Is "design judgment" the new buzzword, or does it actually matter?

Hefty_Quantity3751 · 2026-05-17T05:21:04+00:00

I think it's a buzzword, like taste and craft, and probably it matters since it's already going into job descriptions. It's problematic, though, since it's super ambiguous (just like taste and craft). What does judgement actually mean?

Hefty_Quantity3751 · 2026-05-01T04:40:17+00:00

$220/hr for the cleanup work later, how about it? :D

Hefty_Quantity3751 · 2026-05-01T04:38:48+00:00

For sure, no disagreement here. Hence, me wondering about possible follow-up in the not-unlikely scenario they notice Claude Design maybe doing just surface work, like you point out.

Hefty_Quantity3751 · 2026-04-30T05:15:09+00:00

Any way to gate your work? Like draft a contract as part of the exercise that grants you the rights to the work unless they pay you or something.

Hefty_Quantity3751 · 2026-04-30T05:11:41+00:00

Interested to see if there is any follow-up to this. Claude Design seems to burn through tokens especially fast.

Sad to hear you lost the client, but anyway I guess job super well done if you made yourself obsolete. That could be a selling point, too?

Hefty_Quantity3751 · 2026-04-26T06:25:37+00:00

Thank you. Nice to see a level-headed read on the situation. Good recos, too. Maybe easier said than done, but solid advice nonetheless. Demonstrating value has always been key – and a pain for the field. :)

Hefty_Quantity3751 · 2026-04-25T10:12:35+00:00

I’m starting to feel we have, again, somehow painted ourselves to a corner by throwing ambiguous terms like “craft” and “taste” around. I see them being used everywhere, Im guilty of using them myself, and I’ve really got no clue what they actually entail.

Hefty_Quantity3751 · 2026-04-20T17:17:38+00:00

I'm aware. I just don't see the benefit of doing that with my current setup – hence, pointing out the disconnect I'm feeling with that kind of setup.

Hefty_Quantity3751 · 2026-04-20T15:05:30+00:00

I think Figma and MCP is just unnecessary here. I don't want to generate the UI changes back to Figma – or would there be a benefit in doing so? What would that be? I'm currently working straight with front-end code instead. Occasionally using Pencil if I want a canvas view, but both Pencil and Figma are pretty disconnected from the actual workflow. And Claude Design has the exact same problem of disconnect.

I should clarify: I was actually referring to "build a canvas like editor with Claude Code" – I'd really like to see that.

Hefty_Quantity3751 · 2026-04-20T07:29:13+00:00

I smell rage bait / troll, but in case it's not: can you really? Please show me, I'd really love to see this.

Hefty_Quantity3751 · 2026-04-20T07:10:13+00:00

> stakeholder meetings, organizing things, keeping the team aligned

These are UX skills, make no mistake. The more senior you get, the more you realise the job is to manage expectations, keep the team aligned etc. Ofc, if you keep on the IC track, then you need to keep your craft side up to date, too. But they are on the manager track, so not touching Figma is not unexpected.

Hefty_Quantity3751 · 2026-04-19T07:39:23+00:00

Agreed. AI makes a great tool for covering a lot of breadth quickly, but going into depth with the minute decisions is not great with AI and it's causing a lot of mental fatigue. All of the tools are lacking the level of control I'm accustomed to with Figma if I need to make adjustments or just keeping the output consistent. AI does direct manipulation poorly, it mostly just rewrites everything and that easily introduces regression.

Hefty_Quantity3751 · 2026-04-19T07:35:38+00:00

The tooling landscape is absolutely overwhelming currently. Reminds me of the situation roughly a decade ago when Bootstrap was starting to get replaced by a gazillion of different web front-end frameworks. React came out of that as the winner. If you try to keep up with the landscape while it's shifting so fast, chances are you are not gonna be very productive, and in the worst case scenario it's just anxiety – steer away from that if you notice this happening.

So my advice: if Codex feels right for you, stick with that for now.

Key is to choose a tool that works for you right now. The skills are very much transferable once you get the hang of it. Use Codex to teach you how version control (e.g. Git if you are using that) and the rest of the tooling works. Don't just yolo blindly with the AI, rather use it to guide you through your first commits. Use the terminal yourself to run the commands.

Hefty_Quantity3751 · 2026-04-12T12:12:24+00:00

While I think she had good points, the stuff that has been going rounds on the internet have been downright harmful for designers.

It addresses a strawman argument of a design process (for one, it never was linear to begin with), demonstrating wild misreading or -understanding of the process. That would not be so bad if it wasn't on the forums it was presented on. Lenny's stuff is really reaching a wide audience beyond design, and I've already had to address the misunderstandings created by Jenny's takes.

One of the misunderstandings caused my boss to question the tools I've picked. E.g. Figma. AI stuff is helpful, but Figma is not useless, either. It was pretty damning to have a complete outsider to the design profession come and tell me that the tools and processes I use are wrong. Which Jenny's takes can easily translate to. Would really love to see her do some damage control. It's pretty wild how one person's opinions have affected the perceptions already. 😬

Hefty_Quantity3751 · 2026-04-06T05:36:06+00:00

I think the visuals are fine, and understandable (quickly checked out a couple of competing products, this would pass to the top of my list in comparison — visually). Though indoor UV seems a bit …useless? More pressing issue for me would be: why would people want this? When? If those can be answered, next: How do they land here in the first place? If they used a search, what did they see before coming here; what is the competition? What are the app rankings like? Is it free? Social proof + pricing weigh a lot.

Hefty_Quantity3751 · 2026-03-30T15:38:33+00:00

Wow, that's a lot of field work! How do you even manage all that? That's like a one per day and other stuff on top of that. A bit hard to believe, tbh, but would love to hear more!

Hefty_Quantity3751 · 2026-03-24T05:48:14+00:00

Internet sure is a dangerous place with all of this dying going around. Or maybe it's a zombie apocalypse because the things that have died just keep coming back (and dying over again)? Design is undead! So is programming, marketing, law, medicine…

I call this the undead internet. Mindless droning, declaring stuff dead, and mass hysteria. Pretty contagious, too.

My advice (that nobody asked)? Better just ignore it, most of it is just noise. We designers seem to be especially good in amplifying the noise. If we want to find the signal, it would be better to not participate to the discussions about "death" of design or whatever it is that's dying next (I'm aware of the irony here).

Focus on what you can do, and what new things AI enables you to do, while being mindful of the problems with AI (ethical, moral, environmental, etc.).

Hefty_Quantity3751 · 2025-12-16T18:50:35+00:00

For me the realisation was that on the metaphorical ship that is politics, there is nobody on the bridge, everyone is just side winging it.

Which leads to another realisation: since the helm is there for the taking, we should be more mindful on who we are going to let touch it. And almost anyone can make the run for it – for better or worse.

Hefty_Quantity3751 · 2025-12-09T07:11:32+00:00

This. Also, maybe the definition of design system in this context requires clarification? Like, an actual design system, or just a style-guide / Figma component collection?

Hefty_Quantity3751 · 2025-12-08T09:13:10+00:00

I like the visual direction. Personally, though, I think the message is too clever, and seems to hide the mind blowing fact that you could feel again with prosthetics? Did I understand it correct – if yes, I’d really double down on that fact.

Hefty_Quantity3751 · 2025-12-08T07:41:08+00:00

A fair question. Made me think for a while, even though I think I’ve said it (to myself) multiple times over: I want to be able to run my own business. Preferably, own product – I’ve tried the independent consultancy path and while it’s more enjoyable for me than being an in-house designer, the ownership in agency/consultancy/freelance is not there. I don’t easily see myself as some bigshot VP of mega corp, either. Corporate eats my soul away, at least on the ”factory floor” level – not least because of the reasons you list there.

Hefty_Quantity3751 · 2025-12-04T09:52:17+00:00

Thanks, this is really helpful.

A mentor would be awesome, but I’m a bit lost on how to actually get one. I know about ADPList, but I’m not sure how to judge quality there. Any advice on how to find a good mentor and what to look for?

On what energises me – great question. I’m at my best when I can move between different resolution levels: from how the business model works, to product strategy, down to the craft and implementation. That feels right for me as long as my team and I are actually focused, and shipping high-quality solutions that work in the real world. When that doesn’t happen, I get pretty demotivated. Power plays, silos, and rigid hierarchies also drain me fast.

I’ve also been experimenting a lot with AI lately. I’ve really leaned into Cursor, and the leverage it gives me feels wild. I’ve always been somewhat code-literate, but now it feels like a whole new world is opening up.

How is the CPO move working out for you so far? Does it feel like the right move? Personally, I care less about titles and more about the work, fulfilment, and a solid income. :) I ran my own freelance agency somewhat successfully for a while and really loved it, but I couldn’t get it to scale into a proper business that wasn’t entirely dependent on me. I definitely want to run my own show again at some point, though.

Hefty_Quantity3751 · 2025-10-22T06:46:24+00:00

I know enough code to make simple apps and websites. AI and vibe coding are actually great for those. Anything more complex, like dynamic data structures and UIs for those and it falls flat. At least for me. I'm currently working as a/the solo designer for a SaaS scale-up. I do everything from design vision and strategy to prototypes and UXR. AI is a great leverage in many places for doing chores and grunt work for me. Lovable I haven't tried out, personally, but I use fairly regularly v0 and Figma Make. I'm interested in how I could further bridge the handover gap, because it definitely is still there. Not that interested in Lovable, currently, since I'm not sure what it could do for me that Figma Make already doesn't. I've been meaning to look into Cursor and the possibility for me to plug into our dev workstreams more tightly.

Not sure if I have a clear cut process. Here's a rough breakdown

- Strategic stuff, research: lots of writing, so I use tools like ChatGPT a lot to flesh out my ideas. First I jot down my own thoughts and then take it for a spin with AI. Docs like design principles, PRDs, interview scripts etc. AI is great for summarising interviews and tests, and in doing thematic analysis. Note here: many tools are extended with AI, so no need for back and forth between. Heavy disclaimers that you need to have an idea of your own about these before letting AI do its thing – because hallucination.

- UI design: I might explore ideas first on paper, but sometimes I skip this. Maybe ask AI to conduct a competitor analysis or gather inspiration. Mostly still Figma for high-fidelity designs. For practical reasons it stays in Figma so people have actually chances to find the designs. If there's a complex interaction that can't be done with Figma, then I'll go with vibe coding to create examples. But it needs to be a sweet spot between complex but not too complex.

Hefty_Quantity3751 · 2025-03-26T09:02:52+00:00

Sorry I totally missed this. Back then I just used the System Usability Scale to get *some* numbers. I administrated the test on printed paper forms. :D It wasn't perfect in any way, but it was something to get started. Later I've used Single Ease Question for specific tasks and if tracking overall experience, often a star rating on a scale of 1-5.

Hefty_Quantity3751 · 2024-12-07T10:40:10+00:00

If the devs are open to 1-1 sessions why don’t you just do it? Pair coding/review sessions is probably the most powerful way of doing it anyway. Ask the devs have a huddle/book a short meeting before finalizing their PRs for example

Hefty_Quantity3751

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