🎉 hey, I shipped skillcraft.ai It's like Reddit, but for tech courses

As a developer myself, I know how important it is to keep learning, which is why I created this community.

Published
3 min read

Form Validation That Doesn't Annoy Users: CSS :user-valid and :user-invalid

The new pseudo-classes :user-valid and :user-invalid give us a smarter way to style form validation states based on user interaction

Form validation styling has always been tricky to get right. The new :user-valid and :user-invalid pseudo-classes fix a long-standing frustration with CSS form validation - showing error states too early.

Unlike their predecessors :valid and :invalid, these new selectors wait for meaningful user interaction before applying styles. This seemingly small difference leads to a significantly better user experience: no more fields marked as invalid before users even start typing.

With traditional validation, this input would show an error state immediately because it’s empty and required. The new :user-valid and :user-invalid selectors only apply styles after meaningful interaction.

Forms now start neutral and validate naturally as people use them. No more angry red borders on page load - just clean, helpful feedback when it makes sense.

Fallbacks and Browser Support

Browser support for these new selectors is still rolling out, but that’s okay. Modern browsers get the improved behavior while older ones fall back to traditional validation - no JavaScript needed either way.

These pseudo-classes are nice, but what about browsers that don’t support them yet? There’s no built-in fallback - older browsers will simply ignore these selectors. This means users on those browsers won’t see any validation styles at all.

For now, the safest approach is to use @supports to provide a fallback for browsers that don’t support :user-valid and :user-invalid. This way, you can ensure that all users see some form of validation styling.

These small improvements in form validation show how CSS continues to evolve in the right direction.


Found this article helpful? You might enjoy my free newsletter. I share dev tips and insights to help you grow your coding skills and advance your tech career.


Check out these related articles that might be useful for you. They cover similar topics and provide additional insights.

Webdev
3 min read

Preloading Responsive Images

How to properly preload responsive images to improve initial page load

Nov 28, 2024
Read article
Webdev
2 min read

link rel='modulepreload': Optimize JavaScript Module Loading

The rel='modulepreload' indicates that a module script should be fetched, parsed, and compiled preemptively, and stored for later execution

Dec 4, 2024
Read article
Webdev
36 min read

IndexNow: Get your content indexed instantly by AI search engines and traditional search

Stop waiting weeks for crawlers. Learn how to notify Bing, DuckDuckGo, ChatGPT, and Perplexity instantly when you publish new content using the free IndexNow protocol

Oct 27, 2025
Read article
Webdev
8 min read

Invisible columns in SQL

It’s a small feature, but it can make a big difference.

Aug 26, 2024
Read article
Webdev
3 min read

Native Popover Element with HTML

Create overlays and dropdowns easily with the native HTML popover API

Jan 24, 2025
Read article
Webdev
5 min read

Add Auth to Astro 5 with Clerk in 5 Minutes

The simplest setup for adding Clerk authentication to your Astro project, with minimal code

Dec 18, 2024
Read article
Webdev
13 min read

10 Essential Terminal Commands Every Developer Should Know

List of useful Unix terminal commands to boost your productivity. Here are some of my favorites.

Aug 21, 2024
Read article
Webdev
3 min read

CVE-2025-29927 - Next.js Middleware Bypass Explained In Simple Terms

The vulnerability skips Next.js middleware security checks by adding a single HTTP header

Apr 6, 2025
Read article
Webdev
3 min read

HTML Details Element: The Native Accordion You're Not Using

Discover how the HTML details element can replace your JavaScript accordions and why it might be better than your current solution

Dec 10, 2024
Read article

This article was originally published on https://www.trevorlasn.com/blog/css-user-valid-and-user-invalid-pseudo-classes. It was written by a human and polished using grammar tools for clarity.