The Feed & The Thread - February 27, 2026

This episode explores designing for trust in an age of deepfakes, live coding at SmashingConf Amsterdam, and vanilla JS page transitions. Community discussions cover whether UX is really just managing trade-offs, the frustration of vibe coding overriding intentional design, and the gap between stakeholder intuition and actual user needs. In This Episode Designing for trust when deepfakes can mimic emergency information SmashingConf Amsterdam experiments with live design and coding on stage Vanilla JS page transitions that rival framework-based approaches Community debate: Is UX design or decision-making under constraints? Vibe coding and the tension between shipping fast and designing with intention Articles Mentioned "Designing for Trust" by Josh LaMar (UX Design.cc) - why proving authenticity is now a design problem SmashingConf Amsterdam coverage by Iris Ljesnaric (Smashing Magazine) - live design and coding format Vanilla JS page transitions guide by Valentin Mor (Codrops) - async crossfades with GSAP Also publishing: iA, I Love Typography, UX Planet Community Discussions r/UXDesign - UX as decision-making under constraints (42 upvotes, 30+ comments) r/UXDesign - Vibe coding frustration: deliberate design decisions overridden by AI-generated solutions r/UXDesign - B2B clinical tools: designing for stakeholders vs. actual users Announcement UX Camp Summer - Saturday, May 30th - hosted by Chicago Camps Open call for speakers - online event, join from anywhere Free tickets (optional general admission at USD 13.50) Details at chicagocamps.org About The Feed & The Thread The Feed & The Thread is a daily summary of UX articles found in the industry and some light-touch updates from the UX Community found in online forums. It’s brief, and meant as a light-touch overview of what’s happening across UX.