From Codebase to Community: The Renovation Story of a Legacy Design System

What happens when a design system releases frequent breaking changes, doesn't document itself and builds in isolation? It breaks trust and builds "it's faster to do it myself" attitudes.

In this episode of The Block, we review the design system of Finland’s national postal service, Posti, as we modernize not just the system’s technical foundation but its community. We’ll explore how shifting our focus from code to people, through transparent processes, community-driven releases, and robust documentation, turned a neglected legacy system into a trusted, long-term platform.

Attendees will leave with practical lessons on rebuilding a design system’s reputation, re-engaging stakeholders, and balancing technical updates with human-centered change.

Accessibility Adventures: The Lost Secrets Of Forced Colors Mode

Join an exciting treasure-hunting adventure into the web’s hidden depths as we uncover the lost secrets of Forced Colors Mode—a critical accessibility feature used by millions. Armed with a treasure map and an ancient planchette lens to decode Forced Colors, we’ll explore how to detect, support, design, and develop for this mode, decipher CSS nuances, and uncover inclusive best practices—one unexplored secret at a time.

This talk bridges my passion for writing fiction novels with technical presentations. We follow our main character, an adventurous treasure hunter after they receive a mysterious artifact and treasure map. We use engaging screen recorded demos with the use of screen readers put the audience in the shoes of our explorer and to experience the effects of accessibility first hand.

Technical Requirements:
This talk uses pre-recorded videos using screen readers. Audio support for these demos will be required.

Target Audience:
The target audience for this talk is frontend developers of all levels but best suited for intermediate to advanced as this is a technical deep dive. To a lesser degree, designers as well can benefit and connect with points within this talk.

The Shopping Dead: An Accessible Web For The Undead

Imagine this. You wake up as a zombie and need to integrate back into everyday life. But it’s a tough adjustment to make, being undead, as you need to order groceries and stock up on a fresh supply of brains. However, the web is more dynamic than you remember and visual notifications that are now used to communicate updates, errors, and content changes are difficult to understand. If not impossible.

We’ll explore ARIA Live Regions through the eyes of a zombie trying to navigate the modern day web. From creating an account, ordering your favorite snacks, to sending an email, we’ll experience how screen readers understand, or sometimes don’t understand, dynamic content and live region updates. We’ll explore the rules and recommended methods for incorporating live regions to create more inclusive notifications, and ultimately, we’ll find ways to replace live regions all together with more persistent and robust patterns.

This talk bridges my passion for writing horror fiction with technical presentations. We follow our main character, a zombie named Romero, who is designed and voiced with AI, as she attempts to order brains online. We use 'zombie vision' in our screen recorded demos of using screen readers to put the audience in her shoes to personally feel the needs and impact of the accessibility of our products.

Technical Requirements:
This talk uses pre-recorded videos using screen readers. Audio support for these demos will be required.

Target Audience:
The target audience for this talk is frontend developers of all levels but best suited for intermediate to advanced as this is a technical deep dive. To a lesser degree, designers as well can benefit and connect with points within this talk.