Premium Workshop: Designing For Complex UIs
Presented by:
Vitaly Friedman

Workshop focus:
Development:
Design:
Marketing:
Business:
Workshop details:Workshop summary
Not much can surprise us when it comes to interface challenges. We can design a decent card, a well-rounded accordion, an accessible modal and an exquisite hamburger navigation. But what if there are slightly more complex UX challenges ahead of us?
Well, complex UI doesn’t have to be complicated. In this online workshop with Vitaly Friedman, UX consultant and creative lead behind Smashing Magazine, we’ll dive deep into dissecting how to solve complex design problems. Whether you’re working on a complex nested multi-level navigation or creating enterprise grade tables, this workshop will give you the tools you need to excel at your work.
What will attendees learn?
Practical techniques for tackling complex UX challenges in interface design, including:
- Complex mega-dropdowns with 4+ levels of navigation, layout, interaction design, sideways navigation, breadcrumbs, top task analysis, mobile/desktop (e.g. large university websites),
- Complex modals and overlays, confirm vs. undo behavior, right timing, intraction design, with guidelines and best practices to improve click-through rates and decrease mistakes (e.g. enterprise software),
- Complex multi-page forms, focusing on form components, one-column vs. multi-column layout, error recovery, inline validation, routing, conditional reveal, disabled buttons, input buffering (e.g. complex multi-column multi-page forms with dozens of steps),
- Enterprise-grade tables, complex use-cases with inline editing, filtering, tagging, sorting and search — on mobile and on desktop (insurance, loss prevention),
- Dashboards and spreadsheets, with complex layouts, data editing, inline filtering, infinite scroll UX, “load more” vs. pagination, access to footer and access to the current state, mobile optimizations,
- Complex filtering, layout, auto-apply vs. manual apply, filtering overlays, filtering and sorting intervals, best practices and guidelines, on mobile and on desktop (public archives, media library, large catalogs of products),
- Autocomplete UX, with layout and interaction design, when to show/hide suggestions, search query iteration, autocomplete blindness, faceted search, smart suggestions, type-ahead pattern, keyboard navigation, on mobile and on desktop (e.g. in eCommerce),
- Accessibility of complex interfaces, with technical considerations, focus traps, navigation, announcements of notifications, keyboard support,
- Privacy UX, and how to gather accurate data while avoiding legal battles and respecting user’s data,
- 100s of real-life examples, government and university websites, trip planners, financial services, eCommerce, online banking, configurators, insurance and mortgage calculators, data grids and enterprise products.
- Checklist for complex UIs with guidelines and decisions to consider when designing any component in a complex setting.
Who is the workshop for?
For designers with any level of experience/expertise.
What are the attendee requirements?
Be ready to tackle complex challenges! 🙂
Schedule:
About your presenter:

Vitaly Friedman
Creative Lead and Co-founder @Smashing Media
Vitaly loves beautiful content and does not give up easily. Born in Minsk, Belarus, he studied computer science and mathematics in Germany. While writing algebra proofs and preparing for software engineering at nights in the kitchen, at the same time he discovered passion for typography, interface design and writing. After working as a freelance designer and developer for 6 years, he co-founded Smashing Magazine back in 2006, a leading online magazine for designers and developers. His curiosity drove him from interface design to front-end to performance optimization to accessibility and back to user experience over all the years.Vitaly is the author, co-author and editor of all Smashing books (https://www.smashingmagazine.com/books), and a curator of all Smashing Conferences (https://www.smashingconf.com). He currently works as creative lead of Smashing Magazine (www.smashingmagazine.com) and front-end/UX consultant in Europe and abroad, working with European Parliament, Haufe-Lexware, Axel-Springer and a few other companies.