Turns out sometimes all you need to make the day better is a giant pickled yellow radish. No I won't elaborate further.

Hear me out, Spiderman but he was bitten by a peacock spider 😁 Obviously we will need to cast Holland based on the umbrella performance. (If you are not afraid of spiders I highly recommend you search for peacock spider dance and enjoy the salsa)

A list of online free, no login no install utility tools, to handle text, files conversions, but also help you with construction, finance, cooking and more. There is even a dice roller, with modifier! www.normaltools.com/tools/dice-r...

Normal Tools — Useful online tools, no nonsense

Small, useful online tools that work directly in your browser.

normaltools.com

"Everyone is a little bit of ADHD, I often forget things too" Gurl, how often do you have to send the same paper 3 times to stop paying for something because each time, there was one small detail that you got wrong and it took you 1 month each time, month during which you kept paying 350€?!!

Only a couple of days left before my Accessibility for Designers online workshop starts! It's remote, 4×2.5h live sessions over 2 weeks. You will learn how to design accessible products, from the start, to save time later in projects. Ful details: smashingconf.com/online-works...

It's frustrating how little UX writing information I find about form accessibility to help designers actually write good labels, helper text and error messages. Meh. I need good examples to show to my students 😭😭

I am not a survivalist, but I was told we should have at least a couple of canned food stocked just in case. I need you to know that apparently you can have rum baba as canned food. Might need to stock pile a couple in case of a zombie apocalypse then.

One has to wonder how much trouble one might get into if one were to include in one's email signature: "Any em-dash in our correspondence was handpicked by a human — subject to em-dash availability." 😁

There are 2 wolves in my head. Carl: You will not break me. Mordecai: You can't save them all. The struggle is real 😅 This is a metaphor for design in the age of AI, and protect management.

“I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time.” (Blaise Pascal). @terriblesoftware.org explains that the time “saved” by a developer who used AI to make a decision and write code isn’t saved at all. It was just transferred to the next person, who now has even more review time.

You Got Faster. Your Company Didn’t.

AI made you faster. But you’re not more productive; you’re outsourcing the slow part to everyone else

terriblesoftware.org

My curated weekly newsletter is out. This week we cover accessibility ownership from design to development and why enterprise UX patterns matter for AI. Also, some tech ad archive, a dash of whimsical cat art, and a nine-tailed fox book. 👉🏻 stephaniewalter.design/blog/pixels-...

It's interesting to see how AI brings back the same old design debates. Sometimes with a small twist. "Should designers learn to code?" Apparently yes. It will help us prompt AI for better prototypes. I won't argue against that.

Made a new friend 💜

Okay I am sorry people, who am I supposed to translate French the "Rauchige Drecksau" spice mix?? Because, it's honestly awesome on sweet potatoes and on chicken. But I'm writing my recipes in French haha www.spicebar.de/rauchige-dre...

Rauchige Drecksau, bio

Rauchige Mischung würzender Zutaten, bioDie Rauchige Drecksau macht ihrem Namen alle Ehre, denn sie geht keine Kompromisse ein und ist alles andere als zurückhaltend. Die aromatische Bio Paprika und das Salz wurden lange und intensiv geräuchert und sorgen für ein atemberaubendes Raucharoma auf jedem Grillgut. Perfekt für z.B. Pulled Pork aus dem Dutch Oven, Backofen oder wenn keine Räucherchips verwendet werden sollen, Burger oder BBQ-Saucen.

spicebar.de

This made my day: how the European Union works (or doesn't). Common it's not that hard we just love acronyms and exceptions 😅 youtu.be/LT8GzGlzvCI?...

Why some people mow a lawn better than others: a fun experiment and an interactive dataviz, where The Pudding tested over 30 000 people on a virtual mowing game. pudding.cool/2026/06/mow/

Why some people mow a lawn better than others

We analyzed 132,003 attempts to mow a virtual lawn efficiently.

pudding.cool

I had a great time teaching designers about accessibility in a small webinar yesterday. In case you missed it, and you are a designer wondering "where should I start", I've together many resources on my blog:

Accessibility for designer: where do I start? by Stéphanie Walter - UX Researcher & Designer.

A big list of resources, articles, blog posts, and checklists to help you, designers, get started on your “building more accessible products” journey.

stephaniewalter.design

How do you avoid inconsistencies and fragmentation when your enterprise products grows? Defining and documenting patterns, implementation constraints (anything that will make interactions predictable) is the key to consistency in enterprise products. Especially for highly re-used patterns

Enterprise UX at the limit: why patterns determine whether software and AI can scale

Large SaaS products rarely fail because of missing features. Learn why pattern consistency matters for scalable enterprise UX, accessibility and AI-ready software.

futurice.com

Today's inspiration is a mix of cats and magic forest. This is the work of Anahit "jedessineleschats", a French illustrator with a really whimsical style. Check the work on Instagram: www.instagram.com/jedessineles...

Since accessibility issues start in the design phase, catching them early is cheaper than fixing them in code. I'm running a free 1 hour accessibility webinar this Tuesday Sept 1, 2026 · 19:00. It covers how to check your mockups, documentation examples and you will get plenty of resources to help.

Spotting Accessibility Issues Early — Online Workshops

Accessibility is not only a developer problem, it's team work! And many issues can already be spotted, prevented, and documented during the design phase. In this 1-hour webinar, Stephanie Walter will show designers and open-minded curious developers how to review mockups for common accessibility issues.

smashingconf.com

My curated weekly newsletter is out. This week covers why design systems need people, not just docs, and how spec-driven design can help document research insights. Also don't miss a fun cringe LinkedIn bullshit post creator, and an interface cheat sheet. 👉🏻 stephaniewalter.design/blog/pixels-...

I really like having fun side projects because you always discover new things. Current status: discovering subtle details of information architecture but also UX writing, when you start thinking about gifting your cooking recipes to someone else.

Today's alternate design inspiration: a collection of vintage New York City drug dealer bags and I have to admit that the design and puns on of some of those is fabulous. flashbak.com/drug-dealer-...

A Collection of Vintage New York City Drug Dealer Bags - Flashbak

Hector Mosko collects vintage baggies - those neat drugs dealers' bags from NYC. LSD tab sheets, baggies are not as needed as they once were.

flashbak.com

Spec-driven design: Designing for agentic software development. I really like Tuomas Härkönen’s idea of building a “Product knowledge base”, combined with some “Living feature specs” so that we stop losing precious information

Spec-driven design: Designing for agentic software development

Discover how spec-driven design helps designers work with AI agents, turn product knowledge into buildable intent, and shape what gets built.

futurice.com

It is almost that time, I start early this year, I bring back the pumpkin spice latte coffee 😁

The perfect tool for a stressful day when you need a way to reset for 5 minutes and focus on something else than work: a maze! maze.toys/

Interfaces Cheat Sheet is a list of very high level tips to help you improve your interfaces. I’m not usually a big fan of do/don’t, but it’s still interesting to have some “rules”. The trick: know the role, apply it, become a better designer, and then, know when it’s okay to break it as well.

Interfaces › Cheat Sheet

A list of tips, improvements and best practices that quickly make your interfaces better.

interfaces.dev

The Recipe Isn't The Bake - What Design Systems Need Beyond Documentation. Design system don’t fail because of weak documentation, they fail from missing people context and support. I like the recipe metaphor here

The Recipe Isn't The Bake - What Design Systems Need Beyond Documentation

Why documentation alone does not make a design system work, and why maintainers, context, and feedback loops matter in real product teams.

alwaystwisted.com

A little bit of Monday fun: LinkedIn CringeBot 3000 is a satirical tool that lets you turn any topic into a cringe full LinkedIn post. I tried feeding it “Accessibility and the lack of interest in people on the topic” + “hot take” hehe. www.cringebot3000.com/p/p4cf3hc2

My curated weekly newsletter is out. This week we explore design systems beyond pattern libraries, AI’s impact on software work, and disability acceptance. Also: some inclusive stock photos, amazing medieval illustrations, and a creative recipe flow diagram. 👉🏻 stephaniewalter.design/blog/pixels-...