June 16, 2026 Smashing Newsletter: Issue #563
This newsletter issue was sent out to 175,826 subscribers on Tuesday, June 16, 2026.
Editorial
In complex products, many design choices are heavily constrained by the huge volume of data, features, customization, and domain complexity that they have to match. There might be 100s of filters, with dependencies, nested modals, nested tables, and overcrowded dropdowns.
Let's explore these issues in this newsletter! And if you’d like to dive deeper, meet our upcoming free live 1.5h workshop on 🚀 Designing Complex UIs in the Age of AI with yours truly, Vitaly Friedman. Only 1000 seats. Save your spot.
Design and UX are also at the heart of our upcoming SmashingConf Antwerp 2026 later this year. There has never been a better time to join in with your team — and save 35% off for friendly teams. Jump to the topics →
- Design Patterns For AI Interfaces UX
with Vitaly Friedman. June 22 – July 2 - The Modern UX Practitioner UX
with Paul Boag. June 24 – July 2 - Config Recap: What’s New in Figma Free Free
with Christine Vallaure. July 2 - Designing Complex UIs in the Age of AI Free Free
with Vitaly Friedman. July 9 - Design Patterns For Complex UIs and Enterprise UX UX
with Vitaly Friedman. Sep 2–3 - Naming Design Systems DS
with Samantha Gordashko. Sep 8–22 - Jump to all workshops →
I hope you have a truly fantastic, productive, and preferably stable rest of the week, everyone!
— Vitaly
1. Alternatives To Nested Modals
Nested modals are common in complex products, but there are better ways to tackle the UX challenges they are trying to solve. Joseph Mueller looks into the root problems of nested modals and suggests alternative patterns you can use instead to help users move seamlessly through your product.
2. Better Nested Tables
“Nested tables aren’t the enemy. Careless nesting is,” argues Damilola Bamgbelu. To help you design tables that show parent and child data together, without overwhelming users, she wrote a practical step-by-step guide. It explores all the fine little details of displaying complex data to support scanning and enable fast decisions.
3. Designing For Complex UIs
Complex UIs don’t have to be complicated. If you’re up for a deep dive into designing complex interfaces, be sure to tune into the free Maven lesson that Vitaly gave on the topic. From navigation and search to tables and forms, it explores patterns and best practices you can apply to your work right away. You’ll find all slides and further resources in the accompanying Google Doc.
4. Six Layers Of AI Experience
With generative AI making its way into digital products, design is more important than ever. Emily Campbell wrote a comprehensive guide to AI UX in which she explores the six layers of AI experience and how the new challenges and opportunities impact not only design but also the role of designers. A must-read.
5. Lists Vs. Tables Vs. Data Grids
List, table, or data grid? Which one should you pick? Oracle’s Redwood design system compares all three of them to help you choose the best component based on your user tasks and the features you wish to include. For a quick overview, it also showcases dos and don’ts that illustrate how well the different components handle different use cases.
6. Nudges And Biases In The Age Of AI
Heuristics, biases, and nudges help us better understand human reasoning. Now, in the age of AI, things are starting to shift, and systems produce the first move in every decision. What does that mean for the behavioral science concepts we have been relying on for so long? Sudha Broslawsky created Nudges.fyi to help us figure out what the old shortcuts mean now and what new ones AI is quietly inventing.
7. Dropdown Pitfalls
Dropdowns seem like a straightforward choice when designing a form, but they bring along quite some pitfalls. So, how do we pick a better input method? And how can we improve the usability of dropdown inputs when there’s no other alternative? Josh Wayne explores these questions in a blog post to help us make select inputs hassle-free for users.
8. Accessible UX Research, Now Shipping 📚
We’ve got exciting news! Our newest Smashing book, Accessible UX Research by Michele A. Williams, is finally shipping worldwide! Get the book right away or order the eBook for instant download.
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 book right away.
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 UX
with Vitaly Friedman. June 22 – July 2 - The Modern UX Practitioner UX
with Paul Boag. June 24 – July 2 - Config Recap: What’s New in Figma Free Free
with Christine Vallaure. July 2 - Designing Complex UIs in the Age of AI Free Free
with Vitaly Friedman. July 9 - Design Patterns For Complex UIs and Enterprise UX UX
with Vitaly Friedman. Sep 2–3 - Naming Design Systems DS
with Samantha Gordashko. Sep 8–22 - Interface Design Patterns Live UX Training UX
with Vitaly Friedman. Sep 11 – Oct 12 - Accessibility For Designers UX
with Stéphanie Walter. Sep 21–29 - Jump to all workshops →
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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