State of the Browser 2025 ↗
Color in CSS · Manuel Matuzović
Manuel talked about why Hex codes and RGB aren't the most developer-friendly way to work with color in CSS. HSL is more intuitive, especially when using custom properties. He also went deeper into color spaces like LCH and OKLCH, which is helpful in thinking perceptively about color and particularly useful in design systems.
The more we think about color in terms of perception rather than just raw values, the better our designs will be. What really stood out to me is how color spaces like LCH and OKLCH make colors work better across different displays and lighting conditions. This shift isn’t just about developers making things easier for themselves; it’s about creating a more consistent and accessible web for users. It also raises a bigger question: why are we still relying on outdated standards when better tools exist? We need to start pushing for these color standards in everyday development, not just in experimental design systems.
Resources: Evil Martians' OKLCH color picker, Wakamai Fondue for working with color fonts.
Mindful Design for Developers · Scott Riley
Scott Riley's talk was all about systemic design — designing environments instead of just interfaces. He made a strong case for developers thinking like designers. The way devs code and structure things directly impacts user experience, sometimes in ways that designers might not even anticipate. He called out how SaaS has kind of colonised the web, turning everything into a product rather than an experience.
Key ideas:
- Designing for autonomy and intrinsic motivation.
- Paloma Medina's BICEPS model (Belonging, Improvement, Choice, Equality, Predictability, and Significance) for researchers.
- Sensemaking and placemaking in digital environments.
This one really stuck with me. It reinforced the idea that digital experiences shouldn’t be purely transactional — users should feel a sense of agency, not just be led through rigid flows. As someone researching psychogeography and sensory data experiences, I absolutely loved his analogy of sensemaking and placemaking in the browser. If we shift our perspective from designing products to designing environments, we start to see websites as interactive spaces that people inhabit, not just interfaces they click through.
That mindset shift has huge implications. Right now, a lot of the web is optimised for conversion, retention, or engagement metrics. But what if we optimised for something more personal — like user agency, long-term value, or meaningful interaction? The more we approach design as the crafting of environments, the more we can challenge the extractive patterns that dominate today’s web.
Resources: Mindful Design, Object-Oriented UX, How to Make Sense of Any Mess
Whimsica11y · Sara Joy
Sara brought some much-needed fun to accessibility, showing how accessibility can (and should) be joyful. She shared some cool examples of whimsical websites and how to approach accessibility without losing personal expression.
The web is for everyone. The joy, the whimsy, the vibes too — for everyone.
Oh, I loved this! Accessibility is too often framed as a compliance issue when it should be about creating richer, more inclusive experiences. One of the standout moments was her point about alt text being more than just a description — it can take creative directions. This perspective shift makes accessibility feel like an opportunity for creative expression rather than a checklist.
This also made me reflect on how accessibility is still treated as an afterthought in most workflows. We add it when required, but we don’t often think about how it can enhance an experience rather than just make it usable. What if we embraced accessibility as a creative constraint rather than a checklist? The best accessible experiences don’t just accommodate — they enrich.
Resources:
Whimsy on the web:
- Alt Text Selfies
- Alt Text as Poetry
- Keenan's work and writings
- Robb Knight
- Daniel Schulz
- Henry Desroches
- Melon Land
- Autistic as Fxxk
- Localghost
Typography vs. Accessibility · Oliver Schöndorfer
Oliver busted some big myths about typography and accessibility. He pointed out that type accessibility is never 0% or 100% — it’s a range.
Typography is one of those things that’s easy to overlook until it’s wrong. What I appreciated about Oliver’s talk is that he moved past surface-level advice and focused on nuance. It’s not just about making fonts accessible in some absolute sense; it’s about ensuring they work well for as many people as possible, in various contexts. The discussion on contrast was also pretty insightful; high contrast can actually be straining for some users, which runs counter to a lot of accessibility advice we see. Beyond accessibility, typography is also about identity. The fonts we choose set the tone for an experience. There’s a balance between expression and functionality, and all too often, accessibility discussions focus solely on the latter. So, it was reinforcing to hear that accessibility is about thoughtfulness and flexibility rather than hard rules.
Resources: Fontanello
Final Thoughts
This conference really drove home how much design and development overlap. Every talk touched on the idea that we shouldn't be designing or building in isolation. Whether it’s color, typography, accessibility, or broader design thinking, it all comes back to being intentional about how we build for the web.
The web is not just a tool — it’s an environment. How we choose to shape that environment matters. It’s easy to get caught up in technical optimisations or business goals, but at the end of the day, our job is to create spaces where people feel comfortable, empowered, and even delighted.
This isn’t just an abstract design philosophy — it’s a call to action. We have a responsibility to challenge the extractive, attention-driven patterns that dominate much of today’s web. If we start thinking about the browser as a place, not just a tool, we open up new possibilities for what the web can be. And that’s the kind of web I want to build.
