Welcome back. We're getting pretty technical over here at UX Tools. The reason for this is two-fold: Tools are breaking down more technical barriers for designers The number of tools heading this direction are increasing dramatically I can understand designers who push back against this. But I've gotten a few angry comments from designers for simply exploring these tools at all. The work we do here at UX Tools, from our interviews to our annual surveys, is in service of helping you decide...
9 days ago • 6 min read
Welcome back. It's been a dizzying week in design: Dribbble Policy Changes: The design community is losing its mind over Dribbble's new policy of walled payments. Many are saying goodbye. Felix Lee and ADP List Drama: Design mentorship platform ADP List and its founder are being hit hard by design theft and content accusations. Config Speaker Lineup Dropped: Figma released their conference linup. I'm stoked for Inga Hampton sharing her chaotic Figma process, Steve Sewell's talk on coding...
14 days ago • 5 min read
Welcome back. Last week, 40,000 people watched live as we pitted a Webflow pro against an AI design tool in the most ridiculous design battle I've ever hosted. What started as Henrik declaring "Webflow is officially dead" turned into a spectacle that's now been viewed over 200k times. The whole thing was planned in 7 days, judged by myself, Hunter, and Tom Johnson, and apparently had $200k in side bets (seriously, don't do that). Brett from DesignJoy took the W using Webflow, winning...
29 days ago • 7 min read
Welcome back. Some tea from Design Twitter: Henrik from Lovable.dev declared "Webflow is officially dead" after launching their AI tool's visual editor. Brett from DesignJoy (known for popularizing subscription agencies) wasn't having it. He challenged Henrik to a live duel: Henrik using Lovable.dev Brett using Webflow Surprise design prompt 45 minutes to compete Henrik accepted, and I'm hosting the Build Wars this Friday at 11am PT: Being extremely extra in the intro today Register to watch...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
Welcome back. A few days ago, Pietro Schirano sat at his computer and typed, "there is legitimately no reason to use Figma anymore," and Design Twitter got a little rowdy. And while I see both sides, in hindsight this will seem like a very 2025 argument punctuating the end of the 2-dimensional design stack. From research to production, I'm having convos with design tool companies, and everyone is thinking about how to support new ways of working. Even motion design tools. —Tommy...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
Welcome back. I'm sitting here watching a website come alive with physics-driven animations that would've taken a team of developers months to build in 2020. Instead, it took me 30 minutes. This isn't about AI. This is about how new tools are letting designers add juice to our interfaces – those non-essential but magical touches that make things feel alive. The barriers between imagining delightful interactions and actually building them are falling fast. What used to require deep knowledge...
about 2 months ago • 4 min read
Welcome back. I covered Sonos' $30M redesign failure last year (now estimated up to $500M). Their CEO was just replaced and it got me thinking about product failures. After analyzing 127 failed digital products across 18 industries last year, one stat still leaves me jaw-dropped: 68% of product failures boil down to prototype fidelity mismatches. In other words, it’s not that your code can’t scale or you didn't have enough influence, it’s that your prototype failed to surface issues until it...
2 months ago • 5 min read
Welcome back. Fun fact: I helped a company hit a $1B valuation using OneUI components. Yes, an off-the-shelf UI kit. And they’re not the only ones. Plenty of today's most successful products are built on frameworks like Tailwind, Radix, and Shadcn, or specialized libraries like Tremor. Yet some designers suggest that's a discredit. Spoiler: it's not. In 2025, UI kits have evolved to solve real, hard problems at any scale - from weekend projects to billion-dollar products. UI kits have gotten...
2 months ago • 3 min read
Welcome back. AI code editors are design tools. That's going to need to be said a lot this year. I'm coming off a caffeinated weekend where I shipped a nostalgic personal site, built a text-based adventure game, and built a visual tracker for designers who ship. Some are still prototypes, but I was definitely doing design work in very new way. It feels like 2001 when the internet was the wild west for the creative and curious. It feels like 2009 when small founders could become big companies....
3 months ago • 6 min read