✏ Issue #490: Modern Minimal UI Style, Fix Contrast Browser Plugin, CSS For Web Vitals, Essential Design Trends, and more…

In this upbeat post, Diana Malewicz walks us through the design trend she’s dubbed ‘Modern Minimal.’ The characteristics include copious amounts of whitespace, subtle curves, simple and considered colors, photography, lots of contrast, and large, super-confident headings that are easy to read. It could be the next big thing.

Patttterns is a collection of design patterns covering popular solutions to common design conundrums. There are hundreds of design patterns on the site, covering topics like onboarding, searching, and feedback. Design patterns work best when users learn them across multiple sites, so each solution is proven to be effective.

Each month we put together this roundup of the three most essential design trends that we’ve seen taking off on the Web in the previous four weeks. In June’s edition, we look at the trend for removing people from above-the-fold imagery, left-aligned hero text, and an exciting new fashion for pushing the boundaries of typography. Enjoy!

Tired of waiting for sites to fix their color issues? Fix Contrast is an incredible free plugin for Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Brave, Vivaldi, and Opera that fixes the color contrast of sites for you. It’s a great tool whether you need color contrast guaranteed for your own access, or to tweak accessible color schemes on your own sites.

Jesse James Garrett co-founded the design agency Adaptive Path in 2001 and played a substantial role in shaping the narrative of the UX industry. In this cutting essay, he reflects on the last two decades of UX design, considers the current state of UX, and asks, “where did it all go wrong?”. It’s a must-read for anyone working in UX.

The web is a global marketplace, and sooner or later, you’ll need to translate your clients’ documents into another language. Catapult is an exceptional translation tool built with AI and machine learning that will translate your documents while maintaining your formatting. There’s a free plan to get you started, and paid plans start from $39/month.

Google’s Core Web Vitals update is looming, with Mobile algorithm changes expected this month and Desktop updates to follow soon. In this timely post, Katie Hempenius and Una Kravets introduce CSS techniques designed to improve your Lighthouse score, focusing on areas like Cumulative Layout Shift and Largest Contentful Paint.

Softr is a site builder that allows you to rapidly create websites based on AirTable, with zero coding skills. It’s a great solution for internal sites like style guides, and client portals that need a robust architecture. User logins, ecommerce, and SEO are all baked in. There’s a free-forever plan, and paid plans start from $24/month.