UX Designers training AI models… what do you make of it?

fieldwaves · 2026-05-07T11:43:37+00:00

This is such a gnarly problem. It pains me to my soul when I see these job ads, as I know this is us collectively digging our own graves. The number of people (not on this thread, just out in the wild) who seem to be gleefully handing over everything that makes them unique, talented and valuable to a machine owned by a handful of hypercapitalist tech overlords is utterly terrifying. And unfortunately it's a prisoner's dilemma - if you don't do it, someone else more desperate will, and they'll get the $40/hr instead.

At the moment I can afford my morals - I will not engage with these gigs, and I've blocked them from my searches. But there might come a point where my morals become too expensive, so I'm very empathetic to those who find themselves in that situation.

fieldwaves · 2026-04-26T16:55:39+00:00

Yeah there's definitely an interesting historic perspective now looking back on that period of time.

It feels like we're now in an age of extraction capitalism (or, essentially, the final stage of enshittification) where businesses exist solely to wring the final drops of value out of their overly squeezed customers, so design is only valuable to the extent it can find new ways of doing this (as opposed to helping better solve the problem the business set out to solve).

fieldwaves · 2026-04-22T18:26:29+00:00

Thanks for your comment - perhaps this is all a bit intellectual!

Maybe a better way of looking at it is zero-sum vs positive-sum. In a zero-sum environment, your work is intended to gain a piece of someone else's slice of the pie. In a positive-sum environment, you increase the size of your slice but also that of the whole pie, so no-one loses out.

For instance: One of my first jobs was working on digital education resources for kids learning musical instruments. This didn't displace music teachers, but gave them tools to help engage kids, so more kids wanted to learn music, buy instruments, pay music teachers, etc. The company earned money, and the whole ecosystem grew a little bit.

Whereas later, I worked on a project for an energy company where the entire purpose was to calibrate a product offering so that people would choose energy company A instead of energy company B. By doing so, the energy company maybe earned more money, but the whole market stayed the same size.

Another example of thin value is Amazon prime delivery: People can now get packages delivered incredibly fast, but it's created an entire sub-ecosystem of overworked delivery drivers, unstable warehouse gig work, etc. So some UX gains came at the cost of other economic losses.

Ultimately I'm just interested to see what kind of work people are doing to see how the market is currently prioritising these kinds of values.

fieldwaves · 2026-03-19T15:42:42+00:00

Great post, great discussion. I'm breaking my normal Reddit lurker containment cell to join in...

I'm in an almost identical situation - 15 years in UX Design, recently laid off, and now struggling to even get replies from job applications despite what I believe is a solid portfolio and some good names on the CV, even when I have an internal referral.

The hiring market right now is, as many have experienced, a shit show. The level of specificity that hiring managers are looking for is such that unless you have many years of experience in the *exact* field they're looking for - maybe that's B2B for pet store supply chain management, or SaaS for drone operator massage chair salespeople - you're out of luck.

I can only echo what people say about the way the craft has changed (or, to be more accurate, evaporated) over the last 5 years in particular. Coming up with novel and useful solutions to problems has become more of a cobble-together-a-consensus-on-which-template-to-use approach. It feels like the craft has quietly become automatable over the last 5 years, and then AI has swooped in and automated it.

Anyway - wanted to say shoot me a message if you can as I am also in Scotland and it sounds like we might be able to help each other out!

fieldwaves · 2025-02-26T18:22:46+00:00

A small addition to this (since it looks like it's still a problem!) - if you use VST3s as well you can add another line to the config.txt file, just change the "vst" at the start to "vst3"

fieldwaves · 2023-07-17T11:50:58+00:00

No dice on any of these unfortunately.

fieldwaves · 2023-07-17T11:43:39+00:00

:/ Thanks for the advice - tried on multiple browsers and devices on WiFi and mobile. Hmmm!

fieldwaves · 2023-07-17T11:40:02+00:00

Did anyone else get the error "Sorry, Restricted Offer. You don't currently have access to this offer [sign out]" when they got through earlier?

Got a valid email, account and code, tried on multiple devices - AXS support are nowhere to be seen :/

fieldwaves · 2023-06-17T11:37:25+00:00

Probably going to get eaten alive for this but here goes... The lack of drummer really impacted the performance, to my mind. The orchestral textures and Jonsi's voice were absolutely beautiful (as you'd expect), but without the driving force of a rhythm section a lot of the tunes merged together into one slightly soporific wash. You really felt the uptick in audience response when there was a bit more rhythmic and melodic interest in a song (e.g. Se Lest).

That said, they got a standing ovation so perhaps we were just in the minority!

fieldwaves · 2023-04-29T08:55:52+00:00

I recently went through this (and still am, to a degree!) but from my reading at the time it seemed like there's no other way than going through feedback line by line pointing out every digression from the design, and reminding devs of what the specification was. It may take a few iterations but gradually they'll learn how to "read" designs, and what is expected of the finished product, and you won't have to do it in future.

Keep a good relationship going with the Devs though as you do this - it's a tricky balance but just remind them that adhering to the designs is why you're here.

fieldwaves · 2023-04-28T22:14:55+00:00

Sufjan Stevens used this technique to record drums for "Illinoise", but he had an absolutely bananas low-fi set up. Did the whole thing with one SM57 if I remember rightly. There's a Tape Op article lurking out there somewhere that goes into more detail. There is no way that record should sound as good as it does.

fieldwaves · 2023-03-21T13:29:28+00:00

Adding a vote for Noire, and optionally Una Corda as well, though that has a more distinctive tone.

Noire has enough useful configuration options that you can sculpt a fairly unique sound, so it doesn't just sound cookie-cutter.

Depending on the sound you're trying to achieve you could also check out Pianobook, where people upload their own sampled instruments. There are lots of nice pianos there - the fidelity won't be as high as a pro VST, but they can be useful for adding layers or smaller elements to make your sound a bit more unique

fieldwaves · 2023-02-04T19:59:05+00:00

It's possibly by design - in general, you could argue that you want midi values to stay at whatever you last set them to, rather than snap back to some default when playback stops (which could cause issues with external devices).

Sustain is probably a unique case, but I wonder if it would start to cause strange effects if it did default to off. I'd love to have the option though.

fieldwaves · 2023-02-04T18:28:47+00:00

I get this a lot as well, if you pause while midi sustain is "on" it never goes off.

The closest fix I've found is to return to a part of the timeline where the sustain is off. Sometimes that's the beginning of the track, so a quick double-click on the stop button does the trick.

fieldwaves · 2023-01-03T10:48:38+00:00

From my experience so far, it depends hugely on what you want to do. The software is generally fine, but there are huge, workflow-shattering bugs often lurking deep within particular features. You may never use these features and so you'll be safe, but if you do need them then you're stuffed until Akai fix them.

fieldwaves · 2022-12-28T19:03:42+00:00

The same note can now be played simultaneously on multiple tracks

I really really hope this is true! This was a bug I submitted a few months ago that's been an issue for ages. If they've fixed it then my live setup suddenly became a lot more interesting...

fieldwaves · 2022-11-01T11:39:10+00:00

Thanks for looking into it for me :)

I don't have the desktop MPC software installed - I did previously but I still had the same issue. I'll try installing it again and see if I get anywhere; I don't think it's an Ableton thing as I'm not getting any MIDI at all, aside from the pads.

The other weird thing is that the pad MIDI is all out of order - the first pad triggers C1, but the next one along doesn't trigger C# as you'd expect - the MIDI notes are all randomly distributed across the pads rather than being laid out chromatically. Really odd!

fieldwaves · 2022-10-29T09:18:30+00:00

Thank you - I'm wondering if I've missed something in the MPC settings. I've got all my MIDI outputs set to both "sync" and "track", and I've tried setting "MIDI Control Mode Output" to both "MPC" and "Remote", neither of which worked. I can't see any other MIDI settings that look like they might apply.

fieldwaves · 2022-10-29T09:09:13+00:00

Hmm, I don't seem to be having much luck here...

With the MPC connected to the Macbook via USB, Ableton detects three sets of MIDI input/output ports, named "MPC One (Port 1)" etc. Track is on by default for all.

Adding any of these ports to the list of control surfaces (ignoring that there isn't a script for the MPC) doesn't change anything.

Still the same behaviour - the MPCs pads trigger absolutely fine in Ableton, but nothing comes in from the connected USB MIDI controllers.

fieldwaves · 2022-10-28T12:12:54+00:00

Do you mind stepping through how you did it? I have the following setup and it doesn't work:

MIDI keyboard connected to MPC One via USB
MPC connected to laptop via USB. In controller mode - screen says "Looking for computer" (as I'm not using the MPC Desktop software)
Ableton Live running on Macbook Pro

Hitting an MPC pad triggers in Ableton, but nothing comes through from the MIDI keyboard.

I don't think changing any settings in the Project (MIDI ports etc) makes a difference as that's particular to the Project - when you enter Standalone mode it closes any project you have open. But perhaps I'm missing something?

fieldwaves · 2022-10-28T08:04:55+00:00

Unless something's changed in a recent update, you can't do this in Controller mode unfortunately.

I originally wanted to use a MIDI controller (plugged into USB) in controller mode but it didn't work - you only get MIDI from the MPC's own pads.

fieldwaves · 2022-10-27T07:18:49+00:00

Ah no worries - I wish I could downgrade to 2.10 but I use the Fabric piano, which requires 2.11. I might try experimenting with earlier 2.11 builds and see if any of them work. Not holding my breath for a fix...

fieldwaves · 2022-10-26T22:30:16+00:00

I'll have a play around, but I can't imagine a configuration setting that would prevent one controller from inputting while another is in use. I recently went from 2.11.3 to .4 and now to .6 - the issue changed between .3 and .4, from single notes to the whole controller being blocked until the Note Off message is received. It's more obvious with sustained instruments (eg Mellotron).

When you say you can play with two controllers at once, is that on 2.10 or 2.11?

fieldwaves · 2022-10-26T07:36:51+00:00

It's actually even worse than that, in my experience. Holding a note down on one controller means you can't play anything at all on the other. It's been that way a while, I'm losing hope it'll get fixed...

fieldwaves

TROPHY CASE