Smashing Newsletter: Issue #578

Editorial

Designing for children is difficult. Children tend to lose focus and motivation. They quit when they get bored, and they move on if they can’t get anywhere quickly enough. They need steady achievements. So we need to appreciate, reward, and encourage small wins to develop habits and support learning — with progress tracking and gamification.

So how do we do just that? In this newsletter, we dive into just that — with useful articles and resources to keep nearby.

We’ll also be diving into UX and design at our upcoming SmashingConf Amsterdam 2027 🇳🇱 and SmashingConf Freiburg 2027 🇩🇪 — with a lovely mix of friendly people, insightful conversations, unforgettable networking. We’d love to see you there!

Until then, we’ve got your back covered with our fantastic line-up of online workshops, without needing to leave your desk:

Resilient & Maintainable CSS Dev
with Miriam Suzanne. Oct 1–15
Designing Websites That Convert UX
with Paul Boag. Oct 7
Accessible Frontend Patterns Dev
with Manuel Matuzović. Oct 12 – Nov 2
Measure UX And Design Impact UX + self-paced course
with Vitaly Friedman. Oct 20 – Nov 3
Building Modern HTML Emails Dev
with Rémi Parmentier. Oct 26 –29
Deep Dive On Accessibility Testing Dev
with Manuel Matuzović. Nov 9–23
Design Patterns For AI Interfaces UX + self-paced course
with Vitaly Friedman. Nov 16–24
Jump to all workshops →

— Vitaly

1. Child-Centered Design

Designing for children most often happens without actively involving them in the process. To change that, Save the Children Finland published a free handbook with activities, games, design processes, and tips on how to include children in actual design efforts. Listening to their needs, views, and opinions not only helps teams develop more meaningful experiences but also makes children feel that their opinions matter and that they too can make a difference.

2. Playtesting With Kids

Getting meaningful feedback from kids looks very different from research with adults. Whether you’re looking for general tips on what to keep in mind during an interview session with kids or practical, child-friendly ideas to test if they know how to use your product, Playtest with Kids has got you covered. The methods, techniques, and examples are informed by experts in the field and vetted by child development researchers.

3. Intrinsic Motivation

How do you define if a game was fun? As Paula Gomes shows, intrinsic motivation gives us a framework for measuring fun. When we do something out of intrinsic motivation, we do it simply because we enjoy the activity. It doesn’t need any external rewards or pressure for us to engage in it. In her guide to increasing intrinsic motivation, Paula explores the psychological needs that must be met in order to have intrinsic motivation and how this can be applied to designing games.

How To Increase Player’s Intrinsic Motivation

4. Designing Child-Friendly Experiences

As they venture out into the digital world, children are still developing their physical and mental abilities, and digital products need to account for that. Jasmine Bilham wrote a practical guide with eight things to consider when designing for children. It covers everything from defining your target age group to getting visual styling, storytelling, navigation, and parental controls right.

8 Things to Consider When Designing For Children

5. Designing For Children

Over the years, UXmatters has grown an archive of articles on designing for children. They cover foundations such as the use of color and graphics, key considerations and guidelines for addressing children’s needs through design, but also topics such as enhancing child-safety features in smart devices. A useful resource for everyone who wants to dive deeper into designing child-friendly experiences and products.

6. Childproofing UIs

Little fingers interact differently with an interface than adults. To help you childproof your UIs, Andrew Smyk summarized UI and UX considerations for designing for children. The guide explores the peculiarities of how children interact with an interface and what designers can do to help them navigate it with confidence.

Design Considerations For Little Fingers

7. 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.

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.

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:

Resilient & Maintainable CSS Dev
with Miriam Suzanne. Oct 1–15
Designing Websites That Convert UX
with Paul Boag. Oct 7
Accessible Frontend Patterns Dev
with Manuel Matuzović. Oct 12 – Nov 2
Measure UX And Design Impact UX + self-paced course
with Vitaly Friedman. Oct 20 – Nov 3
Building Modern HTML Emails Dev
with Rémi Parmentier. Oct 26 –29
Deep Dive On Accessibility Testing Dev
with Manuel Matuzović. Nov 9–23
Design Patterns For AI Interfaces UX + self-paced course
with Vitaly Friedman. Nov 16–24
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).

September 29, 2026 Smashing Newsletter: Issue #578

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