Alena Nikolaeva
alenanik.github.io
Alena Nikolaeva
@alenanik.github.io
product designer @seqera.io, software engineer • prev. @github.com Copilot • giving a 🦆 about accessibility, responsible and inclusive web
https://bento.me/alenanik
Ramp table UI is honestly so good. Fully functional with the keyboard (not fully accessible as there are a few color contrast failures, but it’s functional), and the focus ring is styled. ✨
December 2, 2025 at 9:37 AM
Reposted by Alena Nikolaeva
“we hear often we must make special solutions for people with disabilities, that accessibility is expensive and that it hampers innovation… that's all wrong: we can do inclusive design, it can be cost effective and lead to lots of innovation”—Alejandro Moledo del Rio of the European Disability Forum
December 2, 2025 at 9:09 AM
Reposted by Alena Nikolaeva
are you excited for MINDFUL DESIGN ADVENT? what is #MindfulDesignAdvent i do not hear you ask? it’s a daily dose of some course related stuff in a transparent attempt to convince you it is good and to buy it! for day one, you can watch the INTRO (wow!!!) for FREE (huh?!!) piccalil.li/mindful-desi...
Welcome to Mindful Design
A lesson from the Mindful Design course
piccalil.li
December 1, 2025 at 10:31 AM
Reposted by Alena Nikolaeva
@cassidoo.co writes:

"I’ve been thinking a lot about the internet lately, like as a concept. I don’t know where everyone went...
When the algorithms are determining everything we should be seeing, it’s a much less personal internet"

In response I made powrss.com to rediscover the personal web.
October 29, 2025 at 10:07 PM
“The standard back button is the best way to do this as it is familiar to the user. Many users will try the back button first.”
Let Users Go Back
User Need I need predictable back or undo features so that I know exactly where I was previously, before I made a mistake. What to Do Always let the user return to a previous point. The standard back button is the best way to do this as it is familiar to the user. Many users will try the back button first. The user should never lose their work if they press back. How it Helps Allowing users to return to a previous point helps prevent mistakes and makes it easy to correct mistakes when they happen. Examples of mistakes include: touching a control by accident, opening a new link by accident, and closing a window the user intended to keep open. If a person easily makes mistakes or makes them often, it is important that they can go back and make changes without having their work or previous choices deleted. For example, a user is watching a video. They try to increase the volume but touch a different link instead. A new video now loads. The user can press the back button and return to the video they were watching before. They now know they can try and increase the volume and if they make a mistake, they can easily go back and try again. In another example, the back button did not work as expected, but took them somewhere else (such as the home page). When they try to change the volume or add a comment they often lose the video they were watching and cannot find the way to get back to it. The user now feels they cannot use any of the web site’s features in case they lose their main content again. They do not expand the screen, change the volume, or leave comments. In forms, each time the user has to re-enter data presents a new chance for mistakes to occur. Entering and re-entering data can be stressful and tiring for some people with cognitive and learning disabilities. This increases the likelihood of mistakes and may make it impossible to submit correct data and complete the intended task. For those with anxiety, memory challenges, and difficulty following directions, the ability to go back and review information they have entered is very important. For example, for some people the task of following directions and reviewing their answers works best as two separate tasks. Being able to enter information with their focus being on following the directions, and later going back to review their answers, helps them be more effective. Getting Started When the user has an opportunity to go back and review the data they entered, even if submitted by mistake. The back button always works as expected.
www.w3.org
November 2, 2025 at 7:16 PM
Magic Patterns isn’t doing what I need, Claude prototypes feel off, and Figma Make isn’t there yet for handling complex interactions. What else is there?
October 28, 2025 at 8:16 PM
Reposted by Alena Nikolaeva
Anthony and I shared our favorite design assets on Complementary this week. After trying to define what a design asset is, of course.

creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/...
68: Interface Design Assets (typefaces, imagery, icons) by Complementary
Anthony and Katie share some of their favorite design assets.Links mentioned:https://blush.design/https://nucleoapp.com/https://tabler.io/iconshttps://feathericons.com/https://thenounproject.com/https...
creators.spotify.com
October 26, 2025 at 4:16 PM
Reposted by Alena Nikolaeva
“Accessibility is not optional. It’s required. We all know that. But we still have to tell other people that.”
@xirclebox.com
#A11yTOconf #a11y
October 16, 2025 at 8:14 PM
Getting back to work from maternity leave, design engineering (more engineering than design), organizing my wedding, helping my mom to come to Spain 🫠 beyond TIRED
October 8, 2025 at 3:10 PM
Reposted by Alena Nikolaeva
No conocía este término, pero me gusta bastante.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Majorit...
September 21, 2025 at 2:25 PM
Reposted by Alena Nikolaeva
I’ve been mulling my own WCAG3 post, but my TL;DR on Karl’s post is essentially the same as I would have written:

“WCAG 3 is not ready for you to use as a compliance framework. Not even close.”

afixt.com/why-now-is-n...

#accessibility #WCAG #a11y
Why Now Is Not the Time to Think About WCAG 3 - AFixt
If you work in accessibility or are responsible for compliance at your organization, you’ve probably heard about WCAG 3.0. The W3C has been developing it for years, and the most recent Working Draft w...
afixt.com
September 19, 2025 at 4:48 PM
Let me tell you that the birth and pregnancy was not traumatic, what is really traumatic is leaving your 4 months old and sitting infront of the screen for 8 hours instead. Back to work on Monday 💔
September 17, 2025 at 9:53 AM
Reposted by Alena Nikolaeva
Fought my way through to level 35 and for now I'm like, nope!

Fun though: neal.fun/not-a-robot/

Thanks @neal.fun 😄
I'm Not a Robot
Prove your humanity
neal.fun
September 17, 2025 at 6:37 AM
Here's where accessibility reveals its hidden superpower: it forces you to understand the purpose of everything in your product.

🔗 “Accessible by Design: Building Inclusive Digital Products from the Ground Up”

www.nira11y.com/post/accessi...
Accessible by Design: Building Inclusive Digital Products from the Ground Up
Here's where accessibility reveals its hidden superpower: it forces you to understand the purpose of everything in your product. You can't write meaningful alt text without knowing exactly why an imag...
www.nira11y.com
September 17, 2025 at 7:28 AM
Reposted by Alena Nikolaeva
Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size > Reduce Transparency

For those who updated to #iOS26 today
September 15, 2025 at 10:44 PM
True story: my friend actually got vibe coding cleanup specialist freelance job

www.404media.co/the-software...
The Software Engineers Paid to Fix Vibe Coded Messes
Linkedin has been joking about “vibe coding cleanup specialists,” but it’s actually a growing profession.
www.404media.co
September 15, 2025 at 7:37 AM
We were 🤏 this close to having 4 days workweek in Spain. Can’t get over the fact that due to some votes it’s no longer happening 💔
September 12, 2025 at 12:52 PM
“How often users will see an animation is a key factor in deciding whether to animate or not.”

emilkowal.ski/ui/you-dont-...
You Don't Need Animations
Why you are animating more often than you should.
emilkowal.ski
September 11, 2025 at 7:28 PM
Reposted by Alena Nikolaeva
Generally we think of alt-text as the domain of those with accessibility needs.

However alt-text is useful for many reasons, which benefit your viewers, as well as you, the creator!
October 28, 2024 at 10:20 PM
Reposted by Alena Nikolaeva
good chill day plan: open the wikipedia app, tab over to 'places', find articles about stuff near you that don't have photos. walk there, take some photos, learn about the stuff, improve the pages.
August 10, 2025 at 4:53 PM
Parece una locura que diga esto y que sea verdad: he descansando estas vacaciones con un bebé de 3 meses y he dormido más que nunca en mi vida 😳
September 7, 2025 at 7:24 AM
Reposted by Alena Nikolaeva
What 15 years of design debt looks like
September 5, 2025 at 7:21 AM
Reposted by Alena Nikolaeva
Repair psychic damage from the labor department AI slop with beautiful Soviet work safety posters
September 7, 2025 at 2:53 AM
My wish for years is for Microsoft Word to let me move the image without messing up the entire PRD doc
September 2, 2025 at 7:06 PM
Waking up to the sound of rain on the ceiling of the cabin near the beach during the hottest Spanish summer is h e a v e n.
September 2, 2025 at 3:10 AM