How user-centered design principles transformed a grassroots political movement into a viral phenomenon and what it means for design practice. Zohran Mamdani Logo designed by Aneesh Bhoopathy. The year is 2025, and New York City, “The Greatest City in The World” has a 34-year-old, democratic socialist and Muslim mayor! Mamdani’s campaign has inspired millions, many …
Year: 2025
Shifting within: creating change inside a corrupt system without losing ourselves
This post explores living in the contradiction: working to change harmful systems while knowing that those same systems help pay our bills. I dream of a future where everyone has what they need and where design supports human and planetary flourishing. This vision fills me with hope while also making me acutely aware of the reality …
Building AI-driven workflows powered by Claude Code and other tools
How agentic CLI tools extend Figma MCP and turn wireframes into production-ready prototypes I set out to explore how designers can use agentic CLI tools like Claude Code and Codex CLI to build AI-driven workflows that turn rough wireframes into production-ready prototypes reflecting a real codebase, not generic mockups. After testing both tools, the results …
Purple
No matter what you tell them, LLMs somehow always use the same design choices. Purple–gradient–rounded buttons. Even when you feed them all the guidelines, PRDs, and rules, they still struggle to follow simple instructions consistently, especially when you give them multiple design guidelines at once. You can say plz, make it minimal, brutalist, sharp edges, monochrome, …
The illusion of alignment
How designers create true alignment with visual thinking I want to tell you about my favorite apple. It’s incredible. It’s hands down the most delicious apple of all time! When you see it hanging on a tree, its color invites you to come closer and take a bite. When it’s ripe, the flavor is amazing, complemented …
Nostalgia as product strategy
The emotional design behind the latest AI marketing campaigns. illustration by author If you haven’t seen them yet, OpenAI’s launched new ad campaign of short 30 seconds videos that embed AI into an idealised, warmly analog, version of the past. They’re quite visually pleasing, to be honest, with a slight VHS grain and muted colours, and …
Building a product that doesn’t exist
Designers, product, and engineers are all guided by the “Product Ideal.” The problem is, they’re all seeing a different one. Continue reading on UX Collective » All it takes is one creative spark to ignite a fire. source: DSRUPTR.com I recently wrote about the 5 powerful business insights that prove the value of design. While it’s incredible …
From products to systems: The agentic AI shift
Agents are here, how we build and use them is challenging many of the foundations for building software that we established over the last few decades — and even the very idea of what a product is. Prompt by the author, image by Sora. This article is a continuation of previous explorations on the theme of how AI is …
Liminal design seeks likeminded revenue model for committed relationship
We know how to design liminal products that deliver deeper and more interesting experiences, not just more and faster transactions. But current business models are stuck pumping around the same corporate water in the aquarium until the fish die — we now need to look for brand new revenue perspectives to keep up. The famous 1910 Kuleshov experiment …
The airport: Where we pretend to have arrived
The junkspace non-place of the modern aerotropolis. Moving walkway, Changi Airport station, Singapore, 2020, via Wikimedia Commons. Lines. Crowds. That brief certainty you’ll be stopped at security and sent to jail, or that your bag will end up in Fort Lauderdale. Even when it doesn’t, you have to watch it plop out of that diabolical …