Gemma Croad

The Future of Design Systems: Shipping Intelligence Rather Than Code Are traditional design systems becoming AI constraint systems? Maybe the real value isn’t in pre-built components anymore, maybe it’s in…

How is your organisation thinking about the intersection of design systems and AI? I've been thinking about this a lot recently, and I'd love to chat if this is the space you're working in 🙂 medium.com/@gemma.croad...

Thought for the afternoon: Are traditional design systems becoming AI constraint systems? Potentially the real value isn't in pre-built components anymore, maybe it's in the systematic knowledge about how things should work together? 🤔

In Praise of “Normal” Engineers This article was originally commissioned by Luca Rossi (paywalled) for refactoring.fm, on February 11th, 2025. Luca edited a version of it that emphasized the importance of building “10x engi…

I just read “In Praise of Normal Engineers” by Charity Majors' and it’s a refreshing take on the “10x engineer” myth. TL;DR: It’s not about unicorn individuals, it’s about building 10x teams where normal, everyday engineers can thrive, ship, and make real impact... 🙌 charity.wtf/2025/06/19/i...

CSS Intelligence: Speculating On The Future Of A Smarter Language — Smashing Magazine CSS has evolved from a purely presentational language into one with growing logical powers — thanks to features like container queries, relational pseudo-classes, and the `if()` function. Is it still ...

CSS is advancing to become a more intelligent language, driven by emerging features such as container queries and the if() function. Gabriel Shoyombo explores this, considers the increasing complexity, and examines how developers are responding... 🤔 www.smashingmagazine.com/2025/07/css-...

CodePen Challenge: Spheres ...

Continuing with the CodePen challenges... 😁 codepen.io/GemmaCroad/p...

A brief history of JavaScript | Deno In 30 years, JavaScript went from being a little scripting language to one of the world's most popular. Here are key moments to show how it has evolved and where it is headed.

JavaScript turns 30 this year! It's gone from a tiny, quirky scripting language made in 10 days to the hottest programming language out there. Here are some big moments in its history that show how JavaScript has grown and where it's going next... 🎂 deno.com/blog/history...

Designing For Neurodiversity — Smashing Magazine Designing for neurodiversity means recognizing that people aren’t edge cases but individuals with varied ways of thinking and navigating the web. So, how can we create more inclusive experiences that ...

Designing for neurodiversity means understanding that these folks aren’t just exceptions but have unique ways of thinking and engaging online. So, how can we make experiences that are more inclusive and work better for everyone? www.smashingmagazine.com/2025/06/desi...

It really does, doesn't it 😅

The People’s Graphic Design Archive is a truly special project. Its aim is to create a virtual, crowdsourced archive that helps preserve the history of graphic design. You can explore it by collection or topic, or simply scroll through the homepage to discover some gold... 🫶 peoplesgdarchive.org

CodePen Challenge: Squircles ...

Because I still like writing CSS and building cute things... codepen.io/GemmaCroad/p...

I think what makes me nervous is the scale at which AI code generation operates means that accessibility flaws get reproduced at a magnitude we've never seen before in web dev. A single accessibility oversight in an AI's generation pattern could be multiplied across countless digital experiences.

A big question for our industry: If we increasingly rely on AI to generate frontend code, and that code tends to underperform on accessibility, are we at risk of creating a more inaccessible web?

Taking a long social media break was exactly what I needed, but I've missed connecting with everyone. I'm really looking forward to jumping back into conversations and catching up on what I've missed 🙂