Latest / The Feed & The Thread / The Feed & The Thread - July 23, 2026

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The Feed & The Thread - July 23, 2026 · The Feed & The Thread

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  AI is demoting the screen entirely. So the interface
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  disappears? It does, and we're breaking down exactly how your
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  design workflow shifts when the canvas is no longer the primary
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  output.
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  Welcome to The Feed and The Thread, brought to you by
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  Chicago Camps. Leadership By Design is on Thursday and
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  Friday, September 17 and 18 and tickets are available now! And
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  minute UX at five em UX dot com. The Feed & The Thread is
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  The interface is disappearing, and that's changing how we
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  define our work. We're moving from building screens to
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  orchestrating intent, which means the tools we use and the
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  problems we solve are shifting under our feet. Serg Zorin
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  makes this case in "The screens are getting demoted" at UX
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  Design.cc. He argues that AI agents handle complexity behind
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  the scenes, reducing the need for multi-step manual processes
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  like sending emails. Dashboards and configuration pages are
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  often just workarounds for systems that lack autonomy. As
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  the gap between user intent and system action closes, designers
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  must stop focusing on graphical layouts and start designing for
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  outcome. That rewrites the assumption that a good interface
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  requires visible controls. Nick Babich examines this tension at
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  UX Planet in "Is Figma Losing the AI Race?". He questions
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  whether Figma is losing its dominance because it integrates
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  generative AI slower than emerging competitors. While
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  Figma set the standard years ago, new platforms use natural
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  language to generate interfaces, automating repetitive tasks.
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  This challenges Figma's core value proposition, suggesting
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  its legacy status might become a liability. The real risk isn't
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  just competition, but becoming irrelevant to the next
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  generation of design workflows. Filip Zrnzevic provides a
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  technical look at this in "Building Ridgeline: Engineering
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  a Real-Time 3D Experience in Webflow" at Codrops. He details
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  how to build real-time three- dimensional terrain rendering in
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  Webflow using complex WebGL shaders. The article focuses on
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  architectural decisions that keep performance high without
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  causing browser lag. It shows that high-end interactive
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  experiences are possible outside traditional coding frameworks.
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  This proves that no-code platforms can now handle
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  cinematic, data-rich interactions if you optimize
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  correctly. Other articles today from UX Design.cc on the digital
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  walls we build and UX Planet on testing AI coding models.
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  Designers are shifting from building static screens to
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  orchestrating intent, which means the tools we use and the
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  problems we solve are changing right under our feet. Over on
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  r/UXResearch, practitioners are looking at Constantine's new
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  book on AI-powered research, signaling a move toward
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  automated insight generation. This matters because if AI
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  handles the data crunching, our job shifts from collecting
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  evidence to interpreting meaning. We need to define what
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  "research" actually is when the interface for gathering it
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  disappears. In r/UXResearch, a designer asked why side projects
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  never happen despite the best intentions, citing post-work
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  fatigue and the pressure to learn AI. This reveals a real
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  tension between the demand for constant upskilling and the
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  human limit of energy. If we're too exhausted to experiment, we
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  lose the very creativity that defines our work. On
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  r/UI_Design, someone noticed YouTube experimenting with
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  gradients and depth, challenging the long reign of flat design.
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  This suggests the interface isn't just disappearing, it's
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  becoming more tactile and emotional again. We might be
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  moving past minimalism toward designs that feel like physical
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  objects, even if they're not. In r/UXDesign, a new hire with a
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  visual background is asking how to start as a product designer,
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  highlighting the gap between theory and practice. This is
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  where the shift to orchestrating intent hits hardest. You can't
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  just learn a tool; you have to learn how to navigate ambiguity
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  without a clear screen to point to. Finally, in r/UI_Design, a
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  team pivoted a productivity app from a premium look to a hand-
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  drawn style, questioning if personality outweighs usability.
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  This connects back to our theme. When the interface fades, the
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  brand voice becomes the interface. We have to decide if
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  clarity or character drives the user's intent. The real
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  challenge isn't the tools, it's knowing what to build when the
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  screen is no longer the primary artifact.
• 4:25
  Chicago Camps is hosting Leadership By Design on Thursday
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  & Friday, September 17 & 18. It's an online event, so you can
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  join from anywhere in the world! Tickets are free, thanks to the
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  generosity of the community! If it's within your budget, you can
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  purchase a general admission ticket for only twenty six
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  dollars - with limited early bird tickets at only fifteen
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  dollars. Get tickets now at Chicago Camps dot org.
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  The shift from building screens to orchestrating intent feels
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  like the most structural change we've seen in a decade. When AI
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  agents handle the complexity behind the scenes, the dashboard
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  isn't just a tool, it's a workaround for a system that
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  lacks autonomy. Exactly. And that's why the r/UI_Design
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  thread about that hand-drawn productivity app hits so hard.
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  If the interface fades, the brand voice becomes the
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  interface. We have to decide if clarity or character drives the
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  user's intent when there are no buttons to push. That's a risky
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  pivot though. If we move toward tactile, emotional designs like
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  the YouTube gradient experiments, we risk obscuring
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  the very efficiency these agents are supposed to create. The
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  interface is disappearing so we can focus on outcome, not
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  aesthetics. I don't see it as a conflict. The tactile feel
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  provides the trust that allows the agent to act. Without that
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  emotional connection, the user won't grant the autonomy needed
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  for the interface to truly fade. It's not about decoration, it's
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  about permission. So the design challenge isn't layout anymore.
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  It's defining the boundaries of that trust. We're moving from
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  graphical layouts to designing the relationship between human
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  intent and system action. Right. And that means our job
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  shifts from collecting data to curating the context that makes
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  that trust possible. The metric for success is no longer how
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  easy it's to use the tool. It's how well the system understands
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  what you actually wanted to achieve.
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  That's The Feed and The Thread for today. We'll catch you next
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  time!