Has any of the following ever happened to you? Your product manager shows you ten screens they vibe coded over the weekend. Or, and this is probably even worse, your CEO wonders out loud why you need a product designer at all now. Situations like this is what makes designers quit. At the same time, others feel like they can suddenly build anything. Both sides have a point, which makes it hard to decide where you stand.
In this episode of The Design Table Podcast, Tyler and Nick sit down with Danny Hope, founder of UX Brighton and one of the most experienced voices in UX today. They discuss what AI is doing to UX jobs in reality and what designers can do about it. No doom-and-gloom or super hype. Instead, they stick to what's happening based on conversations with designers on the job.
Danny shares how he was made redundant from a developer-heavy company partly because "we've got Claude Design now", and how AI creates a new problem for designers: you're still accountable for the design even when other people ship those designs without you. Tyler explains his team's rule for AI prototypes: anyone can make one, but it goes through the same design review as anything else inside the company.
They also get into ambition. Danny uses the 'skateboard versus car' analogy to rethink the MVP, Tyler explains why his team says MLP instead, and Danny makes the case for pass/fail criteria as a core skill for briefing both teams and AI tools. Tyler opens up about measuring design impact in fintech, where sales cycles run from six months to two years.
Then it gets candid. Tyler argues design systems have made products overly consistent and killed some craft. Danny counters that commoditization is how the industry moves on to bigger problems, from WordPress to £5 logos to nicely indented CSS.
In this episode you will learn:
🔸 Why some designers feel displaced by AI while others feel more capable than ever
🔸 How Tyler's team lets anyone prototype without losing edge cases and flows
🔸 Why AI-made designs create a responsibility problem for UX people
🔸 What it means to be more ambitious with AI, using the skateboard vs car analogy
🔸 How MLP (minimum lovable product) can fix, or be abused just like, the MVP
🔸 Why pass/fail criteria are a key skill for briefing teams and AI tools
🔸 How to measure design impact when sales cycles last up to two years
🔸 The North Star metric approach Tyler uses so small wins ladder up
🔸 Why human-to-human service could become a company's biggest advantage
🔸 Why whiteboards and paper sketching are making a comeback for Danny
🔸 How side projects can represent you better than a portfolio
🔸 What design systems and commoditization have taken away from craft
Chapters:
00:00 Thanksgiving and our second guest
01:40 How UX Brighton started in 2008
04:16 The two camps of vibe coding
07:08 Laid off because of AI design tools
10:32 Tyler's rule for everyone prototyping
12:00 Who owns it when anyone ships designs
13:23 Craft vs strategy: which do you love?
16:59 Designing human-to-human service
20:33 How to get more ambitious with AI
26:19 MVP, MLP and the skateboard vs car
31:07 Pass/fail criteria for designers and AI
34:22 Measuring impact on 2-year sales cycles
40:40 Why whiteboards and paper are back
42:42 Have design systems killed craft?
47:58 Why handmade work keeps its value
52:29 UX Brighton dates and tickets
UX Brighton conference, Friday November 6 at the Brighton Dome Concert Hall: https://uxbri.org
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More about Tyler and Nick Tyler: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/hosts/tyler-white Nick: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/hosts/nick-groeneveld
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