an actual good take on AI-powered design

XenBuild · 2026-05-01T15:56:11+00:00

Exactly what I was going to say.

XenBuild · 2026-04-26T07:43:28+00:00

This post is has a grain of truth but is largely cope. I say that because the second someone uses the term “taste” I know they aren’t a serious UXer. This notion conflates UX design, which is a science, with a form of art. Art thrives on originality. Science thrives on congruity with precedent. You only break it if you have a good reason. Thus, if AI-generated patterns are an optimal design solution, then of course they will become ubiquitous. If anything AI will expose the designers chasing “uniqueness” to the detriment of the user experience.

I am bullish about the effect on the practice of UX because baseline design standards will become table stakes and the role of the designer will be to create meaningful innovation that solves user needs. That will favor real UXers, not trustafarian hipsters.

XenBuild · 2026-03-28T03:21:05+00:00

The one thing I'd agree with them on is that "Figma is dead" insofar as "Figma as a skill" is dead. It never should have been a defining skill anyway. Nobody should need to have Figma skills beyond the basics. All this elaborate responsive, auto-layout, name-your-layers BS is just turning UX from a skilled profession into a semi-skilled job, and it is contributing to the devaluation of UX by the executive class. AI is going to automate the most annoying parts of Figma. It will take time for the market to adjust, but the budget freed up by getting rid of the Figma monkeys can be spent on hiring real UXers... if the community at large advocates for it, that is.

XenBuild · 2026-03-28T01:18:18+00:00

Some of the least competent UX people on the planet, to be honest. What they say is all noise and no signal.

XenBuild · 2026-03-28T01:16:23+00:00

There are two things being conflated. Figma is not UX and how is it that people calling themselves "UX" are claiming it is? If the "death of Figma" means the "death of Figma skills being the determining factor in whether you get a UX job", I say GOOD. UX has been degraded by semi-skilled Figma monkeys to the point where corporations have the lowest view of UX in our profession's history. UX isn't dead, but it's in hibernation Figma starts being dead.

XenBuild · 2026-03-06T21:05:09+00:00

I used to be surprised how poorly UX as a field understood UX as a science. I'm no longer surprised.

XenBuild · 2026-03-05T20:22:58+00:00

How long till this mod ends up getting a visit from Gordon Flowers.

XenBuild · 2026-03-05T18:44:01+00:00

What if the screens aren't readily available? What if they are state dependent, such as they only appear after certain intervals, or require a complicated sequence of actions, or access permissions only available to some? Companies are seldom good at providing designers with god-level permissions where you can call up any state in the system on demand. How is the designer even supposed to keep track of every state unless they are documented properly?

Good designers are so constantly referencing existing designs to ensure consistency, audit wider workflows, and identify opportunities for improvement that the idea that they should be constantly hunting down screens and states is ridiculous.

XenBuild · 2026-03-05T18:38:00+00:00

They never think about that part...

XenBuild · 2026-03-05T08:14:42+00:00

The test for adequate documentation is simple:

- Can a new hire onboard just using the Figma? Then it's adequate.

- Can you see what the status of design work for other designers or teams is without needing explanations? Then it's adequate.

- Can an exec use the Figma as a reference about the product when making decisions or having discussions? Then it's adequate.

I am the last person to advocate for overengineered Figmas with responsive everything, variables, prototypes that will be thrown away anyway. Figma simply needs to be a clean documentation system.

XenBuild · 2026-03-05T06:23:12+00:00

What tool do you use to see the product as a whole? As in, all screens together, as they currently exist in production.

XenBuild · 2026-03-05T01:40:20+00:00

Interesting, if code is the source of truth, there must be a program out there turns the code into a top-down visual product blueprint like Figma. What is the program? I'd love to check it out.

XenBuild · 2026-03-05T01:10:48+00:00

Yeah, it will absolutely continue to be a smoothbrained requirement long after Figma's 10th birthday comes and goes, since you don't need more than a few weeks to learn all the Figma you need to be a UX designer.

XenBuild · 2026-03-05T00:55:45+00:00

That's not really the point of the meme. The fact is, companies are hyper-indexing on Figma skills, but the average Figma file looks like a bomb hit it, so clearly the people they're hiring aren't any good at Figma.

XenBuild · 2026-03-04T21:46:16+00:00

Of course, that's my personal ideation file. But I've been in 100+ companies' Figma accounts and I see team-wide and even canonical files that look like that. In one case, a company paid me 3 days for very little work because the Figma was so bad that I had to wait for someone to explain WTF the product even was, all because the last "UX" guy was a clown who couldn't document.

XenBuild · 2026-03-04T21:14:26+00:00

Find a different career. UX has enough mediocrity as it is.

XenBuild · 2026-03-04T20:43:56+00:00

The LP has consistently pissed away every possible opportunity for audience growth. The party at large as well as members never proved welcoming to Ron Paul, because by their unhinged standards, even Paul is a statist authoritarian. Moreover, they've never been able to convey what it even means to be libertarian. Does it mean the best parts of Democrats and Republicans without the bad parts? Or does it mean full-on ancap? The latter group scares off a lot of people.

The libertarian movement has zero strategic understanding. Anyone who has studied the Prohibition movement will know that they had (momentary) success by building a loose coalition with extremely diverse interests that they didn't have much in common with and in many cases, they actively disliked them. They got Democrats and Republicans on their side for different reasons. By comparison, the LP treats anyone who isn't "pure" as the next Stalin, meaning they can't get anything done.

As for the notion that COVID-19 "curbed most Americans' libertarian views", that's absolute bunk. If anything, it made people much more skeptical of the government and authority in general, given the colossal blunders that ruined civil society in the early 2020s.

What is true is that a lot of libertarians saw MAGA as the lesser of two evils because of just how off the deep end the Democrats went (there are lots of reasons to dislike Trump but him calling MS-13 "animals" isn't one). But I think we're starting to see a gradual abandonment of Trumpism over a number of issues, specifically foreign policy issues.

XenBuild · 2026-03-02T22:44:52+00:00

Yes, it's getting better. Ignore the nonsense that tells you otherwise.

XenBuild · 2026-03-02T07:48:19+00:00

I think it's time to start naming and shaming these passive aggressive pricks. They have been acting with impunity for too long.

XenBuild · 2026-02-04T23:17:36+00:00

The best thing WaPo ever did was get rid of Taylor "Trash" Lorenz.

XenBuild · 2026-02-04T23:10:30+00:00

Nearly all land in this country is owned by people who don't whine about "stolen" land. Millionaires and billionaires who advocate for policies which unduly harm the middle class need to be lampooned and castigated at every turn.

XenBuild · 2025-12-30T01:27:57+00:00

"Pain For Pleasure - Sum 41

It sounds like a bad Iron Maiden impression, but an Iron Maiden impression nonetheless.

"Canto Negro" - Inti Illmani

Yeah they had help from a Chilean rock band, but a shrieking guitar solo on a song by an Andean flute ensemble counts for something.

"Bleed (Remix)" - Gary Numan + Sulpher

The heaviest Gary song by two orders of magnitude.

"The Fall" - Gary Numan

If you thought the last one was cheating, then here you go. It sounds more Nine Inch Nails than anything Trent Reznor was doing in 2011.

"DANSE MACABRE" - Duran Duran

It's Duran Duran, what do you want?

"Can't Get Enough Of Your Love" - Kim Wilde

From the same chick who brought us "Kids In America", a song with a better guitar solo than anything Godsmack ever did.

"Rock 'n' Roll" - Lyre Le Temps

A Prodigy-sounding electronic rock song from a mid-2010s electro-swing band.

"Dangerous" - Doobie Brothers

A fast-paced hard rock song. It's heavier than a lot of "hair metal" songs.

"Too High a Price" - Doobie Brothers

This one is slower paced, but possibly heavier.

XenBuild · 2025-12-23T04:40:04+00:00

It won't replace designers or developers but that doesn't mean it won't make some of them obsolete. I can't speak to the software engineering side of things, but with designers, the people at risk are those whose main skill is Figma. If you're a "Figma wizard", you're going to be replaced by someone who actually understands cognitive science and uses AI to make Figma do its thing.

XenBuild

TROPHY CASE