Traditionally we’ve shied away from building because the chasm to go from designing to shipping requires learning to code, test, and bug fix. All of it required massive time investment to learn syntax, that changes every few years while core principles stay the same. Most of us are designers because we’re visual thinkers in a way.
These details aren’t accidents. They’re decisions. Careful, intentional decisions made by people who care deeply about craft.
As a design engineer, a role that’s all about craft, thoughtfulness and creativity, I should be skeptical of AI. By definition AI is not particularly great at those things, at least for now. But despite that, I kinda enjoy using it?
All of us are fighting a war on three fronts (thanks to AI). Customer product expectations are higher than ever. Distribution channels are collapsing. And everyone – big incumbents, new startups, even your own customers with vibecoding – are coming for your value prop.
UX faced instability from layoffs, hiring freezes, and AI hype; now, the field is stabilizing, but differentiation and business impact are vital.
Summary: Accelerating AI capabilities will shift focus from raw intelligence to autonomous agents and Generative UI, making UX the primary business moat. Multimodal integration and physical AI will revolutionize workflows, rendering static interfaces and single-purpose tools obsolete. However, progress faces hurdles like compute shortages and a widening class divide between premium and free-tier users.
I am generally curious about the concept of legibility of work. Look around in your workplace. You can find documents, messages, presentations, design files. Evidence of people’s work. While it may look like a lot, there is a whole other type of work that is very hard to see. The invisible work.
Look, I know why you’re here. You’re tired of “Top 10” lists written by bots that haven’t written a line of code since 2020. You want to know if Cursor is actually better than VS Code, if Devin is worth the massive price tag, or if you can get away with using Claude Code in your terminal.
Amit Sheen takes a hard look at the “Pixel Perfect” legacy concept, explaining why it’s failing us and redefining what “perfection” actually looks like in a multi-device, fluid world.
As AI evolves, the user experience realm presents promising opportunities for exploration. While AI excels at processing data, users often struggle to interpret its outcomes, which can lead to a cycle of simplification.
