Latest / The Feed & The Thread / The Feed & The Thread - March 13, 2026

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The Feed & The Thread - March 13, 2026 · The Feed & The Thread

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  So AI design tools are quietly outsourcing our actual problem-
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  solving skills. That's terrifying, because we're
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  trading speed for the very strategy we're hired for. And
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  the scary part is we don't even notice we're doing it until
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  we're full-fledged production jockeys. That's where it gets
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  interesting.
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  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
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  Summer on May 30th, so now is your chance to get on stage and
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  share your ideas! You can use our Proposal Counselor to help
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  you get submitted today. The Feed & The Thread is available
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  online at feed and thread dot com to submit your feeds, or
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  download our app for all the feeds and threads delivered
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  right to your pocket.
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  Today's Feed tackles a tension between speed and depth, asking
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  if our tools are quietly eroding our critical thinking while we
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  chase efficiency. The rush to use AI for quick outputs risks a
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  hidden cost: cognitive atrophy where designers lose the ability
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  to wrestle with messy problems. Andy Bhattacharyya at UX
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  Design.cc makes this uncomfortable case in "The
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  hidden cost of AI design tools - What we're outsourcing without
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  noticing." He warns that swapping deep work for prompt
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  crafting creates an aesthetic monoculture and dulls our
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  intuition for user frustration. Which is interesting; it's like
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  someone saying that you're going to get dumber by trying to learn
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  a new thing that requires you to know what you're doing, in
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  detail, in order to deliver well. Measuring success by full
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  automation misses the real value when AI agents handle high-
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  stakes queries that still need human oversight. Darragh Curran
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  at Intercom Blog argues for shifting from resolution metrics
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  to outcomes in "From resolutions to outcomes: Evolving how Fin
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  delivers value." He shows that a safe handoff to a human is often
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  more valuable than forcing a risky, fully automated end
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  result. Also publishing recently: Codrops, and Chicago
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  Camps released Twisha Shah Brandenburg's UX Camp Winter
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  presentation, "From Resistance to Reinvention: The Human Work
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  of Design Maturity," for replay.
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  Welcome back to the Thread, where we check in on what the
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  community is ruminating on. Over on r/UI_Design, someone
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  just admitted their landing page got roasted for poor contrast
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  and typography, so they're showing the before and after.
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  It's a raw look at how harsh public critique can actually
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  force a necessary pivot. For everyone else, it's a reminder
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  that sometimes you need a little heat to fix what you missed. And
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  for everyone else else, it's a reminder that a good process
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  involves "sharing before you're ready" so this feedback doesn't
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  get delivered after launch. You know, like a design process
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  should work. The topic of fake interviews is circulating in
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  r/UXDesign, raising a serious question about whether companies
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  are using these sessions just to waste time. It reveals a growing
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  distrust in hiring processes where the outcome feels
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  predetermined before you even start. If you're applying, you
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  need to know when an opportunity is real and when it's just a
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  ghost. In r/uxwriting, there's a pushback against designers who
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  obsess over doing everything the "right way" according to the
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  textbooks. The tension here's between rigid best practices and
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  the messy reality of actual user needs. Sometimes the most
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  effective solution is the one that bends the rule, not the one
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  that follows it perfectly. We're also seeing designers in
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  r/UXDesign get wildly different feedback on the exact same case
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  study. It highlights how subjective critique can be when
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  you're trying to prove your skills. You've got to decide if
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  you're designing for the job or for the specific person reading
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  your portfolio. Finally, r/UI_Design is debating whether
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  terminal-based layouts have a place in modern interfaces. It's
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  a niche question, but it forces us to ask if we're ignoring
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  power users who prefer keyboard over mouse. That's a valid
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  trade-off we often gloss over. And if you're vibe coding, is it
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  really all that niche? C'mon, now. The takeaway? Nobody has
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  it figured out, and the ones pretending they do are the ones
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  you should worry about.
• 3:54
  Chicago Camps is hosting UX Camp Summer on Saturday, May 30th.
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  There's an open call for speakers so submit your idea
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  today! It's an online event, so you can join from anywhere in
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  the world! Tickets are free, thanks to the generosity of the
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  community! If it's within your budget, you can purchase a
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  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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  Andy Bhattacharyya's warning about cognitive atrophy hits
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  hard when we realize we're swapping deep work for prompt
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  crafting. It's not just about losing the ability to wrestle
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  with messy problems, it's the claim that we're creating an
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  aesthetic monoculture. It's a bit of a leap acting like
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  there's not a lot of thinking happening in the work of prompt
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  crafting. That monoculture sounds risky, but isn't the real
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  value in shifting our metrics from resolution to outcomes like
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  Darragh Curran suggests? Shifting metrics helps, but if a
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  designer can't spot user frustration without a tool
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  telling them, the handoff to a human feels desperate. The
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  handoff is still safer than a fully automated error, and that
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  safety net proves we still need human judgment in the loop. No
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  skills file is going to solve these challenges. True, yet the
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  fear is that we'll forget how to do the heavy lifting while we're
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  waiting for that handoff to happen. And that fear is, you
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  know, sounding a lot more like fear of change from a comfort
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  zone than anything else. So we treat the tool as a speed
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  booster, not a replacement for the intuition we built over
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  years of practice. I just worry that speed becomes the only
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  thing we measure, and that we act like we're losing intuition
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  due to our fear of adapting to new environments.
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  That's The Feed and The Thread for today. We'll catch you next
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  time!