Ariel Salminen
@arielsalminen.com
Design systems architect • Author of various open source tools • A girl who lost her heart somewhere in California 🧡 • Mainly posting about design systems, web components & the web platform.
📮 https://arielsalminen.com
📌 https://elenajs.com
👩🏻🦰 She/her
📮 https://arielsalminen.com
📌 https://elenajs.com
👩🏻🦰 She/her
Pinned
Ariel Salminen
@arielsalminen.com
· Mar 25
Ariel Salminen
Hello, I’m Ariel Salminen, a Design Systems Architect from Helsinki, Finland with 20 years of experience helping companies build tools for the web platform.
arielsalminen.com
New website launch day! 📮
I handcrafted a super simple new site for myself to better showcase what I do and have a future home for experiments I may want to tinker with.
Designed in the browser using HTML, CSS, and a tiny bit of plain JavaScript. Powered by @11ty.dev as usual:
arielsalminen.com
I handcrafted a super simple new site for myself to better showcase what I do and have a future home for experiments I may want to tinker with.
Designed in the browser using HTML, CSS, and a tiny bit of plain JavaScript. Powered by @11ty.dev as usual:
arielsalminen.com
Hamburg looks like home now. ❄️
January 3, 2026 at 11:25 AM
Hamburg looks like home now. ❄️
Reposted by Ariel Salminen
You should leave Substack in 2026, because they platform fascists regularly, but even before that I am *begging* you to stop referring to your writing as "my Substack" because why give them that agency. It's your writing, your posts, your words, on their platform.
January 3, 2026 at 3:54 AM
You should leave Substack in 2026, because they platform fascists regularly, but even before that I am *begging* you to stop referring to your writing as "my Substack" because why give them that agency. It's your writing, your posts, your words, on their platform.
Arielle being introduced to the weirdest German New Year's traditions
December 31, 2025 at 10:20 PM
Arielle being introduced to the weirdest German New Year's traditions
Off to Hamburg (🇩🇪) with the kids to celebrate New Year’s with my partner's family.
December 29, 2025 at 8:49 AM
Off to Hamburg (🇩🇪) with the kids to celebrate New Year’s with my partner's family.
Just merged @annaecook.com’s PR to design-system.club ☺️
Design Systems Webring
Design Systems Webring is a human-curated list of websites dedicated to people interested in design systems.
design-system.club
December 28, 2025 at 6:38 PM
Just merged @annaecook.com’s PR to design-system.club ☺️
Reposted by Ariel Salminen
My response to anything over the next two weeks
December 18, 2025 at 6:10 PM
My response to anything over the next two weeks
Nice to get great feedback about the past autumn from a client of mine just before the holidays. Especially when it’s about me exceeding their (already originally) high expectations.
December 19, 2025 at 9:02 AM
Nice to get great feedback about the past autumn from a client of mine just before the holidays. Especially when it’s about me exceeding their (already originally) high expectations.
Focusing on very important bits on this placeholder page elenajs.com
December 18, 2025 at 6:15 PM
Focusing on very important bits on this placeholder page elenajs.com
Reposted by Ariel Salminen
Something that hasn't been made clear: Firefox will have an option to completely disable all AI features.
We've been calling it the AI kill switch internally. I'm sure it'll ship with a less murderous name, but that's how seriously and absolutely we're taking this.
…
We've been calling it the AI kill switch internally. I'm sure it'll ship with a less murderous name, but that's how seriously and absolutely we're taking this.
…
December 18, 2025 at 12:12 PM
Something that hasn't been made clear: Firefox will have an option to completely disable all AI features.
We've been calling it the AI kill switch internally. I'm sure it'll ship with a less murderous name, but that's how seriously and absolutely we're taking this.
…
We've been calling it the AI kill switch internally. I'm sure it'll ship with a less murderous name, but that's how seriously and absolutely we're taking this.
…
Decided to start my vacation a day earlier than planned. So just basically pinged the rest of the team with *see y'all in 4 weeks.* 😂
December 18, 2025 at 12:36 PM
Decided to start my vacation a day earlier than planned. So just basically pinged the rest of the team with *see y'all in 4 weeks.* 😂
Been neck deep within React/Next.js this past week and now wish I was on that *vacation already* (2 more days of work left!). But hey, SSR & Next.js Server Components support for these Custom Elements seems to be working finally 😍
December 17, 2025 at 11:27 AM
Been neck deep within React/Next.js this past week and now wish I was on that *vacation already* (2 more days of work left!). But hey, SSR & Next.js Server Components support for these Custom Elements seems to be working finally 😍
This open source *thing* is moving forward on the side as I’m working on the core custom elements/web components tooling for my client’s design system.
December 17, 2025 at 11:09 AM
This open source *thing* is moving forward on the side as I’m working on the core custom elements/web components tooling for my client’s design system.
Baked a little evening snack for me and kids
December 16, 2025 at 7:36 PM
Baked a little evening snack for me and kids
Reposted by Ariel Salminen
Safari 26.2 is here with 65 features + 165 bug fixes — including field-sizing, Navigation API, Largest Contentful Paint, command & commandfor, CHIPS opt-in partitioned cookies, scrollend event, random(), WebGPU in WebXR, scrollbar-color, hidden=until-found and much more! webkit.org/blog/17640/w...
WebKit Features for Safari 26.2
Safari 26.2 is a big release.
webkit.org
December 12, 2025 at 6:44 PM
Safari 26.2 is here with 65 features + 165 bug fixes — including field-sizing, Navigation API, Largest Contentful Paint, command & commandfor, CHIPS opt-in partitioned cookies, scrollend event, random(), WebGPU in WebXR, scrollbar-color, hidden=until-found and much more! webkit.org/blog/17640/w...
Reposted by Ariel Salminen
A few years back, I nearly wrote "The Fallacy of Federated Design Systems." Then @nathanacurtis.bsky.social beat me to it. But what happens when you try it anyway?
At Spotify, I watched federated fail twice, resulting in a huge number of barely reused components and damaged trust in design systems.
At Spotify, I watched federated fail twice, resulting in a huge number of barely reused components and damaged trust in design systems.
Why Federated Design Systems Keep Failing
Why do federated design systems keep failing? I watched it happen twice at Spotify. Here's what actually happened, where they broke down, and why centralised models usually work better.
www.shaunbent.co.uk
December 11, 2025 at 3:57 PM
A few years back, I nearly wrote "The Fallacy of Federated Design Systems." Then @nathanacurtis.bsky.social beat me to it. But what happens when you try it anyway?
At Spotify, I watched federated fail twice, resulting in a huge number of barely reused components and damaged trust in design systems.
At Spotify, I watched federated fail twice, resulting in a huge number of barely reused components and damaged trust in design systems.
Reposted by Ariel Salminen
googled something and clicked a link to a website I'd never heard of that looked like a forum, read the discussion and realized the person asking a question and all of the answers were all LLM generated, the entire website was a fake forum pretending to be people asking/answering questions
December 12, 2025 at 5:06 AM
googled something and clicked a link to a website I'd never heard of that looked like a forum, read the discussion and realized the person asking a question and all of the answers were all LLM generated, the entire website was a fake forum pretending to be people asking/answering questions
Reposted by Ariel Salminen
”What’s wrong with build tools? Other languages are compiled!”
Yes, but their compiler is official and always there.
The #JS ecosystem has devolved into a state where abstraction, the most fundamental software engineering concept, has been outsourced to third party tooling.
*That’s* the problem.
Yes, but their compiler is official and always there.
The #JS ecosystem has devolved into a state where abstraction, the most fundamental software engineering concept, has been outsourced to third party tooling.
*That’s* the problem.
December 12, 2025 at 1:25 AM
”What’s wrong with build tools? Other languages are compiled!”
Yes, but their compiler is official and always there.
The #JS ecosystem has devolved into a state where abstraction, the most fundamental software engineering concept, has been outsourced to third party tooling.
*That’s* the problem.
Yes, but their compiler is official and always there.
The #JS ecosystem has devolved into a state where abstraction, the most fundamental software engineering concept, has been outsourced to third party tooling.
*That’s* the problem.
Reposted by Ariel Salminen
The handmade, human qualities of your work are more valuable than they've ever been. Don't doubt that for a second.
December 11, 2025 at 4:54 PM
The handmade, human qualities of your work are more valuable than they've ever been. Don't doubt that for a second.
Migrated today back to a code editor without AI capabilities. Such a bliss to work with.
December 12, 2025 at 3:13 PM
Migrated today back to a code editor without AI capabilities. Such a bliss to work with.
Reposted by Ariel Salminen
I do firmly believe that if you're an individual or company that is NOT over-indexing on AI right now, you have the competitive advantage.
Unfortunately I do not have high hopes that the industry will recognize that until significant damage has been done.
Unfortunately I do not have high hopes that the industry will recognize that until significant damage has been done.
The handmade, human qualities of your work are more valuable than they've ever been. Don't doubt that for a second.
December 12, 2025 at 2:51 PM
I do firmly believe that if you're an individual or company that is NOT over-indexing on AI right now, you have the competitive advantage.
Unfortunately I do not have high hopes that the industry will recognize that until significant damage has been done.
Unfortunately I do not have high hopes that the industry will recognize that until significant damage has been done.
Reposted by Ariel Salminen
My team at Adobe is hiring a web components engineer to help us build out the future of our design system. Great opportunity for someone earlier in their career to jump in and help us continue to improve Spectrum Web Components. In-office hybrid in LA, Denver or NYC.
adobe.design/jobs/job-pos...
adobe.design/jobs/job-pos...
Design Engineer, Spectrum Web
Join us and help build the next generation of our world-famous tools.
adobe.design
December 11, 2025 at 5:53 PM
My team at Adobe is hiring a web components engineer to help us build out the future of our design system. Great opportunity for someone earlier in their career to jump in and help us continue to improve Spectrum Web Components. In-office hybrid in LA, Denver or NYC.
adobe.design/jobs/job-pos...
adobe.design/jobs/job-pos...
Reposted by Ariel Salminen
You can fundamentally rewire your brain to properly understand CSS layout... for $34.50. Can’t say fairer than that! One day left.
Oh I forgot to mention on here, Every Layout is doing the annual 50% discount too! every-layout.dev
Relearn CSS layout
every-layout.dev
December 11, 2025 at 11:49 AM
You can fundamentally rewire your brain to properly understand CSS layout... for $34.50. Can’t say fairer than that! One day left.
Enjoying building something new quite a bit this week.
December 11, 2025 at 5:34 PM
Enjoying building something new quite a bit this week.
*I am not gonna build a new web component framework*
*I am not gonna build a new web component framework*
*I am not gonna build a new web component framework*
*I am not gonna build a new web component framework*
…oh wait…
*I am not gonna build a new web component framework*
*I am not gonna build a new web component framework*
*I am not gonna build a new web component framework*
…oh wait…
December 10, 2025 at 2:34 PM
*I am not gonna build a new web component framework*
*I am not gonna build a new web component framework*
*I am not gonna build a new web component framework*
*I am not gonna build a new web component framework*
…oh wait…
*I am not gonna build a new web component framework*
*I am not gonna build a new web component framework*
*I am not gonna build a new web component framework*
…oh wait…