Smashing Book 6

The Smashing series continues with New Frontiers in Web Design. Structured like others in the series: distinct chapters by distinct authors around a central theme. It feels like Smashing’s best articles handpicked and expanded. (Not a bad thing!)

Topics include advocating a design system, using CSS custom properties, loading assets quickly, and designing conversational UIs. At first it seemed too diverse, but these are the “new frontier” issues …even 2 years later when I read it. Naturally I was more interested in certain topics, but I liked that the diversity made me consider areas I was less inclined towards.

Disappointingly, the material didn’t seem actionable on my real-life projects. I’m not doing VR or chatbots—even the performance chapter, while interesting, didn’t feel actionable. I guess that’s the nature of “new frontiers”. The last chapter, however, is so applicable and inspiring! Also, the printed book is a beaut!