Ariel Salminen
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arielsalminen.com
Ariel Salminen
@arielsalminen.com
Independent design systems architect • Author of various open source tools • A girl who lost her heart somewhere in California 🧡 • Mainly posting about cycling, music, poems & the web platform.

📮 https://arielsalminen.com
📍 Helsinki, Finland
👩🏻‍🦰 She/her
Pinned
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
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
Reposted by Ariel Salminen
Alternate alt text...

[left, ariel's design systems]
[right, dave's design systems]
November 13, 2025 at 7:30 PM
I have today reached a new level in the game called never-ending job of selling design systems
November 13, 2025 at 6:05 PM
Found a new space to work on my bicycles 😍
November 13, 2025 at 6:02 PM
Reposted by Ariel Salminen
i made a pillow for our phones - turns on do not disturb when you lay your phone on top
November 12, 2025 at 8:41 PM
React made me re-render my life choices
November 12, 2025 at 3:16 PM
Looks like I may have finally found budget to hire *a person* to help me on design systems stuff. 🥳
November 12, 2025 at 2:51 PM
Celebrated two years together yesterday. My boyfriend had written me a love letter. And I couldn’t even finish the first sentences before bursting into tears. Had to read the rest after our dinner. Gosh, I love him so much.
November 12, 2025 at 8:11 AM
Being real pro here and creating music for my monthly design system video presentations now. AMA
November 11, 2025 at 10:39 AM
I have this routine… in the mornings; I sit in the bed with coffee, stare at the sunrise. Like right now. And I switch on the discover feature from my music player. Keep on listening to songs I’ve never heard of. Until I hear something so magnificent that I feel shivers everywhere. And then.
October 17, 2025 at 5:55 AM
Reposted by Ariel Salminen
View transitions are in every browser now ✨
Firefox now supports view transitions, the command and commandfor HTML attributes, and the moveBefore() method.

www.firefox.com/en-US/firefo...
Firefox 144.0, See All New Features, Updates and Fixes
www.firefox.com
October 14, 2025 at 6:41 PM
“I have not been working on planning [a design systems infrastructure] this week.”
October 10, 2025 at 5:36 PM
Reposted by Ariel Salminen
half of tech is people mindlessly going "ooh shiny object" at tech stacks and visual design without stopping to ask what actual problem is being solved (or created)
The arbiter of good taste
September 21, 2025 at 10:10 PM
Seems like I have not been the only one cancelling my disney subscription over the past week 🥲
Vote with your dollars.
September 21, 2025 at 6:46 PM
This thing arrived today.
September 19, 2025 at 2:09 PM
Reposted by Ariel Salminen
Focus rings! Plural! I wrote for @piccalil.li about how to create a branded double ring focus effect that is dynamically generated based on the interactive element's text color. piccalil.li/blog/taking-...
Taking a shot at the double focus ring problem using modern CSS
A double focus ring is really useful in general but especially so with complex, themed systems. Eric Bailey shows us how to develop a really smart system, using modern CSS.
piccalil.li
September 18, 2025 at 3:05 PM
Reposted by Ariel Salminen
hiya. figma is a fucking terrible source of truth. if you're building one of the 142,000 AI-powered design system tools out there right now, binding your 'truth' to a proprietary file format in a proprietary platform from an org that’s showing some shaky signs is just extremely Not The Way™.
September 18, 2025 at 11:31 AM
Reposted by Ariel Salminen
Hello! I am looking for a freelance/contract UI designer to help on a project asap.

Luxury brand experience and working with design systems a bonus.

Please get in touch via benbrignell.com/pages/contact, thank you!
September 15, 2025 at 3:45 PM
Last user interview for this week completed. Now off to a long weekend and finishing up with these next week.
September 11, 2025 at 12:41 PM
Reposted by Ariel Salminen
Hi cis friends - trans folk of all ages could have our health care entirely defunded by this bill. If you can call your reps, it would mean a lot. Contact info in the thread.
1. The HHS Appropriations Bill is out and it contains several devastating anti-trans provision.

It would bar federal funding for trans youth and adult care nationwide, which could be used to bar hospitals from providing it at all.

Will Democrats stand firm, or cave to avoid a shutdown?
House HHS Appropriations Bill Would Devastate Trans Adult Healthcare Nationwide
The bill would bar federal funding for any "social, psychological, behavioral, or medical intervention" to treat gender dysphoria.
www.erininthemorning.com
September 10, 2025 at 3:35 AM
My calendar for the next few days. Send help
September 10, 2025 at 5:23 AM
Reposted by Ariel Salminen
What 15 years of design debt looks like
September 5, 2025 at 7:21 AM
What 15 years of design debt looks like
September 5, 2025 at 7:21 AM
I kinda like these days when I’m just interviewing people IRL and realize in the afternoon that I haven’t even opened my laptop the whole day because I’m recording the sessions on my phone and the interview script is on printed sheets of paper.
September 3, 2025 at 9:45 AM
Wrapping up the first month of consulting work and doing design systems research. I’ve kinda missed this tbh.
August 29, 2025 at 2:44 PM