Google's MC Dean, the author of over 100 AI skills for designers on everything from accessibility to moods, joins Nik and Dan to talk about Skills: how to make them, how to use them, and what the future of them could be.

LINKS

MC Dean on Substack
https://marieclairedean.substack.com/

MC Dean on Github
https://github.com/owl-listener

Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman book
https://amzn.to/4sYGQek

Surprise surprise, Dan and Nik talk about Anthropic's launch of Claude Design. The Nik does a set of rapid-fire interviews from the 2026 CHI conference, featuring the latest HCI research in AI and Design.

Dan checks out a Fast Company interview with Anthropic's Head of Design Joel Lewenstein and finds reasons for hope. Dmitry Kargaev points out the flaws of AI UX and has some reasons for why is happens. A catalog of AI brand archetypes, and Dan applauds Patrizia Bertini's call to rethink Human-Centered Design to be less about "users" and more about "citizens."

Links:

Fast Company Interview with Joel Lewenstein

https://www.fastcompany.com/91519289/inside-anthropics-biggest-design-choices

AI Products Have Terrible UX: Here's Why

https://hackernoon.com/ai-products-have-terrible-ux-heres-why

Aesthetics of AI

https://www.acolorbright.com/en/insights/aesthetics-of-ai

Human-Centred Design has grown up. It’s time we did too

https://uxdesign.cc/human-centred-design-has-grown-up-it-is-time-we-did-too-766601c1fc7d

We're All Doing The Same Job Now

https://odannyboy.medium.com/were-all-doing-the-same-job-now-81924e0c80d6

The Existential Designer

https://odannyboy.medium.com/the-existential-designer-facilitating-meaning-through-interaction-8952c358ec52

Dan, Nik, and special guest Mike Kuniavsky ("Observing the User Experience") do a deep dive into the impact of AI on the traditional design practice and process. They get into the disappearing/evolving role of design artifacts, the influence of AI on design literacy, and the reevaluation of the design process in the age of AI. AI has triggered the democratization of design tools, a shift in organizational power dynamics, and ofttimes the complete disregard for of unknown unknowns. They also explore the changing product risk surface, the redefinition of scale in design practice, and the role of synthetic users in user-centered design.

LINKS:

Mike's article "Design practice assumes a world that no longer exists: what’s next?" https://medium.com/@mikekuniavsky/design-practice-assumes-a-world-that-no-longer-exists-whats-next-ca3f588ad4d8

Other recent articles on Design Process:

https://www.nngroup.com/articles/design-process-isnt-dead/

https://www.nngroup.com/articles/design-process-isnt-dead/

https://medium.com/@kristian.bjornhaug/the-design-process-isnt-dead-but-ai-is-changing-where-design-happens-220dce1b3acd

https://medium.com/design-bootcamp/the-new-design-process-2-6-2b5967507263

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/design-process-isnt-dead-its-only-thing-save-us-rick-starbuck-7pbmc/

“Cognitive surrender” leads AI users to abandon logical thinking, research finds https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/04/research-finds-ai-users-scarily-willing-to-surrender-their-cognition-to-llms/

Dan and Nik talk about Anthropic's latest announcement about computer use and its impact on how designers design screens. Then they discuss the article "AI didn't kill product intuition. It exposed who never had it." Author Chris Noessel stops by to talk about his new book Designing Assistant Technology and the challenges and considerations in designing AI to assist users. The conversation touches on the risks of descaling and over-reliance, and cthe importance of keeping cognitive engagement in AI design.

https://amzn.to/414zOta
https://www.productparty.us/p/ai-didnt-kill-product-intuition-it

Dan and Nik offer opinions on Google Stitch, a new design tool that just dropped from Google Labs. They also dig deep into John Maeda's 2026 Design in Tech report, debating his key insights for designers in the evolving landscape of AI and design. Lastly, a discussion on the codification, sharing and future of downloadable design skills.

Google Stitch: https://stitch.withgoogle.com/
Design in Tech 2026: https://designintech.report/
MC Dean's Skills: https://substack.com/@marieclairedean/p-190232071 and https://substack.com/@marieclairedean/p-190956350

Nik and Dan talk about new AI image editing tools from Canva and Adobe and the value of baking AI right into existing tools. The conversation switches to a provocative new essay by George Sivulka on the importance of Institutional AI and not just Individual AI, which can be chaotic if it's not coordinated.

https://x.com/gsivulka/status/2031797989908627849

Lastly, Dan interviews Louise Macfadyn, author of the upcoming book Designing AI Interfaces.

https://amzn.to/4lAf9qi

There was just too many interesting stories this week, so Nik and Dan do a Very Special Hot Takes episode with a wide-ranging conversation that covers 14 topics, including the importance of product sense, open source tools, the cultivation of design judgment, the urgency of AI regulation, the future of AI images, the impact of AI on design jobs, real-time UI, writing specs for AI agents, and breaking the echo chamber in interfaces.

Chapters

• 01:05 AI Brain Fry
• 02:47 The Importance of Product Sense
• 05:40 Collaborative Editing in AI-Generated Images
• 07:52 The Model is The Machine
• 12:06 User Experience and Proprietary Data in AI Products
• 16:06 Sacred Values in AI
• 19:50 OpenPencil
• 22:46 Training Design Judgment
• 26:57 The Critical Need for AI Regulation
• 30:01 The Future of AI Image Generation
• 31:50 Sorting Designers
• 35:38 Real-Time UI
• 41:58 Writing Effective Specs for AI Agents
• 45:28 Breaking the Echo Chamber in Interfaces