs 2026:
- Design Patterns For AI Interfaces UX
with Vitaly Friedman. Feb 16 – Mar 2 - Designing For Complex UIs Masterclass Design
with Vitaly Friedman. Mar 3–17 - Building Interactive, Accessible Components with Modern CSS & JS Dev
with Stephanie Eckles. Mar 5–13 - Figma Workflow Masterclass UX
with Christine Vallaure. Mar 18–24 - Jump to all workshops →
Sending a lot of positive energy and optimism your way, everyone — and let’s explore interface design patterns in the meantime!
— Vitaly
1. Bulk Upload
Many bulk upload features are lacking, so how can we do better? Drawing on her experience from improving bulk upload in an online recruiting tool, Livinda Christy shares solutions to common issues and challenges. She walks you step by step through the process of creating a hassle-free file import and also offers tips for defending your design decisions in front of stakeholders.
2. Effective Maps UX
What’s to consider when designing a user experience around maps? Michael Gaigg wrote a comprehensive guide to effective maps UX. From selecting the right layout and interacting with the map to dealing with complex data and designing for mobile devices, it highlights practical design patterns, as well as common mistakes and how to avoid them.
3. Icon Labels
When you use icons in an interface, do you usually add text labels? If not, you might want to reconsider your approach. As Christopher Butler points out in his post “In Defense of Text Labels,” even the simplest icons can create ambiguity, slowing down users’ orientation within an interface. By combining text labels and icons, you create clearer affordances than either element could on its own.
4. Top Vs. Side Navigation
Top navigation or side navigation — which is the best choice for your context? Taras Bakusevych compares both to find out where each of them performs best. As he concludes, top navigation uses little space and works well when there aren’t too many navigation items, whereas side navigation is a good fit for products with a large number of navigation links, as it is easily scalable and configurable.
5. Redesigning Complex Navigation
Maybe you’ve been there before: your product grew, and the information architecture struggled to keep pace. Pranava Tandra shares valuable insights and lessons learned from how the Intercom team tackled this challenge and restructured their IA, with clarity becoming the guiding principle behind every design decision.
6. Toast Messages UX
Toast messages gently remind users about a successful event or change of state, without interrupting them from their main task. However, there are also some things we need to watch out for when designing toasts and snackbars. Vitaly summarized what you need to know to avoid common usability issues and make your toast messages effective.
7. Onboarding
How can we create a pleasant, seamless onboarding experience? In her Product Onboarding Playbook, Eleana Gkogka shares tips and best practices to help you offer just the right amount of guidance and support to keep users engaged.
A handy little tool to help you choose the best onboarding methods and components for your feature or service comes from the NewsKit Design System team. It asks you four questions to determine your onboarding strategy.
8. Modal Vs. Page
Let’s say you’re designing a registration flow, and one of the steps requires some more information. Do you add an additional page or use a modal overlay? Ryan Neufeld synthesized guidelines, heuristics, and recommendations into a flowchart that helps you assess which component best suits your project’s needs.
9. 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.
As always, here’s a quick overview:
- Design Patterns For AI Interfaces + video course UX
with Vitaly Friedman. Feb 16 – Mar 2 - Designing For Complex UI Masterclass Design
with Vitaly Friedman. Mar 3–17 - Building Interactive, Accessible Components with Modern CSS & JS Dev
with Stephanie Eckles. Mar 5–13 - Figma Workflow Masterclass UX
with Christine Vallaure. Mar 18–24 - How To Measure UX and Design Impact UX
with Vitaly Friedman. Video course + UX training - Jump to all workshops →
10. 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).
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