How UX designers can use AI app builders to their advantage As AI continues to disrupt many industries (particularly software development), it’s critical to continue to stay up-to-date with new tools that change traditional processes–making them more efficient and opening opportunities to more people. UX designers have historically been constrained to creating high-fidelity wireframes or limited …
Year: 2025
Writing the onboarding experience
How to help a product introduce itself. Digital product design is about teaching users what to do. This is the interface. Here’s how it works. Go over there and you’ll find what you’re looking for. It happens right from the beginning. The first screen of any product will set expectations and introduce interaction patterns. A combination …
Humanity has an empathy problem
User Experience is paying the price. An AI tool generated this approximation of a kitchen in a home I once visited. Several articles with provocative titles starting with “User Experience is Dead…” started appearing in my feeds. I’ve read about a dozen of these and will summarize them for you at the end, BUT there’s something deeper …
It’s all fun and games… until your boss starts vibe coding
Brace yourselves for a barrage of AI-assisted garbage made by people who don’t know an API from an IPA. Screen shot from the movie “Office Space” We’ve officially entered the age of “vibe coding” — what a ridiculous name. In this new digital frontier, anyone can prompt an AI with, “Build me an app that’s like LinkedIn meets Tinder — complete …
A bright future for strategic thinkers
The ability to identify and frame problems is your most valuable asset. Engineering won’t be the most valuable tech skill for much longer. As no-code app building becomes commonplace, and vibe coding gets better, the important question changes from “how do we build this” to “what should we build”? Guess who’s great at figuring out what to build? …
Figma to functional: AI-powered iteration with Anima’s Playground
An AI-assistant that enhances your designs without taking away your creative control Though I hate to say it, there are limitations to designs and prototypes created in Figma. A designer knows what the end-product should look like, but developers might have to make guesses on what is intended in small nuances the design missed (like how many …
There’s no making without breaking
An animated comic illustration of a Fortnite character looking up and to the right, while a city burns in the background. Credit: Me. Fortnite wasn’t a hit when it started. It was a totally different game back then. No battle royale, no millions of dollars in prize money, no Mariah Carey frozen in an ice block …
The iPhone 16e: a “just enough tech” innovation for value
Apple’s modest new iPhone isn’t here to impress — it’s here to give more people access, value, and purpose. Continue reading on UX Collective » User Research (UR) is essential for building great digital products — yet many leaders like Henry Ford and Steve Jobs said it’s unnecessary. This article reexamines outdated beliefs while making the case for user …
The end of design certainty
Why AI forces us to embrace emergence instead of clinging to control and understanding Made by Patrick Morgan with Midjourney Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei’s recent podcast with Lex Fridman caught my attention with an observation that keeps replaying in my mind. Even as his team works to understand and interpret AI models, he acknowledged a …
Are Duolingo’s AI video calls just a gimmick or a valid way to study?
Turning the traditionally boring world of language learning upside down. Continue reading on UX Collective » OpenAI Operator and the shift to AI-first interfaces. Made with Midjourney How do we create user-centered experiences when our users aren’t human? Watching OpenAI’s Operator navigate the web, I can’t help but think about the early days of my career …