Latest / The Feed & The Thread / The Feed & The Thread - March 9, 2026

Transcript

The Feed & The Thread - March 9, 2026 · The Feed & The Thread

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  Scott Hines says AI makes blueprints more critical than
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  ever. And Apple just dropped a design language that might
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  ignore accessibility entirely. Or designers just might hate
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  change as much as they hate the way things are today. So the
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  architects are failing and the trendsetters are skipping the
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  basics. And no one is happy, no matter the outcome. Sounds about
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  right. Let's get into it.
• 0:22
  Welcome to The Feed and The Thread, brought to you by
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  Chicago Camps. There's an open call for speakers for UX Camp
• 0:27
  Summer on May 30th, so now is your chance to get on stage and
• 0:30
  share your ideas! You can use our Proposal Counselor to help
• 0:33
  you get submitted today. The Feed & The Thread is available
• 0:35
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• 0:40
  right to your pocket.
• 0:48
  Today's Feed tackles a sharp tension: if AI makes "working" a
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  commodity, what exactly is left for human designers to do? That
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  shift means functionality is no longer your competitive edge.
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  Elaine at UX Design.cc makes this case in "Design is not just
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  how it works. Design is how it wins," and she argues we must
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  pivot from solving usability problems to creating strategic
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  value. That rewrites the assumption that fixing friction
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  is the end goal. And if we keep building feature lists, we're
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  just creating Frankenstein products. Roman Pichler writes
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  "Get the Outcomes on Your Product Roadmap Right," where he
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  pushes teams to prioritize customer goals over fixed
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  capabilities. He shows how deriving outcomes from strategy
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  stops stakeholders from competing for unrelated
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  features. Finally, rapid AI generation risks building
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  stairways to nowhere without a clear plan. Scott Hines at UX
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  Design.cc argues in "Stairways to nowhere: why AI makes
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  blueprints matter more than ever" that we need human-
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  centered architects before engineering begins. He revives
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  an old manifesto to ensure software serves human movement
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  and purpose. Also publishing recently: Jeff Gothelf, UX
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  Design.cc, UX Planet, and Chicago Camps posted Veronica
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  Naguib's UX Camp Winter replay on "Rigour and agility:
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  Balancing both in UX Research."
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  Apple dropped its new design language this week and the
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  community has thoughts. Is Apple's Liquid Glass UI ignoring
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  accessibility principles? That is the question, yet again and
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  again, over on r/UXDesign, and it is getting real traction. The
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  original poster argues the transparency effects and frosted
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  overlays create serious issues for users with limited vision,
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  and that this might actually violate legal accessibility
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  requirements. One commenter's entire response is just: yes.
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  Others are split; some defend the aesthetic ambition while
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  pointing out that Apple has always pushed visual trends
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  first. The bigger question is whether the most influential
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  design team in the industry just shipped something that fails
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  basic contrast guidelines. The biggest question is whether
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  designers can ever find happiness in this world.
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  Meanwhile, the career side of the community is wrestling with
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  a different kind of power imbalance. Over on r/UXDesign, a
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  designer posted that hiring managers who down-level a
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  candidate are not doing the flex they think. They were hired for
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  a Principal role, got quietly dropped to a lower tier, and
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  eventually resigned despite strong performance. The comments
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  are sharp: one points out that middle management has
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  disproportionate power right now as layoffs reshuffle who
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  controls what. Another says down-leveling creates an
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  artificial ceiling that damages retention more than it protects
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  budgets. And this podcast says: mediocre managers will do all
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  that they can to protect their space without regard to the
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  impact of others. Two very different conversations, and
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  they share a common thread: the people making the decisions are
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  not the ones living with the consequences.
• 3:43
  Chicago Camps is hosting UX Camp Summer on Saturday, May 30th.
• 3:46
  There's an open call for speakers so submit your idea
• 3:49
  today! It's an online event, so you can join from anywhere in
• 3:52
  the world! Tickets are free, thanks to the generosity of the
• 3:55
  community! If it's within your budget, you can purchase a
• 3:58
  general admission ticket for only thirteen dollars and fifty
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  cents. Get tickets now at Chicago Camps dot org.
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  The Liquid Glass thing is wild to me. Apple just shipped the
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  most visible design system update in years and the first
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  question is whether it is accessible. And that connects
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  directly to the Feed today. If design is how you win, as that
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  UX Design.cc piece argues, then Apple just proved that winning
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  and being responsible may not be the same thing. Right! And here
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  is where it gets interesting. Roman Pichler's point about
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  outcome-focused roadmaps applies here too. Apple's outcome was
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  clearly visual impact, not necessarily, nor entirely
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  inclusive reach. Which is exactly the problem the down-
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  leveled designer is describing from the inside. The people
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  making decisions are optimizing for metrics that have nothing to
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  do with the people doing the work. And Scott Hines' blueprint
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  argument lands even harder now. If AI is generating interfaces
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  faster than ever, and Apple is setting the visual standard, who
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  is the architect making sure accessibility does not get left
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  behind? Nobody, apparently. That's the gap. We've got
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  beautiful tools and no accountability framework. Maybe
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  the accountability has to come from the practitioners who are
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  being down-leveled and squeezed out. They are the ones who know
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  where the cracks are. If they stick around long enough to say
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  something. That is the real risk. Some days it feels like
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  bounce city over here with people starting to leave design,
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  and tech, or at least openly making plans to do so.
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  That's The Feed and The Thread for today. We'll catch you next
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  time!