October 20, 2026 Smashing Newsletter: Issue #581
This newsletter issue was sent out to 173,287 subscribers on Tuesday, October 20, 2026.
Editorial
What’s going on in JavaScript these days? What are new ECMAScript features that are coming up? And do we actually need build tools still? In this newsletter, we dive into front-end engineering and focus on JavaScript — from modern web types to progressive web components and native JSON modules.
If you want to prepare for what’s next in the world of front-end and UX, we’ve just launched our new online workshops. You can save 10–20% off today: prices will go up on Oct 27. You can also get a bundle of workshops for your (incredible!) team.
- How To 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 – Nov 23 - Design Patterns For AI 2027 UX + self-paced course
with Vitaly Friedman. Nov 16–24 - Designing Websites That Convert UX
with Paul Boag. Dec 7 - Designing For Complex UIs UX
with Vitaly Friedman. December 2–16 - SmashingConf Freiburg 2027 🇩🇪 (Sep 6–9, 2027)
- SmashingConf Amsterdam 2027 🇳🇱 (May 18–21, 2027)
- Jump to all online workshops and conferences →
And now, let’s jump into all things JS! 🚀
— Vitaly
1. Native JSON Modules
Native JSON modules are here. With import attributes, the platform can finally handle JSON modules directly — no transforms, custom loaders, or build-time magic involved. Matt Smith compares native JSON modules with the bundler-based JSON import that we’ve historically relied on and explains why import attributes matter beyond JSON.
2. Progressive Web Components
Layout shifts, accessibility problems, server-side rendering limitations, too much reliance on client-side JavaScript — web components have quite some pain points. To avoid common issues, Ariel Salminen created Elena, a small library for creating Progressive Web Components. They render HTML and CSS before JavaScript loads and add an enhancement layer of JavaScript to add reactivity, event handling, and more advanced templating.
3. Modern Web Types
When you use TypeScript on a project with newer web features, you usually run into type errors. Philip Walton created a fix for the issue: modern-web-types. The library gives you full support for any API that’s shipped in a modern browser. It saves you from manually adding types to a project and avoids conflicts once TypeScript eventually adds support for them.
4. Highlighting A Range Of Text
Let’s say you have a textarea or input and want to highlight every instance of a particular word, updating as the user types. The OpaqueRange API together with the Custom Highlight API make it possible. Ollie Williams explains how each API works and how to put them together to style a selection of text.
5. Do We Still Need Build Tools?
Build tools usually rank among the things that developers struggle with the most when working with JavaScript. So, how necessary are they for front-end development in 2026? Ollie Williams explores the benefits and drawbacks of JavaScript module bundlers, transpilers, types, minification, and frameworks, as well as of CSS build tools.
20 Years and Counting: Thanks For Being Smashing!
Do you know that SmashingMag has been around for 20 years? Thank you so much for reading articles, newsletters and attending workshops and conferences — online and offline.
If Smashing has helped you learn something, solve a problem, or see things from a new perspective, please consider making a one-time contribution. Your support helps us keep practical web knowledge open and accessible to everyone.
Thank you for being part of the Smashing community! 🧡
6. What’s New In ECMAScript 2026
Every year after the final language specification approval, Paweł Grzybek summarizes the latest additions to ECMAScript. This year is no exception. In his blog post “What’s new in ECMAScript 2026,” Paweł explores the new additions, how they work, and the gaps they close.
7. How To Audit Dependencies
As the web platform evolves, a surprising number of the libraries you use in your project has become redundant. But which ones are safe to remove? Jad Joubran wrote a practical guide in which he breaks the audit down into clusters. By the end, you have a repeatable process that you can run on your package.json once a quarter to ensure you don’t ship any unnecessary bulk.
8. Accessible UX Research, Now Shipping 📚
Our newest Smashing book, Accessible UX Research by Michele A. Williams, is shipping worldwide! Get the book right away or get the eBook and start reading.
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:
- How To 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 – Nov 23 - Design Patterns For AI Interfaces UX + self-paced course
with Vitaly Friedman. Nov 16–24 - Designing Websites That Convert UX
with Paul Boag. Dec 7 - Designing For Complex UI Masterclass UX
with Vitaly Friedman. December 2–16 - SmashingConf Freiburg 2027 🇩🇪 (Sep 6–9, 2027)
- SmashingConf Amsterdam 2027 🇳🇱 (May 18–21, 2027)
- Jump to all online workshops and conferences →
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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