AI design isn’t ugly. It’s fluent—and that’s the problem.
Weekly curated resources for designers — thinkers and makers.
“I can usually tell when something was built by AI before I’ve read a word of it. There’s a face it wears: a centered hero with a confident headline and two buttons, rounded cards floating on a soft gradient, a sans-serif working very hard to seem neutral, spacing so even it feels exhaled rather than drawn.”
AI design isn’t ugly. It’s fluent—and that’s the problem →
Research matters. So why doesn’t it shape more decisions? →
[Sponsored] Based on a survey of 309 researchers and leaders, this report explores the listening gap between consumer insights and decisions. Discover hidden workflow frictions and AI opportunities shaping modern research today. Get the report here.
Editor picks
The flaw is the feature →
What is polish actually worth?Strategy in the age of the machine →
Moving past the myth of productivity.The gesture and the instruction →
Two kinds of design work, two kinds of tired.
The UX Collective is an independent design publication that elevates unheard design voices and helps designers think more critically about their work.
fonts.xyz: a creator-driven indie type platform →
Make me think
Exploring vs Exploiting →
“The outcomes in exploitative work are often immediately measurable and it’s easy to draw a line between discovery and how it impacts the outcomes stakeholders care about. Explore has none of that. Exploration is messy and the output is unclear - unknown even.”Discovery vs Delivery →
“In talking to my peers and in consuming far too much AI content — there’s a tension I’m feeling when discussing how AI can speed up delivery. The fear is usually that quality will suffer — which quickly turns into a vague conversation about intuition, judgment and craft romanticism. Outside of design teams, the conversation gets harder still, with any opinion that isn’t explicitly “AI is the answer” framed as being protectionist, or somehow against progress.”Falling in love with the build →
“You build something lovely. A transition that springs just right. A loading state that feels alive. Then, quietly, you start working backwards. You go looking for the reason to ship it. Not because the reason came first, but because the alternative is deleting work you enjoyed making.”
Little gems this week
Liquid Glass: who gets to decide how an interface looks? →
What a walled city in Hong Kong can teach us about the future of AI →
Tools and resources
Design for pain →
How to make the worst moment better.Design without borders →
How icon design reveals a perspective on accessibilityWhat is AX Design? →
Why do we need this new role.
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