Writing for AI, X-shaped designers, the lies we tell ourselves
Weekly curated resources for designers — thinkers and makers.
“Maybe you’ve gotten comfortable writing prompts or using simple one-click tools. But as AI interfaces start to take different forms, many of them are still kinda hard to figure out. Navigating them can be overwhelming. It doesn’t feel like you’re using these products so much as deciphering them. The engineering is powerful, but the flows don’t make sense.
If you’re lost in an AI user flow, blame the writing.”
AI interfaces and the role of good writing →
By Nick DiLallo
Import your AI generated designs into Figma →
[Sponsored] The missing link between AI and Figma: the html-to-design Chrome extension now detects designs from tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and more — importing them into Figma in a single click. Fully editable, components included.
Editor picks
- It’s not you, it’s hierarchy →
How I demoted my tree diagrams.
By Ben Hickman - The carbon score →
Environmental stewardship or selling virtue as a commodity?
By Ian Batterbee - What Perplexity’s AI browser reveals about UX’s future →
A systematic analysis of the first truly AI-native browser.
By Adrian Levy
The UX Collective is an independent design publication that elevates unheard design voices and helps designers think more critically about their work.
Space exploration logo archive →
Make me think
- The worst designer I’ve ever worked with was also the most productive →
“What they failed to see was a growing pile of unaudited, untested, and misaligned design work — a ticking time-bomb of incoherence, technical debt and costly rework that would eventually cost the team far more than it saved.” - Cyborgs vs rooms, two visions for the future of computing →
“Loosely I can see two visions for the future of how we interact with computers: cyborgs and rooms. The first is where the industry is going today; I’m more interested in the latter.” - Choosing friction →
“Today’s cult of convenience fails to acknowledge that difficulty is a constitutive feature of human experience. Convenience is all destination and no journey.”
Little gems this week
Against images as accessories →
By Oliver Meredith Cox
The illusion of alignment →
By Jon Daiello
The importance of taste, and other lies we tell ourselves →
By Mike Schindler
Tools and resources
- Hidden patterns of system behavior →
Understanding the feedback loops that govern our lives.
By Michael Parent - Trust isn’t a feature — it’s the interface →
The hardest thing to automate is confidence.
By Tara Bird - X-shaped designers →
How we’ve T-shaped ourselves to death.
By Tash Willcocks
Support the newsletter
If you find our content helpful, here’s how you can support us:
- Check out this week’s sponsor to support their work too
- Forward this email to a friend and invite them to subscribe
- Sponsor an edition
Writing for AI, X-shaped designers, the lies we tell ourselves was originally published in UX Collective on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
This post first appeared on Read More