Design has moved from screens to intelligence

Proving biz impact
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Here’s an interesting Manifesto of sorts from Suff Syed on the transition of design, from the “Surface to the Substrate.”

He’s got a four part series. It’s a long read, but he’s made it interesting.

Here are the big takeaways:

  • Design has moved from screens to intelligence. The real work is shaping how models think and act, not polishing pixels.

  • Designers need new materials:

    • training data
    • context and memory
    • system prompts and policies
    • retrieval chains
    • data tools

  • Old rules flip.

    • navigation becomes negotiation
    • creation becomes generation
    • failures go invisible
    • delight gives way to alignment
    • creativity favors those fluent with models.

  • Design leaders are stuck in the old era.

    • individual designers must build AI fluency
    • ship end to end
    • step into rooms where model choices are made.

  • The path forward is sovereignty. Designers can own brand, product, and intelligence outcomes if they learn the substrate and act now.

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Decided to outline some of my own experiences with our development:

designing-ai-around-user-needs
designing-ai-around-user-needs2160×2700 231 KB

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Also, here are a lot of good resources. We’ve shared a lot on AI design lately. Here are featured Helio posts from top authors:

Design needs new patterns to build AI experiences. Sharang Sharma

Use frameworks to design human-centered AI. Rob Chappell

AI design turns behavior into learning-ready patterns, Amanda Linden

User experience design is expanding, Menno Cramer

New design methods are needed to unlock AI’s potential, Sarah Tan :magic_wand:

AI will transform the future of design leadership, Matthew Stephens

Design AI to help users get useful results, Jason DePerro

Bring UX scenarios to life with AI. Chris Becker, MFA

Design needs new skills as people and AI learn together. Hal Wuertz

Design AI that’s user-friendly and earns trust, Ben Shih

Design is stronger when you know AI agents’ capabilities. Greg Nudelman

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This is a huge conversation, and I appreciate that Suff Syed is challenging design as a profession to get involved beneath the surface.

I think there are massive issues with expectations and how to effectively train an agent or model. For myself, I agree that for designers AI is a black box. The gaps between what I think might be going on and clarity of what is actually going on are huge.

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Bigggggg big, ideas here. Though, arguably the future! IMO, the AI shift is only going to amplify the need for measurement in design work. Being able to measure these outcomes is going to be more important than ever.

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