Here are two AI-led factors I see that will affect the demand for designers: Factor 1: Designers are enabled to produce more work. Factor 2: Non-designers are enabled to do designers’ work. These factors aren’t self-exclusionary. A mix of factors is likely to occur. Let’s unpack each of the two scenarios and see how they will affect the demand for product designers. These predictions might end up being wrong. However, we have to start discussing how AI will affect our jobs. And the first step is to map out the factors affecting the demand, which I’ll try doing below. Factor 1 ..read more

A petition to stop consumerism of manipulative and proprietorial design content Credit: Unsplash I was inspired to write this for a while now because I find the whole Design Bros* movement kind of disturbing. A lot of designers on my LinkedIn feed make themselves appear like they eat, sleep, and sh*t design, and it’s prompting a lot of anxiety towards junior designers needing to do the same in order to thrive the industry. *Like Finance Bros or Tech bros but Design. “What courses can I go for? What books should I read? How do I get better at design through transactional resources?” L ..read more

This is the translation of a talk I recently gave to a couple of agencies in London (Inktrap) and Australia (Future Friendly). This isn’t another AI article about mind-blowing advances or dystopian futures—plenty of that around already. I want to give you a sense of how generative AI tools are impacting me right now, share a little about the mindset change I have been going through as I learn, and give you some ideas for ways you can pick up and use generative AI today in your creative processes. The Designer’s Toolkit: A Balancing Act Imagine a grid filled with creative skills — from UX desi ..read more

Most likely, you hate dealing with the legal aspects of being a designer like me. Yet, AI brings new complexities to our work and the legal aspect of being a designer. For example, Figma is going to train an AI on your work that’s under an NDA. Does it mean you’ve breached it? They will train their AI model on your copyrighted work. Who owns the copyright now? Do you own the copyright for the designs Figma AI is going to generate for you? To answer these questions, I hired a lawyer, specializing in contracts, privacy policies, and intellectual property for a 10-hour research (thanks, Mar ..read more

What it really means to be a designer in the new world of automation, design systems, and AI This is an abridged version of a talk / presentation I have to Deloitte Asia’s Design Chapter in June 2024. Credit: Josh Appel I don’t do public speaking gigs that much anymore, as an active protest against gross showmanship in the tech and design industry. Talking about the work that I do and the career I managed to carve for myself seemed really egotistic, plus I’m a firm believer that there is no single answer to design and a design career. I can’t sell you a success story knowin ..read more

Accessibility considerations when adding a homepage link to your product Every web app and website has a homepage link, which usually takes the form of a wordmark logo. The Nielsen Norman Group ↗ does a great job explaining the general best practices regarding this link, which I’ve outlined below: Position the homepage link in the standard location (which would be on the top-left corner of the app for desktop, LTR languages) The homepage link should be visually distinct from other text on the page — mainly other menu items Side note: You can see below W3C didn’t follow the sec ..read more

And lessons learned along the way. Photo by juan pablo rodriguez on Unsplash In my career so far, I’ve worked with eight startups. In fact, I began my career at one. This has significantly influenced my career direction and shifted my focus several times. I transitioned from worrying about specializing in either design or engineering to appreciating my diverse focus. Today, through UX Things, I write code, build and maintain design systems, and run an icon set on the side — Popicons. I remember debating whether to fully pursue engineering or design or continue doing both. T ..read more

Design Tool See how new UI & AI features will change our daily design workflows. Featured image with glass elements generated by AI Next year, the next Figma Config will be behind us. But it was not a regular product upgrade, updates announced by Dylan this year are super exciting. Let’s start with a TL;DR and then explain how these announcements will impact every Figma user. TL;DR Figma will get a brand-new UI Autolayout gets several improvements — the most significant one: suggest autolayout We will have official UI Kits for iOS 18 and Material Design 3 Dev mode got lots ..read more

The spirit in which we approach our work profoundly impacts the outcome, making our intent as crucial as our actions. Photo by Greg Rakozy on Unsplash In every act of creation, the spirit and intention behind it are as crucial as the act itself. This emotional resonance, tied deeply to our memories and experiences, profoundly shapes the outcome. Consciousness and creativity are products of complex neural interactions. Much of what we do as designers is guided by subliminal information, affecting our actions and perceptions without our conscious knowledge. Subtle cues in our surr ..read more

When you add gaming elements to a non-gaming context, it’s gamification. A couple weeks ago, I made a post asking for “gamification experts” to weigh in on a topic. A lot of people did, or listed others that could do so. Getting that many experts in one place in one time, even in the form of a social media post, was powerful and educational for me. One of the insights I gleaned was that there’s plenty of disagreement over what this discipline is even called! And many experts openly reject the term “gamification.” It’s easy to see why. The term gamification has become synonymous ..read more