iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Adam Silver @adamsilverhq.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

UI/UX observation: so many UI components exist for the sole purpose of hiding content in order to save space. - Hints are hidden inside tooltips - Links are hidden inside menus - Photos are hidden inside carousels

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Adam Silver @adamsilverhq.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Design tip: it doesn't have to be novel to be good This is Nous Portal’s create account form UX. 1. You click "Create account" 2. A modal dialog opens 3. The options are Google, email, Github and Discord Here’s the novel bit:

Nous Portal’s account creation modal features options for Google, email, GitHub, and Discord, emphasising an unusual email placement.

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Adam Silver @adamsilverhq.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

UI/UX tip: avoid interruption pages Last week, someone asked me about their interruption page. I understand why designers might be drawn to a pattern like this. I’ve been close to using one in the past. But interruption pages have multiple issues and they’re unnecessary.

A person shares design advice emphasizing the importance of well-designed questions over interruption pages in user experience design.

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Reposted by Adam Silver

Simon Whatley @simonwhatley.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

Measuring whether a service is working is harder than measuring whether it's running. A thread on what performance measurement looks like when it's actually useful. 🧵

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Adam Silver @adamsilverhq.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

A little UX tip to improve sign-in pages with multiple options. The problem is that some users may not remember which one they used. But the fix is simple: Highlight the one you last used with a little text label. Boring UX = Good UX

Sign-in page for Tella showing email entry and options, highlighting the last used method for easier user access.

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Adam Silver @adamsilverhq.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

Last night I ran a live training on file upload UX. It was really fun. Everyone seemed engaged. And all the questions were great. Nobody asked about animation. We focused on important details like:

Selfie of me (Adam Silver) about to start the live training on file uploads with my monitors and key lights in the background with my slides on one of my monitors.

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Reposted by Adam Silver

Caroline Jarrett @cjforms.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

Bonus episode of #FixTheForms today - I’m going to be @webdevconf.com in October. Thrilled to be invited.

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Adam Silver @adamsilverhq.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

“I used to think design was about making webpages look nice and wowing users with fancy animations.” This is from a full stack developer who took my course on form design.

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Adam Silver @adamsilverhq.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

New post: does the accept attribute on file inputs work better on Windows and Android (compared to Mac)? Last week I wrote about the problem with using the accept attribute for uploading files. In short: It disables invalid files... Disabled files = bad UX

Does the accept attribute on file inputs have better UX on Windows or Android than MacOS?

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Adam Silver @adamsilverhq.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

Do web components make your design system framework agnostic? Yesterday I asked this question on LinkedIn, BlueSky and X. In short the answer is: No, but sort of. Let me explain: Web components are just HTML, CSS and JS, so they can be framework agnostic.

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Adam Silver @adamsilverhq.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

Can your design system components be framework agnostic? I sometimes see frontend engineers suggesting that design systems can be framework agnostic if you use web components. But I don’t get how that can be the case. Firstly, your components need to render real data.

Is a framework agnostic design system actually possible?

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Adam Silver @adamsilverhq.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

UX tip: don’t misinterpret a WCAG recommendation as good UX Last week I posted about why the ACCEPT attribute on file inputs is bad UX. In case you don’t know, the accept attribute lets you specify which file types an input will accept (and then disable the rest).

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Adam Silver @adamsilverhq.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

Spent the last day writing and refining a problem statement with my content designer. All in prep for a 20 minute show and tell. Because if you can't articulate the problem it's a lot harder to justify the solution. Ideally we would have done this a bit earlier...

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Adam Silver @adamsilverhq.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

Here’s an example of native browser behaviour with bad UX. Last week I shared a problem with a multi-file upload pattern. The problem was about how to make sure users could deal with multiple errors across multiple files.

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Adam Silver @adamsilverhq.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

Here’s a tricky UX and accessibility problem I’m not sure about (perhaps you have ideas). It’s to do with a multi-file upload pattern. Note that this is the degraded version of the UI that works without JavaScript. The enhanced JS version works differently.

A page with a file upload. At the top is an error summary showing two errors that link to the file input. The input has two inline errors showing on separate lines. Above the input is a section for uploaded files showing the successfully uploaded files with a delete link.

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Adam Silver @adamsilverhq.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

"How do you take design from good to great?" By doing the hard work to make it simple. Anthony Hobday gave the perfect example on the Complimentary podcast when he was describing his experience of applying for a driving license.

The best file upload UX doesn't
include a file upload at all.

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Adam Silver @adamsilverhq.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

“Design is just stopping other designers from doing stupid sh*t.” My designer friend sent me this yesterday. She was trying to convince her team to use the standard design system components. Because they’d all strayed from the standard:

You can't colour your way out of a
content problem.

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Adam Silver @adamsilverhq.bsky.social · 12/04/2026

Just scheduled a newsletter “The perfect file upload pattern”. It goes out in under an hour. If you fancy it, you can sign up to my newsletter here: adamsilver.io/

adamsilver.io

I can help you design products that are ridiculously simple and accessible to use

Adam Silver – interaction designer – London, UK

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Adam Silver @adamsilverhq.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

In 2013 I came across a UX tip for designing mega menus. Most mega menus work on hover. So you hover and out pops a menu. But you have to move your mouse perfectly horizontally to enter the menu. Because if you don’t it disappears. That’s inefficient and unnatural.

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Adam Silver @adamsilverhq.bsky.social · 08/04/2026

The six signals of quality in software - according to UI/UX designer Anthony Hobday: Signal 1: Reliability → Does the software technically perform as expected, all of the time? This means no bugs, no downtime, no errors, and so on. Signal 2: Speed

The six signals of quality in software

1. Reliability: Does the software technically perform as expected, all
of the time? This means no bugs, no downtime, no errors, and so on.
2. Speed: Does the software react to input instantly, or as near as
practically possible? For those tasks that must take longer, are
they as fast as possible?
3. Clarity: Does the person using the software understand everything?
4. Efficacy: Can the person do what they need to do with the software?
5. Efficiency: Can the person do what they need to do with the
software as easily as possible?
6 Paauty, Te tha coftuaro de docthatically nloscina de noccibla?

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Adam Silver @adamsilverhq.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

Most designers use the UX term “affordance” wrong. For example, they might say: “The CTA needs better affordance” But affordance just means what something can do. A submit button affords submission. That’s it. It only describes the capability.

Avoid using words like "affordance"

Firstly, it's probably wrong.
Secondly, it's unnecessary.

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Adam Silver @adamsilverhq.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

Design tip: don’t forget about the <title> tag The content inside that tag appears in the browser window or tab. This is important because: 1. It distinguishes your website from other open websites 2. It's the first thing announced in screen readers

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Adam Silver @adamsilverhq.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

"Can you make single page applications accessible?" I’ll answer in a sec. But first: It’s the wrong question. Accessible doesn’t always mean good UX. SPAs change standard interactions like clicking a link and submitting a form.

A web application interface displaying case details, categories, dates, and user filters with a search function and results list.

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Adam Silver @adamsilverhq.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

Frontend devs: would you take a job with the following tech stack? The stack: • Node.js • Express (or similar) • Nunjucks templating • Progressive enhancement I keep seeing devs dismiss server-side rendered stacks in favour of React SPAs, so I wanted to get your take.

Frontend devs: would you take a job with this tech stack?

• Node.js • Express (or similar) • Nunjucks templating • Progressive enhancement

(More details in the post)

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Adam Silver @adamsilverhq.bsky.social · 12/03/2026

Yesterday, I asked you about checkboxes vs radios for a settings page. It got a lot of comments but I want to highlight this one: > The content is key for the checkboxes. The checkboxes need a separate legend - something like ‘Receive when:’ I agree...

Two user interface designs for email notification settings: one with radios and another with checkboxes.

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Adam Silver @adamsilverhq.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

UX question: here are two designs to manage notifications. Variant 1: radio buttons Variant 2: checkboxes In a service I worked on we explored both but went with the radio buttons.

Email notification settings display two sections: one for toggling options on/off, and another with checked selections for notifications.

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Adam Silver @adamsilverhq.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

Frank Chimero famously said that like wood, the web has a grain. You can go with the grain. Or you can go against it. Many designers go against the grain, often without realising it. - They use scroll jacking and break a basic interaction with something confusing

You can't design well with a material you don't understand

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Adam Silver @adamsilverhq.bsky.social · 06/03/2026

I ask my Form Design Mastery students for feedback after every module. It helps iterate and improve the course. Here’s some feedback I received yesterday from module 1, Nailing the basics: “I loved how all the rules and laws just made sense [...]”

What did you love about this module? I loved how all the rules and laws just made sense.

What could have been better? What could have been better is letting me just correct the questions I got wrong in the quiz instead of making me redo everything to see if different answers were right. For the radio button explanation, 1 wanted to see the CSS code for how we make it bigger (perhaps I understood incorrectly and there isn't any CSS to show).

Based on your experience so far, would you recommend the course to a friend? (10 = definitely, 0 = absolutely not) 10

What's the reason for your answer? Every designer or person for that matter deserves to know what an easy-to-fill form looks like. This course creates empathy for those in different computer interaction situations. Ease of use in any product is fundamental in my opinion.

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Adam Silver @adamsilverhq.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

Many designers don't use their design system (even if it has a good solution to their problem). Here are the reasons I've experienced: → Reason 1: The designer doesn't know the design system exists.

Why do designers ignore the design system?

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Adam Silver @adamsilverhq.bsky.social · 03/03/2026

Do you use Figma Make and care about UX/accessibility? If so I have a few questions about the code it produces: (1) Is it semantic? For example, does it use <button> for a button and <input> for an input. (2) Is it accessible?

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Adam Silver @adamsilverhq.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

Content design is just design with a bias toward the words. And that's a good thing. Many designers spend hours tweaking spacing, colours, and layouts. But once you have a set of accessible components, it's content that matters most. Content design shapes everything:

If you want to be a better designer, be a better content designer.

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Adam Silver @adamsilverhq.bsky.social · 24/02/2026

UX tip: focus on what users do, not what they say Just watched a user complete a task perfectly while complaining the whole time. I'm redesigning a case working system. During usability testing, the researcher asked the participant to find a case by reference number. 1. She logged in.

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Adam Silver @adamsilverhq.bsky.social · 23/02/2026

I used to think native components guarantee good UX. But I was wrong. Last week I read a post by a frontend developer advising devs to stop using JavaScript to reset forms. Instead he said to use the native reset button (type=reset).

Native HTML elements don’t guarantee good UX

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Adam Silver @adamsilverhq.bsky.social · 17/02/2026

“What UI component is the hardest to make accessible?” This is something Sarah Soueidan asked here yesterday. The most popular answer was date picker. Now I agree that date pickers are hard. I’ve spent a lot of time designing and building highly accessible versions of both.

A LinkedIn post by Sara Soueidan asks followers about challenging UI components to implement accessibly, highlighting date pickers.

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Adam Silver @adamsilverhq.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

I’ve just seen the new Linear landing page. It uses application-like interactions. For example, when you click “Visual planning” a side drawer/modal window appears explaining what that is. The thing is, it’s not an application. It’s a website.

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Adam Silver @adamsilverhq.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

Most designers would say this is good design. They would say that because it looks well crafted. - Good spacing. - Nice typography. - Decent hierarchy. But it’s not good design at all: 1. The message at the top explains the interface. 2. It looks interactive but it’s not

A settings interface shows notification preferences with options for email and in-app alerts, highlighting specific instructions and queries.

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Adam Silver @adamsilverhq.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

I can't name a single digital product I started using just because it looked nice. Don't get me wrong: Aesthetics matter. But most designers seem to think it's the most important thing. It's certainly what they spend most of their time working on. Take Linear and Fizzy.

Good design is 10% how it looks. And 90% how it works.

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Adam Silver @adamsilverhq.bsky.social · 27/01/2026

Some design patterns are just bad UX. No amount of improving will turn them into good UX. Take toast messages as an example: Toast messages are little notifications that pop up after an action such as “Saved”, “Sent” and “Updated”. GitHub’s design team recently banned them.

If you have to redesign every detail about a pattern to make it work, it's probably not the right pattern.

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Adam Silver @adamsilverhq.bsky.social · 21/01/2026

"Will AI make you a better designer?" It's not that simple. It comes down to how good you are at design in the first place. If you’re good at design, you’ll ship good design faster. If you’re bad at design, you’ll ship bad design faster. In short: AI is an accelerator.

Green slide with bold white text stating AI accelerates your design skills and it doesn’t replace them.

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Adam Silver @adamsilverhq.bsky.social · 19/01/2026

Last week I presented some flows I'd been redesigning to a room full of product managers and stakeholders. The goal was to show how you can use patterns from the GOVUK Design System (and a few of my own) to design complex case working systems...

White bold text "Design in code, get praise" centered on a solid green background, styled like a presentation slide.

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Adam Silver @adamsilverhq.bsky.social · 13/01/2026

If I could burn all instances of JIRA and replace them with Fizzy, I would. Fizzy is a new project management tool designed and built by the legends at 37signals. They’ve got a lot right here. Everything is chunky, clear, and on brand.

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Adam Silver @adamsilverhq.bsky.social · 08/01/2026

Design tip: don’t put two different search forms close together There’s about 100 issues with LinkedIn’s search UX. But check this bad boy out (the screenshot below): If you want to search messages, you can’t use the prominent, easy to spot, search box about 50 pixels above the messages.

LinkedIn messaging screen showing a left column of conversations, global search in the header, message search just below it.

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Adam Silver @adamsilverhq.bsky.social · 06/01/2026

It’s 2026, we’re all worried about AI taking over design but check this UX out... Let me explain: We stayed over at Blackwood Forest over xmas. When we arrived, I plugged the car into the electric charging point. After it was charged I tried to release the charging cable.

Finger pointing to a tiny bump on a black Easee EV charging unit.

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Adam Silver @adamsilverhq.bsky.social · 10/12/2025

UX tip: use an accessible typeface For example, I use Inter but the default characters for uppercase I and lowercase L look the same: → Il But some fonts, including Inter can be configured so that they’re easy to distinguish with just CSS: font-feature-settings: "cv08", "cv05", "zero";

Left column shows hard-to-read text with ambiguous characters and red underline; right column shows same text with clearer font distinction and green underline.

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Adam Silver @adamsilverhq.bsky.social · 01/12/2025

Can you make toast messages accessible? Last week I posted about how Github’s design system banned toast messages because they’re hard to use and inaccessible. I received 135 comments, including pushback from accessibility specialists who insist that toast messages can be made accessible.

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Adam Silver @adamsilverhq.bsky.social · 20/11/2025

Github’s Design System now bans toast messages. In case you don’t know, toast messages are little messages shown on top of the UI to give feedback about an action that you’ve just taken. Banning toast messages is an excellent decision because they have bad UX and are terrible for accessibility.

Webpage titled "Toasts" explaining that GitHub no longer uses toast notifications due to accessibility and usability concerns, with an overview and recommendation to avoid them.

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Adam Silver @adamsilverhq.bsky.social · 18/11/2025

Last week I shared the first two laws of form design: Law 1: Nobody wants to use your form Law 2: Completion time = Question Time + Pause Time Here’s the final law: Law 3: Users will make mistakes no matter how well your form is designed.

Form design law #3: users will make mistakes regardless of form design.

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Adam Silver @adamsilverhq.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

New form design tip: end with one thing per page. You may have heard of this rule: ➡︎ Start with one thing per page. This was first written about by designers Tim Paul and Caroline Jarrett. In case you’re not familiar...

Me, Adam Silver, smiling holding a notebook that reads "end with one thing per page"

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Adam Silver @adamsilverhq.bsky.social · 13/11/2025

Yesterday, I shared the first law of form design: ➡︎ Nobody wants to use your form. Like I said yesterday, it’s crucial to know because it emphasises respecting the user over trying to make your form fun, engaging, novel or “on brand”.

Form to create a JIRA ticket with multiple optional fields that are unclear

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