WebExpo 2025 conference wrapped up last week, and we’ve finally had a chance to sit down with our notes to untangle the absolute wealth of ideas and insights thrown our way. Consider this the first dispatch from the front lines; a rapid wrap-up specifically focusing on the talks that graced the main stage in the magnificent Great Hall of Lucerna Palace on Wednesday and Thursday (May 28th and 29th). This is just Part 1 of 4; we’ll get stuck into the goodies from the Lucerna Cinema, Marble Hall, and even the Discomfort Zone in future posts!
One thing that really hammered home this year, especially from the big-hitters in the Great Hall, is how much the lines are blurring. It’s not just about being a super-coder or a brilliant designer anymore. The speakers were drawing on everything from business strategy and psychology to pure artistic vision, showing that folks in the tech world genuinely have stacks to learn from people crossing over fields. It feels like the path to becoming truly effective involves much more than just honing technical skills; it’s about thinking bigger and understanding the wider world.
So, let’s recap some of the major themes that dominated the WebExpo Great Hall last week.
AI is here to stay, but how do we live with it?
Predictably, AI was a massive topic, but the conversation felt less about existential dread and more about practical integration and strategic adoption. Tomáš Čupr framed it as a technological revolution akin to electricity, stressing that organisations need a fundamental mindset shift and a culture of experimentation to effectively integrate AI for boosting productivity and efficiency. He even mentioned AI agents acting as semi-intelligent automation for tasks like customer service and data analysis.
Tejas Kumar got right into the technical weeds with his talk on From GenAI to GenUI. He walked us through the rapid evolution from the initial, often slow, AI chatbot experiences to the much smoother streaming responses we see today. He even did some live coding using React and Express to show how chat interfaces work and how AI can dynamically generate UI components, in what he called Generative UI. Looking ahead, he touched on the Model Context Protocol (MCP) and agentic AI that could potentially perform web operations on behalf of users. Vitaly Friedman, while talking about search, suggested AI should enhance traditional search rather than just compete, by providing summaries and insights based on user behaviour. Mark Pollard, from a strategy angle, emphasised that the rise of AI and automation makes skills like critical thinking and creativity even more crucial. Lutz Schmitt delved into the more human side, discussing digital intimacy and the rise of AI companions, prompting important ethical questions and the need for empathic technology. The takeaway? AI is a powerful tool, but understanding its impact across business, design, and human interaction is key.
Performance isn’t just a “Dev Thing” anymore
The need for speed was another theme that resonated loudly, positioned firmly as a business driver, not just a technical challenge. Tammy Everts made a compelling case for the direct link between site speed, user satisfaction, and tangible business performance. She talked about the very real “web stress” caused by slow pages and backed it up with data showing how faster load times directly lead to better conversion rates. Measuring this properly involves tools like RUM and synthetic monitoring, tracking key metrics like TTFB, LCP, and CLS. She stressed the importance of communicating performance wins in business terms, like conversion rates, to secure support.
Tim Kadlec echoed this, highlighting how even minor improvements (like 100 milliseconds) can lead to significant revenue boosts. He delved into performance perception and how users’ expectations are constantly rising thanks to faster technology. He showcased exciting new tech like View Transitions and Speculation Rules that can improve performance and UX without requiring entirely new skillsets. Bramus Van Damme gave a deeper dive into the View Transition API, demonstrating how it creates seamless visual transitions between page states in both SPAs and MPAs, significantly enhancing user experience. He showed how to customise these transitions with CSS and integrate with frameworks like React. The clear message here? We need a ruthless obsession with user experience driven by speed.
Designing for everyone… especially when things go wrong.
Design and UX were, of course, central to many talks. Stéphanie Walter hammered home the importance of designing beyond the “happy path”, with considering all the messy, real-life scenarios like loading states and error handling, and ensuring interfaces are genuinely responsive using tools like container queries. Crucially, she put a big spotlight on accessibility, ensuring all users can interact with our products, and urged us to challenge our own biases. User research and testing methods like user journey mapping and A/B testing are vital here.
Speaking of vital, Vitaly Friedman switched focus to Search UX, discussing the move towards natural language queries. He shared design patterns like the Layer Cake Pattern for structuring results and demonstrates the need for clear filters and sorting. Understanding user scanning patterns like the F-pattern is key, as most users don’t read everything. He also pushed for features like real-time filtering and customisation options to let users tailor results. Nadieh Bremer brought the artistry of data visualisation. She encourages moving beyond default charts and using tools like D3.js. Her process involves meticulous data preparation, SVG creation, setting scales and margins, and using techniques like local regression to smooth data. She also focuses on aesthetics like gradients and colour contrasts and adding annotations for context, showing how data viz is an iterative blend of technical skill and design. The common thread? Design needs to be robust, inclusive, and deeply empathetic.
The business end: Strategy, leadership, and just getting on with it.
Beyond the pixels and code, there was a strong emphasis on business acumen and personal effectiveness. Joe Natoli gave a cracking talk on how UXers can reclaim their power. His advice? Stop waiting for permission and “invite yourself” into key conversations to understand the business context. He stressed the importance of self-advocacy, celebrating accomplishments, and crucially, demonstrating empathy towards stakeholders by understanding their fears and motivations. Learning to speak the language of business and articulate how design impacts tangible business results is non-negotiable. Mark Pollard’s keynote on Strategic Thinking was a slight left-turn from the line-up, but that’s something we always strive for. He pushed the need for critical and lateral thinking and generating novel ideas. He introduced insights as unspoken human truths, advocated the Five Whys for root cause analysis, and urged using precise language – his “pineapple words” vs. “cloudy words” analogy just sticks. His Four Points framework connects problems, insights, advantages, and solutions for moving from analysis to action. Jan Řežáb shared his journey scaling a bootstrapped startup, Ravineo. He showed how AI can turbocharge operations, especially marketing and analytics, enabling a lean team with cross-functional members to compete. He strongly emphasised the necessity of active selling and networking, even for founders, and fostering a culture of urgency. These talks really hammered home that technical mastery is just part of the equation; understanding the business landscape, communicating effectively, and driving impact are mission critical.
From the bleeding edge to lessons of experience.
So let’s not forget the foundational stuff and pushing the boundaries. Krasimir Tsonev reminded us of the importance of solid fundamentals like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript before diving into frameworks, reflecting on the history of the web and the value of continual learning and practice and community collaboration. Carmen Huidobro tackled the thorny issue of dependency management in JavaScript projects, comparing it to a tangled ball of yarn or Jenga. She stressed understanding different dependency types, using community tools like Yarn and NPM, breaking down problems, using version control, and embracing continuous improvement. Rowdy Rabouw showed off the exciting potential of Project Fugu and Web Capabilities, like the Clipboard API, Full Screen API, Picture-in-Picture, Web Share, WebUSB, WebHID, and Bluetooth API, highlighting the need for careful implementation with user interaction, safeguards, and security in mind.
That’s just a snippet of what went down in the Great Hall over those two packed days. The diversity of topics, from deep technical dives to strategic thinking and the human element of AI, really showcased the breadth of the modern web landscape and the skills we need to navigate it. The recurring themes of continuous learning, practice, community, and the importance of user experience underpinned so much of the conversation.
If you couldn’t make it last week, you don’t have to miss out entirely. Talks are being made available over to slideslive.com/webexpo/webexpo-2025 to catch the recordings and soak up the wisdom for yourself. Stay tuned for Part 2, where we’ll delve into what was happening in the other halls at WebExpo 2025!