Welcome back to our continuing recap of WebExpo 2025! In our last dispatch, we explored the vibrant energy and headline-grabbing themes from the Great Hall, where the blurring lines between traditional tech disciplines were a constant refrain. Having pored over our notes from these equally compelling sessions, we’re ready to share Part 2 of our journey, exploring craft and complexities of accessibility to the cutting edge of digital.
Crafting seamless experiences: Beyond the screen and into the user’s world
We kick off with a theme of shaping truly inclusive and empathetic user experiences. It’s clear that exceptional design extends far beyond visually appealing interfaces; it’s about anticipating every user’s journey, especially when things deviate from the “happy path”.
Ondřej Pohl, for instance, peeled back the layers of common accessibility mistakes that often go unnoticed, extending beyond mere WCAG compliance. He highlighted how seemingly minor design choices, like automatically popping modal dialogues or immediate input validation, can severely disrupt the workflow for users relying on assistive technologies like screen readers. Ondřej’s message was a powerful call for inclusive design, urging designers to challenge prevailing trends and prioritise extensive user testing to uncover real-world issues. In particular, not doing the bare minimum.
This exploration of accessibility was echoed and expanded upon by Erik Gustafsson Spagnoli, Nathalie Pentler and Daniel Göransson, who brilliantly articulated how digital accessibility must integrate with physical accessibility. The trio presented everyday examples, from touchscreens lacking tactile feedback to multi-height delivery parcel boxes, emphasising that physical design must cater to diverse user needs. And that’s inclusive of those with invisible or temporary impairments. Their core takeaway was the necessity of user-centered design, actively involving individuals with disabilities from the very inception of product development to unearth genuine pain points and create practical, effective solutions.
The challenges of user navigation, particularly in complex physical-digital environments, were vividly brought to life by Ladislava Zbiejczuk Suchá and Michaela Holubec Birtusová, who spoke on wayfinding in hospitals. Their research, involving surveys and interviews, revealed that nearly half of Czech citizens struggle with hospital navigation. They championed multidisciplinary collaboration and iterative design, including innovative virtual reality (VR) testing for wayfinding solutions, highlighting that wayfinding is not just signage but a crucial element of service design that impacts patient satisfaction and stress.
To truly understand users at this deep level requires more than just assumptions. Lorie Whitaker brought clarity to B2B research, calling attention to the transformation from “fuzzy” ideas to “focused” actionable insights. She emphasised stakeholder alignment through workshops like “Assumption Slams” and advocated for human-centric insights by engaging directly with end-users. Lorrie argued for a design sprint approach with iterative feedback loops, ensuring discoveries drive actionable change through “over-communication”. Truthfully, this was in the context of B2B, but the principles aren’t just in the B2B space; they’re applicable across the board.
However, not all research methods are equally reliable. Zsuzsa Kovács delivered a provocative critique on the hidden risks of surveys, cautioning against their overuse in UX research. She pointed out how easily surveys can be poorly designed, leading to bias and confirming pre-existing assumptions, rather than uncovering genuine user patterns. Zsuzsa exposed issues with respondent representation (often attracting only “fans” (not only-fans) or “haters”) and the influence of cognitive biases. Her strong recommendation? Prioritise qualitative methods like interviews and usability testing.
Building on the power of qualitative engagement, Nikki Anderson, a seasoned user researcher, unveiled her TEDW framework: Tell me about, Explain, Describe, and Walk me through. She argued that these open-ended questions are vital for generative research, encouraging expansive dialogue and enabling researchers to extract richer narratives from participants, transforming curiosity into “data gold”.
And finally, from the design theme, understanding user behaviour can also lead to more engaging products. Zoltan Kollin from IBM Cloud explored gamification, defining it as the incorporation of game elements into non-game environments to improve user behaviour and sustain interaction. He outlined successful case studies like LinkedIn’s profile tracker and Nike Plus, and delved into how cognitive biases such as loss aversion and the goal gradient effect can be harnessed to design more effective gamified experiences. Zoltan concluded that even simple interventions can yield significant results, fostering engagement through fun and continuous adaptation.
Engineering for agility and performance: Under the hood
Beyond the user’s perception, the intricate mechanics of building robust, efficient, and agile digital solutions were a significant focus. These talks examined the practicalities of modern development, from team structures to handling complex data and improving performance.
Karel Smutný presented a compelling case for end-to-end teams, challenging the inefficiencies of single specialty teams that often create silos and increase development cycle times. He argued that organising teams around complete, customer-centric features fosters greater accountability and minimises inter-team dependencies, leading to improved product outcomes and team satisfaction through agile methodologies and a focus on customer-centricity and business value.
The fundamentals of reliable systems were further highlighted by Alvaro Duran Barata, who shared insights into designing resilient payment applications in Python. He reinforced that payments are “promises” with critical stages like authentication, authorisation, and confirmation. Alvaro stressed the importance of modular architecture to accommodate multiple Payment Service Providers (PSPs), enhancing redundancy and negotiation power, and discussed how to manage asynchronous communication and scale systems efficiently while avoiding common anti-patterns.
Optimising front-end performance was tackled by Ariel Shulman in her “Conquering React Concurrency” talk. She elegantly distinguished concurrency from parallelism and discussed the limitations of browser environments, such as JavaScript’s single-threaded nature. Ariel explained how React 18’s Fiber reconciler and new hooks like useTransition and useDeferredValue enable non-blocking rendering and background rendering, significantly improving user experience by preventing frame dropping and enhancing responsiveness.
Even seemingly simple technical concepts, like dates and times, hold surprising complexities. Robin Pokorný, in “Dating is Hard,” eloquently articulated the inherent inconsistency between natural phenomena and human-made timekeeping systems. He critiqued the widespread ISO 8601 standards for their parsing challenges and advocated for more robust and flexible alternatives like RFC 4339 and RFC 9557, emphasising that reliable systems must be “person-friendly”. Slightly off topic, but a big thanks to Robin for helping fill in – this talk was a last-minute request due to illness, and he smashed it.
Building efficient and responsive interfaces was also a core theme, with Shruti Balasa exploring “Flex, Grid, and Beyond: Mastering Layouts with Tailwind CSS”. She presented Tailwind as a “Lego blocks” toolkit for rapid component construction, highlighting its utility for responsive design through utility classes and breakpoints. Shruti also delved into advanced techniques like display: contents and subgrid, encouraging developers to write cleaner, more maintainable code that enhances user experience across devices.
Efficiency in workflows was also key, as Steven Wright demonstrated in “Creativity and Coding: From Invented Problems to Dependable Solutions”. He shared his experience streamlining asset creation, advocating for a “copy and paste is waste” philosophy. Steven showcased the power of automation tools like Puppeteer for generating tailored screenshots and discussed data-driven creativity through Whisper for transcribing audio and generating blog posts, illustrating how technology can free creatives from repetitive manual work.
Navigating the digital world: Strategy, connection, and resilience
Beyond the specific technical and design disciplines, WebExpo 2025 also served as a platform for broader discussions on organisational strategy, inter-personal collaboration, and the human struggles of living in a rapidly evolving digital world.
Martin Cízler’s talk, “The Future is Built, Not Bought,” underscored the imperative of continuous innovation in an era of exponential change. He differentiated between invention and innovation, remarking that established companies must engage in all forms of innovation—incremental, sustaining, radical, and disruptive—to remain competitive. Martin outlined a framework for fostering innovation based on will, talent, and investment, advocating for flexible operational models like intrapreneurship and a culture of experimentation that embraces failure as a learning opportunity.
This strategic mindset ties directly into Jan Řezáč’s “12 Core Design Skills,” which captured the contemporary expectations for designers. Beyond traditional design knowledge, Jan stressed the pivotal role of business thinking, encouraging designers to communicate in the language of business and be familiar with spreadsheets and value proposition frameworks. He also championed strategic decision-making, integrating qualitative data, and the crucial skill of stakeholder management as designers advance in their careers. Jan’s call for designers to broaden their expertise resonated with the “blurring lines” theme from the conference at large.
Effective collaboration is impossible without clear communication. Šárka Kohoutová, in “How to Speak Engineer (Without Being One),” shared invaluable lessons from her 18 years at Microsoft on being a “bridge builder” between business and technical teams. She stressed that trust is foundational and must be earned through authenticity and preparedness. Kohoutová advised non-engineers to drop jargon, use stories and sketches, identify a shared purpose, and engage in continuous check-ins to ensure alignment and foster strong relationships with engineers.
The broader context of digital influence was presented by Kateřina Huňová and Vladimír Zikmund in “Survival Kit for Advertising Jungle”. They highlighted the overwhelming influx of ads consumers face daily and the critical need for attention. Their “survival kit” emphasised brand identity, product knowledge, and target audience understanding. They underscored the courage to invest and innovate, promoting single-minded communication, integration across media, adapting to trends, and leveraging influencer collaboration to cut through the noise and achieve brand recognition.
Finally, Markéta Fibigerová and Lukáš Vojtíšek, in “Teaching Resilience in a Digital World,” offered a poignant look at the challenges faced by Generation Z and Alpha amidst constant digital exposure. They stressed the necessity of fostering resilience through support systems and balancing digital engagement with authentic experiences. The principal and (former) student shed light on the importance of interpersonal relationships in school environments, encouraging creative problem-solving through real-world challenges like cybersecurity projects, and advocating for physical health as essential for mental well-being. Their talk was a call for a holistic approach to education that prioritises emotional flourishing alongside technological proficiency.
The evolving landscape: A call to adapt
As we wrap up this second glimpse into WebExpo 2025, it’s abundantly clear that the modern digital landscape demands a multifaceted approach. Whether you’re a designer delving into the nuances of accessibility, an engineer optimising system performance, a strategist fostering innovation, or an educator nurturing the next generation, the themes from these diverse halls reinforce a central truth: success hinges on continuous learning, a deep commitment to user experience, strategic thinking, and the ability to collaborate effectively across disciplines.
The insights shared outside the Great Hall provided a deeper appreciation for the intricate details and human considerations that underpin successful digital ventures. Stay tuned for Part 3, where we’ll continue our exploration of WebExpo 2025 in the Marble Hall.