My curated weekly newsletter is out: - From “How Might We” To “At What Cost” - Ebike & Teleportation: Interesting Metaphors - History Of Themeable User Interfaces - HTML Tags Memory Game - A Star Wars Universe Map - Accessible Authentication 👉🏻 stephaniewalter.design/blog/pixels-...

If like me,you hate the glass effect on iOS and iPad OS, sadly there is no way to switch it off. But you can tone it down: accessibility > display and text size > reduce transparency. It's not perfect but it helps a little bit.

Oooh my order from @artofcataflame.bsky.social arrived and they are puuuuurfekt. Reminder, the queer agenda goes: bivisibility month, then Halloween month. So, fellow queer witches, enjoy Autumn! And of course, her shop to get your own: www.etsy.com/shop/artofca...

“Moving fast and breaking things is no longer acceptable and as designers, we need to start considering both possibilities and the responsibilities we hold.” Yes, to all of this. Ida Persson presents an interesting framework that you can re-use, to help people ask the big question: “at what cost”.

What E-bikes can teach us about AI: innovation is a bargain. We need to consider the what is being augmented / amputated. How is the augmentation going to interact with our effort. And why we are taking this choice (values, motivations). I really like this metaphor by Josh Brake

How to make complex data accessible for users with disabilities? I love that the first step is defining purpose. Too often, we want charts on a page without knowing why. Accessibility means designing for diverse users, not the mythical “average.”

How many HTML tags can you remember? No cheating! By Paul Foster codepen.io/plfstr/full/...

How to make authentication accessible without frustration? Honestly, “never block copy pasting” should be tip number one in the list. So many forms still block it, it’s horrible for accessibility, and annoying for usability.

I was wondering how shopping to the US with current situation would go. Turns out Luxembourgish post doesn't ship parcels anymore, only DHL. I suppose none wants to pay 75EUR for 3 stickers, so, I'm suspending selling stickers to US for now. Meh. shop.stephaniewalter.design/get-some-sti...

The Star Wars Galaxy: an actual map, of that famous galaxy far, far away, that’s quite fun to explore. www.starwars.com/star-wars-ga...

Did you know that Mario and Luigi were one of the first themeable UI element? Born from tight technological constraints, they helped pave the way for a whole new era of flexible, customizable design systems.

Another Monday where I almost sent cheese instead of cheers to someone, but caught it in time to edit the end of the email. Anyway, if I ever send you cheese at the end of an email, you know that 1. This was not AI generated for sure, and 2. The human behind the keyboard needs more coffee. 🧀

Absolutely lovely Monday procrastination: draw on the art board to create music. I kind of tried to make, sort of space creature, with the random option, it's not, as bad as I thought it would be: draw.audio/s/xh65s4yws Bah about you?

I used to teach HTML, and the spark in people's eyes the first time they write some code and see it in the browser is amazing. We take it for granted after years in the industry, but it's the best feeling for a beginner 💜

My curated weekly newsletter is out: - Invisible Stigma In UX Research - Common Accessibility Mistakes - “Your” Vs “My” In Interfaces - Design Trends Through Sport Posters - UI Inspiration - OKLCH Color Tool - Ethical Reasons To Leave Substack 👉🏻 stephaniewalter.design/blog/pixels-...

Obsession 14: Thomas Moes went into a rabbit hole of sport posters over the years. He noticed era has patterns, that transcends the events themselves. He selected 3 posters for each decade between 1900 and 2010, and tried to summarize the design trend for each. www.thomasmoes.com/52obsessions...

How to Leave Substack You should probably leave Substack. Here's why and how. Short version: they allow bad actors to monetize, hate speech and misinformation. leavesubstack.com/

If you only read one thing this week, this should be it. Invisible stigma shapes how people with disabilities show up in user research. The main issue: they are invisible, so, easy to miss. Laura Wissiak explains how masking, disclosure, and social bias affect interviews.

Anthony Moser explains why, he is a AI hater. Only humans can be haters. This is how he celebrates his humanity. For him, AI is “incoherent empty men (who) want to sell me the chance to stop reading and writing and thinking, to stop caring for my kids...

Color lovers, I've got a new tool for you to convert, generate and explore OKLCH colors: oklch.fyi/ I like being able to tweak a whole color ramp, adapting chroma to make it more or less vibrant.

How to stand out, when anyone can use AI to build anything? For @antonsten.comSten, most people go for “how do we build this”, instead of asking “what should be built that people actually want?”. This leads to a situation, where, most new apps and products, solve, fake problems.

I’m all in on the “Super IC” idea, we do need to start recognizing designers who want to stay hands-on and solve hard problems without being shoved into management. That’s been my path for years, and I plan to keep it that way...

I'm growing tired of people blaming accessibility guidelines, for stripping away the creativity from the web. Most websites are not accessible. Many designers don't know (yet I hope), or don't care about accessibility. Or care in a performative way. So, stop blaming accessibility for this. Thanks.

Should you go for “my” or “your” when labeling items in interfaces? In summary: Use “your” when communicating to the user. Use “my” when the user is communicating to you. "Your” vs “My” in user interfaces (5min) By Adam Silver: adamsilver.io/blog/your-vs...

UIRoot: a repository of tools and resources to help you with animation, collaboration, colors, components, icons, typography and more uiroot.com/

My curated weekly newsletter is out: - The National Design Studio Is A Scam - How AI Is Changing Search Behaviors - Quality Is A Trap - Cookie Monster Figma Experiment - CSS Color Trust Issues - Pattern Craft Gallery - Heading Accessibility Issues 👉🏻 stephaniewalter.design/blog/pixels-...

I turned my spooky pattern into a wallpaper, which you can grab for free on my Ko-fi page! 👻 ko-fi.com/s/ba185c4104

A fun Figma make experiment, cookiiiiiiie! www.figma.com/community/fi...

An introduction to heading accessibility, from empty headings, skipped heading levels, missing first-level headings, no heading structure, to “possible headings” (text styled to look like a heading but not marked up as one). These issues make navigation harder for screen reader and braille users.

The National Design Studio is a Scam. Trump administration dismantled 18F and now appoints a guy who got rich, dodging regulations to improve design of public services? I sadly agree with Christopher Butler here, What a joke...

Like what I share here? That’s just the surface. I dig through an endless chaos of content so you don’t have to. The design, accessibility, inspiration and geeky tech gems I don’t post here? They go straight into my newsletter! Save yourself some time (and a lot of doomscrolling) & subscribe here:

Web Accessibility in Mind Conference is a free virtual conference about accessibility, happening on September 16 - 17. The line up is amazing, you need to check it out: conference.webaim.org/

Raah when book 3 is finally out, you thought it was going to be a trilogy but nope, it finishes on yet another cliffhanger. This, this is why I have trust issues okay? You should not be allowed to do that!

I love how you can make cool things just with CSS gradients! Pattern Craft is a gallery of nice patterns backgrounds you can copy past in CSS. I really enjoy the Aurora dream ones, but, the geometric ones also give me ideas if I even want to redesign my own background. patterncraft.fun/

A long, interesting study on how IA is reshaping how user search on the web. People still mostly rely on Google to search, out of habit. But AI tools like ChatGPT and Gemini are starting to change that, especially when they help users skip long research tasks.

So, Gray is darker than DarkGray?! No wonder, people who’ve worked with CSS long enough have trust issues. This is on point haha. A fun comic by @alvaromontoro.com‬: comicss.art/comics/206/ Any others come to mind?

Ooooh I didn't know. This is brilliant thank you so much!!!!

Another case of "feature hallucination". This time, it's Gemini. I was looking for a card sorting tool, that lets users add their own card (in case we missed some content, this is to test specific enterprise content), so, I launched a Google search.

Designers, sorry to disappoint, but, “Cool projects” don’t just magically land on your desk. They often start messy and hard, and it’s what you make of them that turns them into great work. Cap Watkins gives some great advice to designers here: stop waiting to be picked for something shiny.

My curated weekly newsletter is out: - Enterprise UX And Accessibility - The Age Of No AI Consent - Design For Neurodivergent Users - Accessible Graphs - Synthetic Users Vs Real Personas - Optimal Onion Dicing - Mushroom Color Atlas, etc. 👉🏻 stephaniewalter.design/blog/pixels-...

Shopping online as a queer person is annoying, and brings existential questions: do I actually want the dress, so that I can wear it? Or do I want it, because that model is cute, and it's the model I like, more than the dress. Looking at you snag and all your awesome models, meh.

Are AI-Generated Synthetic Users Replacing Personas? Short version: nope. They can’t, they lack the depth, accuracy, and context of research-based personas built from real users, they might be biased, and misleading. Obviously, right? So, what are they useful for? ...

I'm playing friends or food: if they grow roots, they will be repoted and become friends. If not, they shall be eaten (or become herbal tea). It's their choice 😁

I gave up on the battle of "don't feed my content to a LLM". But, I draw the line at "if you are going to feed it, and post a summary full of hallucination, I'm calling you out". Because, you are putting words in my mouth that I never said. Especially when those words push AI bullshit.

Dicing an Onion, the Mathematically Optimal Way: when math meets food, my kind of geeky dataviz

AI isn’t optional anymore. It’s baked into everything, often without choice, consent, or accountability. @spavel.bsky.social argues we are in the “age of no consent.” Data theft, manipulative design, and bots making life-altering calls are the new norm.

J'ai ça en tête depuis ce matin, pourquoi ? Aucune idée, mais si je dois souffrir, vous aussi ! Le clip a très mal vieilli contre.

I love creatives projects like that mushroom color atlas. Julie Beeler experimented with dyeing with mushrooms and documented a whole giant color palette, with instructions for each type about the specific process. www.mushroomcoloratlas.com

Ever felt like ChatGPT's answers are not very neurodivergent friendly? Access * Ability wrote a nice guide that shows exactly how to adapt ChatGPT to different communication needs. It includes simple, copy-pasteable instructions that cover clarity, pacing, structure, and even managing sensory, etc.

When you build color palettes inspired by Rumi and Derpy tiger, and now every time you see that article shared, your brain goes "it's going up up up". I think I brought that one on myself. I admit, it's my plan to help strengthen the Honmoon, and protect us from evil inaccessible color demons!!!