✏ Issue #481: Sensory Design, 3 Essential Design Trends, A11y Public Library, Container Queries Are Coming, and more…

Most of us navigate the world using a complex, interrelated set of senses of which sight is just one. Yet, when we design for experiences, we focus almost entirely on visuals. Micah Bowers explores sensory design in this inspiring article using nine principles of sensory design, from triggering senses to avoiding sensory overload.

Accessibility tool Stark has just unveiled its public library of accessibility resources, with tools, tutorials, blog posts, and guides gathered from across the Internet in a single location. Inclusive design is the hallmark of a professional website, and Stark’s Public Library is an invaluable resource for anyone working on the Web.

All too often, clients (and designers) are seduced by the lure of a magical A/B test that will transform their site into its perfect incarnation. Oliver Palmer’s expertly argued post proves that for many sites, especially sites with lower traffic levels, A/B testing is more harmful than helpful and that qualitative research is a surer route to success.

Each month we publish this roundup of the biggest design trends we’ve seen dominating the Web in the previous four weeks. It’s a great place to see what’s going on and grab some inspiration for your own projects. In this month’s edition, you’ll find a Brutalism-inspired trend, horizontal scrolling, and animated typography.

Skribbl is a platform for making hand-drawn illustrations available for free, for any purpose, without attribution. There are currently a handful of illustrators but dozens of delightful human-curated illustrations to download, with more on the way. If you can draw yourself, the platform will even pay you to join and submit your own illustrations.

Having a slow site is only one step up from having no site at all. Sites that are slow by only 100ms can lose conversions, increase bounce rate, and plummet down search engine rankings. In this simple step-by-step guide, Kealan Parr walks us through the process of fixing a slow site, ultimately achieving a Lighthouse performance score of 97%.

IcePanel is an efficient tool for designing and sharing cloud architecture. It features a side-by-side diagram and documentation system, exportable YAML snippets, a built-in structured approach to diagramming, and easy collaboration. IcePanel is currently in alpha, there’s a free forever plan, and paid plans start from $8/month.

Gather around any group of CSS devs, and the first topic of conversation will always be the need for, and inexplicable lack of, container queries. Now, just as many coders had accepted they would never be a reality, they’re arriving on Chrome. This awesome post walks us through the initial implementation of this long-awaited feature.