February 3, 2026 Smashing Newsletter: Issue #544
This newsletter issue was sent out to 178,785 subscribers on Tuesday, February 3, 2026.
Editorial
Design is often an exercise in resilience. Our products must work for people in any life situation they find themselves in. The path forward always lies in accessible, inclusive design — making mistakes harder to make.
In this newsletter, we explore accessibility and inclusive design: how to design for an aging population, ADHD, autism, deafness, dyscalculia, dementia, and neurodiversity, with practical and actionable UX guidelines.
On another note, design systems have been with us for a while, and they are here to stay. If done well, they make our work lives better and easier. Join Meets Design Systems next week with our three fantastic experts to hear their stories, tools, tips, and practices. Join in and share yours, too!
We’re also exploring different topics in our online workshops, including shiny new design patterns for better AI experiences:
- SmashingConf Amsterdam 2026 🇳🇱🧀
UX and Front-End. Apr 13–16, 2026 - Design Patterns For AI Interfaces 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 - Jump to all workshops →
We’d love to see you there! 🧡 Until then, off we go, designing better user experiences everywhere!
— Vitaly
1. ADHD
Product designer Eva Katharina Wolf was diagnosed with dyslexia and ADHD and combines her personal experience and UX knowledge to shine a light on typical ADHD symptoms, as well as practical examples of how good design can help mitigate ADHD effects. Small changes that not only improve the experience for neurodivergent people but, as so often when it comes to accessibility, create a better experience for everyone.
2. Dementia
The number of people living with dementia is expected to increase significantly in the coming years. To enable designers, researchers, engineers, and entrepreneurs to collaborate in a meaningful way with people affected by dementia, Alzheimer’s Society released the free “Dementia and co-creation” guide. It provides practical tools and methods for co-creating effectively, best-practice guidelines for digital accessibility, and case studies.
3. Older Adults
How can designers respond to the needs of an aging population? Matthew Stevens wrote a helpful guide with best practices for improving usability for older audiences, and in effect, for everyone else, too.
Another great read with practical tips to help older adults use your products comes from Dr. Michal Halperin Ben Zvi and Kinneret Yifrah. They share guidelines and examples for writing microcopy that is clear, supportive, and trustworthy.
4. Autism
Every person on the autistic spectrum experiences the world differently, which makes it difficult to design an experience that fits everyone perfectly. However, there are a few things we can keep in mind to improve the experience for autistic users. Vitaly summarized practical tips you can apply right away.
Drawing on experiences from the autistic community, Irina Rusakova outlines core principles of designing for autistic people. By incorporating them into your product, you’ll not only improve usability for autistic users but also reduce cognitive load for everyone.
5. Deafness
What’s to consider when designing for deaf people? Marie van Driessche, a Dutch designer, who herself is deaf since birth, gave an insightful talk at Awwwards Conference in Amsterdam a few years ago in which she shines a light on deafness, sign language, the deaf community, what’s important when designing for deaf people, and how others can benefit, too.
6. Dyscalculia
Whether it’s managing money, arranging appointments, or doing calculations, numbers are everywhere. So, how can we present numbers and data so that everyone can make sense of them, no matter their math skills or level of numeracy? Accessible Numbers explores how small tweaks like rounding up or leaving space around numbers improve the usability of your product or service.
7. Neurodiversity
To raise awareness for designing for neurodiverse users, Stéphanie Walter compiled a list of essential resources that help you understand and design for dyslexia, dyscalculia, autism, and ADHD. It includes technical accessibility considerations, personal accounts and lived experiences, as well as guidance for creating more inclusive products.
8. 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 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 - Jump to all workshops →
9. 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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