We live in a world saturated with products and functionality is no longer enough. What sets products apart now is how they fit into people's lives, how they make someone feel, and whether they earn trust over time.
Design sits at that intersection. It shapes behavior and emotion often invisibly. Many of the most memorable product moments weren't flashy features, but strategic and intentional decisions: the sound of "You've got mail," the friendliness of MSN Messenger, the quiet confidence of Google's early typography. At the time they felt natural and in hindsight they were deeply considered design choices.
That kind of impact is why I care about design. Not as decoration, but as a way to translate complexity into clarity, and technology into something people can actually connect with. Design has been shaping how we interact with software for decades, and as products grow more powerful and more autonomous, understanding how to design them thoughtfully matters more than ever.
Today, that means designing with and for AI. I use AI as an augmentation of my design process: not to replace judgment, but to extend it. The tools below help me move faster where speed matters, go deeper where insight matters, and stay focused on the human problems underneath the technology.
User & market research.
- Claude (projects + files): synthesize interview transcripts, field notes, survey exports; maintain a persistent research knowledge base; extract themes, contradictions, and edge cases
- ChatGPT (advanced reasoning + context): generate interview guides, JTBD hypotheses, survey questions; summarize raw research across multiple sources
- Dovetail AI: auto-tag qualitative data, surface patterns across interviews, speed up research ops
- Aurelius AI: insight clustering and research repository intelligence
- Perplexity: fast secondary research, market scans, trend synthesis with citations
- Miro AI: user personas, user journeys, and brainstorming on a collaborative whiteboard.
Wireframing.
- Relume: site maps and wireframes from simple text descriptions to speed up the planning phase.
- Mokkup.ai: dashboard wireframes with one-click export to BI tools.
- Balsamiq AI Assistant: AI-driven suggestions for low-fidelity wireframes to speed up structure planning.
Requirements & decision framing.
- Attention Insight: predicts where users will focus using AI-powered eye-tracking heatmaps, integrated directly into Figma.
- Productboard AI: connect insights to requirements and prioritization.
- Notion AI: living design briefs and decision logs
Digital prototyping.
- Figma Make: generate functional UI and flows from prompts, rapid iteration without manual assembly
- Figma AI: auto-generate layouts, copy, variants and components.
- Uizard: text-to-wireframe and wireframe-to-UI flows.
- Framer AI: fully interactive, responsive websites from text prompts, best for motion and animation.
- UXPin: AI-assisted functional prototyping with logic, variables, and conditions.
Copywriting & asset generation .
- Jasper: writing UX copy, microcopy, button labels, and generating user personas.
- Adobe Firefly 4: generating production-quality vector graphics, brand assets, and images that maintain brand consistency.
- Khroma: building personalized color palettes based on user preferences.
- Recraft AI: generating clean and editable vector icons and illustrations.
Usability & UX testing.
- Maze AI: automated usability insights and summaries.
- UserTesting AI: test result synthesis and pattern detection.
- ChatGPT / Claude: analyze usability transcripts, cluster issues, generate prioritized findings.
- Dovetail: Uses AI to analyze user research data in real-time, identifying themes, sentiment, and patterns.
- UX Pilot: assistant for the entire UX lifecycle (generates research questions, user personas and even conducts AI-powered UX design reviews).
My design process.
1 • Empathize
I identify target users and stakeholders and do stakeholder & user interviews as well as contextual inquiry, supported by ethnographic research, surveys, and quantitative analysis. I perform competitive analysis, market and trend analysis, and Jobs-to-be-Done research to understand user behaviors, motivations, and unmet needs. I document constraints (technical, regulatory, and environmental factors) and synthesize this research into evidence-based insights.
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2 • Define
In order to clarify the core problem, I align user needs with business goals, success metrics, and constraints. I synthesize insights using affinity mapping, define personas, and create user journey maps or experience maps to reveal pain points and opportunity areas. I frame problems through How Might We statements, define functional and non-functional requirements, including UX, technical, and regulatory needs, prioritize them using frameworks like MoSCoW or Kano, and produce a clear problem statement, acceptance criteria, and design brief.
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3 • Ideate
I generate and explore solutions through brainstorming, divergent thinking, sketching, and rapid concept generation, informed by analogous inspiration and co-creation workshops. I cluster and refine concepts, conduct initial feasibility checks, and explore system-level and experience-level approaches. I evaluate ideas using trade-off analysis, risk assessment, and concept scoring or decision matrices, facilitate stakeholder reviews, and select concepts to move forward.
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4 • Prototype
To translate concepts into tangible solutions, I define system and experience architecture (information architecture, interaction flows, task models, and component relationships). I create low, medium, and high-fidelity prototypes, using simulation and modeling where appropriate, and develop detailed design such as wireframes, interaction and visual design, design systems, or industrial design, ergonomics, materials, and engineering specifications. I like to iterate rapidly through multiple prototype cycles to progressively increase fidelity and confidence.
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5 • Test
I validate designs through usability testing, user acceptance testing, functional, performance, accessibility, and compliance testing, collecting both qualitative and quantitative feedback. I analyze results, prioritize issues, refine designs, re-prototype, and re-test critical flows to ensure requirements are met but also support design finalization.
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6 • Implement
I partner closely with engineering, and delivery teams to translate final designs into production-ready solutions. I support implementation through detailed design specifications, documentation, and handoff sessions, while collaborating on technical decisions, resolving constraints, and answering edge cases that emerge during build. I do design QA, review in-progress work to ensure fidelity to design intent. I validate shipped outputs against requirements and success metrics, support launch readiness, and make sure the implemented product aligns with user needs, quality standards, and business goals for continuous improvement.