March 3, 2026 Smashing Newsletter: Issue #548
This newsletter issue was sent out to 177,857 subscribers on Tuesday, March 3, 2026.
Editorial
The real world is messy, non-linear, and incredibly complex. When we design digital products, we must match that complexity effectively to help people manage it. The worst thing we can do is to oversimplify the product.
So, how do we do that? In this newsletter, we look at designing for complex UIs — from dashboards and data visualization to complex design systems and UX strategy. We also have a deep-dive online workshop on complex UIs starting this week.
If you have time in March to boost your skills, we highly recommend signing up for an online workshop:
- 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 - UX Design Leadership Masterclass UX
with Paul Boag. Mar 18–26 - Designing Better Products Masterclass UX
with Stéphanie Walter. Mar 23 – Apr 6 - Interface Design Live UX Training UX
with Vitaly Friedman. Apr 3 – May 11 - How To Measure UX Impact + video course UX
with Vitaly Friedman. Apr 21 – May 1 - Jump to all workshops →
Wishing you a wonderful week ahead, everyone!
— Vitaly
1. Strategy Cheatsheets
How to gain a strategic advantage with your business? According to Alex M. H. Smith, the key lies in doing things differently. To help you get clear on your business strategy, he published the Cheatsheet Library, a collection of 15 free cheatsheets and quick guides covering everything from understanding value to creating a strategic culture and growing your business.
2. Dashboard Design Patterns
What makes a dashboard effective? How do you present complex data without overwhelming users? The interdisciplinary research lab VisHub at the University of Edinburgh published a set of dashboard design patterns that explore every aspect of good dashboard design.
From components and metadata to visual representation, interaction, page layout, and color — everything put together neatly in one single place. For the bookmarks!
3. Open Visualization Academy
Having taught visualization design to thousands of students in more than 30 countries, Alberto Cairo has long dreamed of creating an online platform where everyone can learn about information design and data visualization, for free.
The ambitious project called Open Visualization Academy launched just a few weeks ago. With video master classes and software tutorials created by top experts, it is a treasure chest of knowledge.
4. Journey Map Vs. Service Blueprint
Journey maps and service blueprints help us understand both sides of our services: what the person using it experiences, and what went on in the background to make the experience happen. Morgan Miller and Erika Flowers wrote a comprehensive guide to journey maps and service blueprints, why they matter, the differences between the two, and when to use which.
Another practical guide on the topic comes from Marco Torrente. In it, he explores how to turn research insights into a service blueprint, covering roles, processes, systems, and data.
5. Organizing Complex Design Systems
How can we manage complex Figma libraries without any friction? How to keep them clean, well-organized, and easily accessible for everyone involved? Jérôme Benoit shares valuable insights into how the team at Doctolib manages their design system with 900 shared components and more than 40 people involved.
6. Mapping Unintended Impact
Every design decision we make can have consequences that were not foreseen. For example, a feature that drives short-term retention might, in the long term, drive churn or abandonment. So how can we deal with unintended consequences of UX decisions? Vitaly summarized practical tips and resources for exploring the direct and indirect impact of changes.
7. Dealing With Conflicting Data
Maybe you’ve been there before: you’ve conducted UX research, and the quantitative and qualitative data showed different results. This doesn’t mean that either of them is wrong, but that different types of research reveal different parts of a bigger story. To help you resolve data conflicts, Vitaly shares practical techniques for triangulating and reconciling data with mixed-method research.
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:
- 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 - UX Design Leadership Masterclass UX
with Paul Boag. Mar 18–26 - Designing Better Products Masterclass UX
with Stéphanie Walter. Mar 23 – Apr 6 - How To Measure UX Impact + video course UX
with Vitaly Friedman. Apr 21 – May 1 - Design Patterns For AI Interfaces UX
with Vitaly Friedman. Video course + UX training - 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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