Generic thoughts on AI
Just like every other designer and their grandparents I have some thoughts on AI. They might be generic and unoriginal, just like AI!
During the past year I have seen my developer colleagues work and talk about how AI was changing their entire approach to work. But as a designer I felt that the tools offered to me were lacking; sure, I could upscale or generate images in Figma. I could build prototypes in Make or Lovable. But the core of my workflow remained unchanged. I remained curious though and for the new year I gave myself one goal: immerse myself in working with AI.
Not even two months later I barely open Figma and instead spend most of my time in the Terminal with Claude Code. I finally get it.
Previously I would design flows in Figma in detail so that we as a team–devs, PM, and design–could look at it together and understand how a user would navigate through our product. To relate it to animation: I made all 24 frames per second (or at least 12!).
Figma isn't going away anytime soon, but my relationship with it has changed. I don't see it as a place to design and sketch out an entire product anymore. I see it as a place to sometimes design a few key-frames to define the visual look of a product; something for the team (and Claude through MCP) to look at when we build.
So where does that leave us now? We obviously start with the user; their problems are what we need to figure out and solve, that has never changed. What happens next has: Instead of spending time building wireframes (or more detailed designs) in Figma I spend time iterating on wire-frame-styled prototypes. These are rough, functional, but good enough to test with users; and we can quickly iterate on them!
Once we have validated the flow we treat the prototype like a blue-print from which we start work. Previously I would have hopped into Figma but now I usually hop into Claude. We have our design system and previous patterns that we can build upon, and usually that is enough. There will be times that I go back to Figma for a few key-frames; but if a project previously would have required 30 frames in Figma, it now requires around 5-6.
What's eroding right now is the handover process. Previously it was as if developers spoke Japanese and Designers spoke Icelandic. In the middle there was the handover process, which was in Swahili, something both parties spoke. At every translation step there were risks of mistranslation. Now, we speak each other's languages, albeit maybe haltingly at first.
The lessening impact of Figma, and the increasing quality of the UI/UX from AI, does not make designers obsolete. In a day and age where anyone can create a product with AI I think we will see an increased value for good designers. Our value lies in the details; the interactions, visual cohesion, the humanity of the product. The things that make a product feel considered, not just AI slop.
With that said it's also important to recognise that our roles will change. With tools that can enable us to work much more broadly, we need to adapt and to do just that. I don't limit myself to just working on design anymore; I actively try to, with Claude, solve issues that traditionally are outside the scope of a designer. Bug reports, tinkering in a database, or fully fledged features? Sure thing!
More and more I see myself as a builder rather than a designer. It's a bit like I have evolved from Magikarp to Gyarados!
If you're a designer and you haven't started with Claude Code yet: start now. Experiment and learn how this fits into your unique workflows. For me it is a liberating and exciting time!
But at the same time I am, on a personal level, quite conflicted. AI is built on stolen knowledge and art. It's a massive drain on our climate and resources and it is fuelling war and political interference. I hate all of that with every fiber of my being, but I can't help but be fascinated with it. I guess that is the tech-geek in me that's showing its face.
I don't think this internal conflict is going away for me. I don't have a proper answer to it at least. As a designer, the distance between my idea and building it has never been shorter; and I am really enjoying that both in and out of work. I just didn't expect it to feel this complicated.