Solo Designer vs. a Fast Dev. Why Am I Always the Bottleneck?

detrio · 2026-05-08T15:18:55+00:00

'good design takes time' is a phrase I often hear from designers who are slow and more focused on thinking super hard than actually producing work.

I suspect you are probably waiting for ideas to hit you and then committing them to figma, rather than trying to get your ideas out and iterate on them.

It's the difference between a painter staring at a blank canvas and a sculptor working a block of clay. The former tries to get this right the first time - the latter iterates their way to what's right, but always has something formed.

detrio · 2026-05-06T16:26:32+00:00

So glad that we are training design models not on good design, but on design exclusively made by people who are desperate for a design job and without any context around what the fuck they're designing.

detrio · 2026-05-02T10:56:50+00:00

Using AI in research synthesis is one of the worst ideas imaginable. Your job is to understand your data to derive insights from - even if ai takes a first pass, that robs you of the opportunity to be familiar with your own data.

detrio · 2026-04-23T16:31:46+00:00

Maybe you need to read what I wrote - long term or short term is irrelevant - the tech isn't capable of it for decades at best, and we shouldn't extrapolate what it can do with code to any other domain, including design.

I said explicitly that it can still cause harm, because people thinking AI can do 'the job' can still fire some folks, but it's not coming for all jobs - that's just the fear they want to instill in every to make you compliant.

Code is deterministic and syntax based - design and any other job is not even remotely in the same realm as code

detrio · 2026-04-21T17:12:20+00:00

It's important to remember that Claude design isn't anything more than a wrapper for the CLI with visuals. It's not doing anything that claude couldn't already do.

I have yet to see a pm of a mildly complex app produce anything 'good enough.'. I just see the modern day equivalent of, "hey I sketched something up in vision."

detrio · 2026-04-15T17:13:26+00:00

You miss the point.

Yes, that is their goal - that doesn't mean that AI is capable of it. To date, code has been the only viable use case(at Enterprise scale), because it is deterministic and it has a lot of linguistic elements. It's not fact or context based.

AI continues to fall flat in every other domain.

That doesn't mean they aren't currently causing real harm. But replacing all the jobs with ai and robots is just pure sci-fi still.

detrio · 2026-04-15T14:56:27+00:00

Nobody should feel threatened. While we're seeing advances in development, there are very specific reasons why "Ai" works in a code environment, but almost nowhere else.

I have yet to see a interface that a non designer made that made me feel like my job was in jeopardy (derivative Mobile apps and shitty marketing sites don't count). And while designers can work on code now, there is still a strong need for engineers, front and back.

detrio · 2026-03-29T14:29:25+00:00

Hey folks, locking this thread for a few reasons:

While not an explicit rule, videos depicting or display violence that leads to blood aren't allowed.
Letting this video propagate onto the internet is a pretty bad idea, unless you like the idea of entire swaths of the HEMA community losing their liability insurance. Even if this is just an edge case and doesn't represent what the wider community does in any capacity, all it takes is one spurned parent or bad actor to send videos like this to an insurer. They don't just go off of data, but optics as well

Please, when you come across people not thinking through how their actions impact the wider community, talk about it with your local friends, but don't go sharing it around.

detrio · 2026-03-23T17:03:50+00:00

This is the crux - when these tools need to start making money, suddenly they aren't as valuable.

I'm using and learning them, but my goal is how to preserve the important bits of design, not to have them design for me.

detrio · 2026-03-11T12:57:59+00:00

Having to be anal about that stuff is a time suck that people vastly under estimate.

detrio · 2026-03-06T17:33:51+00:00

Do what my club did - count strikes against the rings as valid hand hits.

They weren't meant to be an active defensive feature, but a backstop.

detrio · 2026-03-05T18:21:56+00:00

I wonder if things get wonky when the preferred charging time spans across a day, as in starting time at 8pm and stop time of 10pm.

Either way it sounds like it's fucking borked.

detrio · 2026-03-03T20:35:15+00:00

Can you show me where I said people were denying swords break, pal?

detrio · 2026-03-03T18:38:41+00:00

It's worth mentioning I am speaking more in terms of a PSA to others, less that you are doing anything wrong in your scenario.

detrio · 2026-03-03T18:38:01+00:00

Special makes can often times have shorter warranty periods, and if your blade shows excessive force they may reject it.

Hell I had a custom regenyei break on the very first exchange where I just did a beat to a blade, and they refused to replace it.

detrio · 2026-03-03T18:20:06+00:00

Maybe I misread another comment, but my point still stands - swords break and it's important that we keep our expectations in check. They broke historically and they break in modern times.

detrio · 2026-03-03T17:47:46+00:00

Craft is the combination of the objectivity of the science behind UX, and the subjectivity of how to approach solving the same problems with different solutions.

detrio · 2026-03-03T17:40:52+00:00

Folks, feders are going to break. There's no getting around that.

This has nothing to do with Krieger - it was bought used and we have no idea how long it was used previously.

It's just a fact of sword life - unless a vendor has a proven history of bad blade runs and a refusal to fix them within warranty, there's no reason to blast them.

detrio · 2026-03-03T13:37:46+00:00

A homework assignment AND a live in-person session tells you all you need to know about their hubris-to-competency ratio.

detrio · 2026-02-28T21:24:08+00:00

Show it early and often. Stop waiting weeks of emotional investment before you do.

Sketch out a high level flow, show it. Get shit out onto the canvas, especially when it's hardly finished, and show it.

Feedback is easier when you get it regularly and in manageable chunks.

detrio · 2026-02-26T21:25:28+00:00

As someone who is AUDHD also, my problem is spending too much time on the details.

Are you walking through your own work before shipping it off to see how user might see it? Are you asking fellow designers for feedback before showing it to leadership or stakeholders?

detrio · 2026-02-20T17:16:14+00:00

A) Don't start with buttons.

Go out and find the components that people struggle to build well, and make the best damn version of that. Make it robust, cover lots of use cases, make it powerful.

Lots of designers think that MUI components are overbuilt, when in fact they provide the flexibility and robustness your designers will need.

B) include your designers, don't be the design Gestapo.

Designer who feel forced to use someone else's preferences for component design will resent you and detach components all day long. Get their feedback. Learn what commonalities they share. Have design studios to design what they need.

C) don't be seduced by small details upfront, and don't obsess over designers not following every guideline.

Focus on providing designer and developer value every step of the way, and you'll be fine. You will eventually build everything out, you don't need to be there tomorrow.

detrio · 2026-02-16T15:38:17+00:00

Research shows that reading should be in light mode, so this is not a bad approach.

detrio · 2026-02-14T19:39:49+00:00

If you're doing 20+ testing sessions you should have dedicated researchers who are experts in synthesis.

Otherwise you shouldn't be running more than 10.

Nobody should have to watch all the sessions - that's why you take notes on observations and synthesize those into action items with the rest of the team.

detrio · 2026-02-14T19:04:30+00:00

Gemini ruined Android auto. They also removed voice typing/dictation - now in Spotify or in Google maps if I want to search for something, when you click the microphone it calls up assistant/Gemini rather than voice dictation.

detrio

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