Designing For Complex UIs In 2026 (Google Doc) (https://smashed.by/maven26), a free 1.5h-deep dive into enterprise design patterns and data-heavy applications — with all video recordings, slides and examples in one single place. Share with your friends and colleagues — no strings attached!
Google Doc (slides, videos, links): https://smashed.by/maven26
All slides (PDF):
Full 1.5h-video recording: https://lnkd.in/dTrurd44
Zoom video backup: https://lnkd.in/dW4f-Qbd
Key takeaways:
2. Every complex product is like a large city.
2. It has its busy hubs and “islands” of clarity.
3. Hubs → key flows that people use frequently.
4. Islands → areas users understand and rely upon.
5. First, improve hubs where users spend most time.
6. Often non-linear, many points of entry, dependencies.
7. There is always essential and accidental complexities.
8. Essential → business logic required for accuracy.
9. Accidental → friction caused by poor legacy design.
10. Worst thing to do is to oversimplify essential complexity.
11. You can’t enforce consistency in inconsistent world.
12. Task analysis is the foundation of any complex project.
13. Reqs domain learning, working observations, visibility rules.
14. Complex isn’t unmanageable once it makes sense.
15. You always design for speed, resilience, failure tolerance.
Design patterns:
1. Reduce load with defaults, presets for low working memory.
2. Use task list pattern to create order around work.
3. Use navigation queries to help users move forward.
4. Use scrollbar range intervals for precise jumps.
5. You must prioritize and deprioritize for better navigation.
6. Always show filters above search results, or inline.
7. Relationships filtering might work better than data trees.
8. Bulk import → pre-import, file upload, mapping, repair, import.
9. By default, add text labels to icons in multi-level menus.
10. Use action dots to design around dashboard stress levels.
11. People often apply 4–6+ filters at a time → use manual apply.
12. Don’t block the UI on every filter selection → apply all at once.
13. Search within filtered results is highly underused, underrated.
14. Use multi-sorting to navigate a large volume of data faster.
15. Users often navigate data tables in a few cols/rows at a time.
16. Bulk actions always need row actions and an actions bar.
17. Read-only → important, and can only be changed elsewhere.
18. Hidden → irrelevant, or the user will never be able to act on it.
19. Avoid disabled buttons → they don’t explain what’s wrong.
Recorded by yours truly with the wonderful UX community last week. And a huge *thank you* to everybody sharing their work and their findings and insights for all of us to use.