📝 Issue #441: In Defense of a Fussy Website, 3 Essential Design Trends, Cube CSS, Onboarding is Dead, and more…

It seems we’re forever focusing on ways to squeeze a little more optimization out of our sites, a little more compression, a little more minimalism. Sarah Drasner ruminates on emotional connections in web design, and the importance of “expensive” details in this must-read post for designers.

At this time every month we publish a roundup of the three most interesting trends we expect to see dominating web design in the coming months. We posted July’s edition this week; in it you’ll find renewed interest in geometry, Apple-influenced design, and an unexpected new use for underlined text.

Since the very first browser support for CSS, front-end developers have been trying to create systems to make sense out of CSS’ overly flexible nature. The latest is Cube CSS, which is inspired by BEM, but takes a more streamlined approach by embracing the cascade instead of working against it.

Few people will ever have as big an impact on the design industry as Milton Glaser, who has passed away on 26 June — his 91st birthday. Glaser designed the I❤NY icon you’ve seen reproduced and imitated on everything from T-shirts to coffee mugs. Jenny Brewer takes a look back at his career.

Struggling to come up with a catchy headline for that blog post, or a must-open subject for an email? Headlime is an awesome app that can generate hundreds of ideas for you based on a few key variables. Just tell the site about your product and audience, and watch it generate ideas; the first sixteen are free.

All good front-end developers have come around to the philosophy that accessibility is a basic requirement for a modern website. However only an estimated 1.9% of websites are 100% accessible. Manuel Matuzovic looks at the issue by building a website designed to exclude you, with code examples.

The central problem for most app designers, is not their core product, but the strength of their onboarding. Onboarding makes or breaks apps, but what if onboarding was no longer necessary? Inspired by Apple’s new App Clips, Gil Bouhnick speculates about the future of apps and the death of onboarding.

Paragon is an incredible app that allows you to visually build workflows around your favorite tools. Workflows can be triggered by a scheduler, or a request, and can be integrated with popular tools including MySQL, Slack, Twilio, MongoDB, Firebase, and Google Drive. There’s a free-forever plan available.

Amidst the global protests in support of the Black Lives Matter campaign, brands with characters of troublesome origin have been promising to reconsider their choices. Debbie Millman delivers a brief overview of the problem, and then asks whether rebranding is enough to combat racism.