If you're learning Go and you’re already familiar with the idea of unit testing, the main challenge is usually not why to test, but how to test in Go. Go takes a deliberately minimal approach to testing. There are no built-in assertions, no annotatio...  ( 14 min )

Have you ever updated your backend API property name but neglected to also update the frontend? I'm sure you have. When this occurs, it leads to production crashes and unhappy customers, plus you've wasted your entire week fixing the problem. To reso...  ( 7 min )

Lee Meyer recently spoke at Web Directions Summit 2025. This is his experience, not only speaking at the event, but experiencing the event through the lens of anxiety and imposter syndrome. Postcard From Web Directions Dev Summit, 2025 originally published on CSS-Tricks, which is part of the DigitalOcean family. You should get the newsletter.  ( 15 min )

How to shape your career path for 2026, with decision trees for designers and a UX skills self-assessment matrix. The only limits for tomorrow are the doubts we have today. Brought to you by Smart Interface Design Patterns, a **friendly video course on UX** and design patterns by Vitaly.  ( 15 min )

Most AI tools require you to send your prompts and files to third-party servers. That’s a non-starter if your data includes private journals, research notes, or sensitive business documents (contracts, board decks, HR files, financials). The good new...  ( 8 min )

Most financial apps store your sensitive data on remote servers. This requires you to trust a company with your records and rely on their service staying online. But if you build a local-first application, you can keep your data on your own machine i...  ( 32 min )

An API rate limiter is a server-side component of a web service that limits the number of API requests a client can make to an endpoint within a period of time. For example, X (formerly known as Twitter) limits the number of tweets that a specific us...  ( 13 min )

Today Quincy Larson interviews Zubin Pratap, a software engineer and manager from Melbourne, Australia. After nearly two decades working as a corporate lawyer, he taught himself programming using freeCodeCamp.org. Within two years, he landed a job as...  ( 4 min )

Artificial intelligence is changing how we build software. Just a few years ago, writing code that could talk, decide, or use external data felt hard. Today, thanks to new tools, developers can build smart agents that read messages, reason about them...  ( 7 min )

A few years back, choosing an AI model was simple. You pick the most capable one you can afford and move on. But today, that approach no longer works. Today, teams use AI across many parts of a system. Customer-facing features. Internal tooling. Rese...  ( 15 min )

Shopify powers more than a million online stores around the world. Many store features you see every day, such as discounts, bundles, and order fulfillment are built using apps. These apps are created by developers to extend Shopify and solve real p...  ( 8 min )

If you’re a developer, you’ll likely want to use AI to boost your productivity and help you save time on menial, repetitive tasks. And nearly every recruiter these days will expect you to understand how to work with AI tools effectively. But there’s ...  ( 18 min )

[Penpot](https://penpot.app/?utm_source=SmashingMagazine&utm_medium=Article&utm_campaign=MCPserver) is experimenting with MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers, which could lead to designers and developers being able to perform tasks in Penpot using AI that’s able to understand and interact with Penpot design files. Daniel Schwarz explains how [Penpot MCP](https://github.com/penpot/penpot-mcp) servers work, what they could mean for creating and managing designs in Penpot, and what you can do to help shape their development.  ( 13 min )

Have you ever struggled to style an element while it's being dragged? Sunkanmi explains some ways it could become easier in the future. Future CSS: :drag (and Maybe ::dragged-image?) originally published on CSS-Tricks, which is part of the DigitalOcean family. You should get the newsletter.  ( 6 min )

Most developers spend their days fixing bugs, shipping features, and jumping into the next sprint without even thinking about it. After a while, you begin to ask yourself, “Is this still what I want to be doing?” This article looks at how you can move into a new direction in your career without starting from scratch, and how the skills you already use, like problem-solving, communication, and empathy, can open new doors.  ( 18 min )

2026 is almost upon us. I know we’re all itching to see the clock strike midnight (cue The Final Countdown by Europe), but not without recapping the best CSS-related things that happened over the last two weeks! What’s !important #2: Conditional View Transitions, CSS/SVG Text Effects, the Best of CSS Bluesky, and More originally published on CSS-Tricks, which is part of the DigitalOcean family. You should get the newsletter.  ( 7 min )

Whether 2026 has already begun as you’re reading this or you’re still waiting for the big countdown to start, how about some new wallpapers to get your desktop ready for the new year? We’ve got you covered.  ( 16 min )

Practical UX guidelines to keep in mind for 466 million people who experience hearing loss. More design patterns in Smart Interface Design Patterns, a **friendly video course on UX** and design patterns by Vitaly.  ( 14 min )

This is the best job I've had in my life and it's only possible because you keep showing up each day to read, learn, share, and discuss all-things-front-end (and a little CSS, of course) with us. Thank You (2025 Edition) originally published on CSS-Tricks, which is part of the DigitalOcean family. You should get the newsletter.  ( 11 min )

Turn scattered user research into AI-powered personas that give anyone consolidated multi-perspective feedback from a single question.  ( 15 min )

The text-decoration-inset property solves a problem that we’ve had since the beginning of the web, which is that text decorations such as underlines extend beyond the first and last characters, resulting in vertical misalignment. text-decoration-inset is Like Padding for Text Decorations originally published on CSS-Tricks, which is part of the DigitalOcean family. You should get the newsletter.  ( 6 min )

It's settled! A new CSS display property keyword called grid-lanes will trigger a masonry layout mode. Masonry Layout is Now grid-lanes originally published on CSS-Tricks, which is part of the DigitalOcean family. You should get the newsletter.  ( 9 min )

Meet TARS — a simple, repeatable, and meaningful UX metric designed specifically to track the performance of product features. Upcoming part of the Measure UX & Design Impact (use the code 🎟 IMPACT to save 20% off today).  ( 14 min )

Jelte Lagendijk built a Raycast extension for searching CSS-Tricks articles where you simply type and a get a solid set of real-time results. Search CSS-Tricks Raycast Extension originally published on CSS-Tricks, which is part of the DigitalOcean family. You should get the newsletter.  ( 4 min )

In this article, we follow up the work we did to create responsive rows of circular images in a previous article by arranging the images around a circle with a clean hover effect. Responsive List of Avatars Using Modern CSS (Part 2) originally published on CSS-Tricks, which is part of the DigitalOcean family. You should get the newsletter.  ( 11 min )

In this article, pioneering author and web designer [Andy Clarke](https://stuffandnonsense.co.uk) shows his techniques for creating [Toon Text titles](https://stuffandnonsense.co.uk/toon-text/index.html) using modern CSS and SVG.  ( 16 min )

The best CSS news from around the web from the last two weeks. In this edition: advent calendars, CSS Wrapped 2025, and the latest Web Platform Updates. What’s !important #1: Advent Calendars, CSS Wrapped, Web Platform Updates, and More originally published on CSS-Tricks, which is part of the DigitalOcean family. You should get the newsletter.  ( 6 min )

Andy Clarke with a brand-new resource. It generates the sort of fun typography that Andy commonly uses in his own work that's geared towards cartoon headings. Toon Title Text Generator originally published on CSS-Tricks, which is part of the DigitalOcean family. You should get the newsletter.  ( 4 min )

A list of rounded images that slightly overlap each other is a classic web design pattern. The main idea is not complex, but the new thing is the responsive part. that dynamically adjusts the overlap between the images so they fit inside the container. Responsive List of Avatars Using Modern CSS (Part 1) originally published on CSS-Tricks, which is part of the DigitalOcean family. You should get the newsletter.  ( 11 min )