Next.js Conf Takeaways: Backend Patterns, Design Systems, and Browser Features

Next.js developers looking to sharpen their performance and efficiency skills have plenty of sessions from this year's Next.js Conf to dig into. The talks cover everything from using Next.js as a full backend framework to modern CSS features and nested layout architecture.

Next.js as a Backend Platform

Theo Browne, CEO of Ping, makes the case for treating Next.js as more than a frontend framework. In his session, he compares backend tooling options and demonstrates the tight integration possible between frontend and backend code when building with Next.js.

For a deeper walkthrough of specific backend comparisons, Browne's full presentation is available on YouTube.

Building Design Systems with Tailwind and CVA

Discord software engineer Tru Narla demonstrates how to construct a frontend component system using Tailwind, HeadlessUI, and CVA. The talk shows how JavaScript can control underlying CSS to conditionally render styles within the system. Narla also covers using Storybook to manage components in isolation, which is useful for testing and documenting UI pieces independently.

Modern Browser UI Features

Una Kravets from Google Chrome runs through the latest CSS and HTML capabilities landing in browsers that simplify building and styling UI controls. Key features covered in the presentation include:

  • cascade layers
  • accent-color
  • subgrid
  • :has()
  • container queries
  • OpenUI

Nested Layouts in Next.js 13

Sam Selikoff, founder of Build UI, addresses a trade-off Next.js has faced since its early releases. While serving decoupled pages improved initial load times, the architecture sacrificed some benefits of React's component tree for nested UIs. His talk demonstrates how nested layouts in Next.js 13 restore those component tree advantages, improving both developer experience and user experience.

Adding Content Authoring with Sanity Studio

For teams that need to publish content without compromising the developer workflow, Sanity.io's Kapehe explains how to add a content authoring tool to a Next.js project. Her session walks through integrating Sanity Studio v3, covering how the stack—Next.js, Vercel, and Sanity.io—scales with project growth.

The full set of Next.js Conf presentations is available in the official YouTube playlist, including these talks and additional sessions on building high-performance applications.