Latest / The Feed & The Thread / The Feed & The Thread - June 8, 2026

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The Feed & The Thread - June 8, 2026 · The Feed & The Thread

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  AI handles the pixels now. So what's left for designers?
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  Strategy, because emotional intelligence is the one
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  competitive advantage machines simply can't replicate.
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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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  while you're at it, get caught up on UX fundamentals with five
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  minute UX at five em UX dot com. The Feed & The Thread is
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  available online at feed and thread dot com to submit your
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  feeds, or download our app for all the feeds and threads
• 0:31
  delivered right to your pocket.
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  We've spent years treating speed as the ultimate metric for
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  design success. But as automation handles the
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  mechanical work, that metric is becoming a trap. The real value
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  isn't in how fast you can push pixels, but in how deeply you
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  can understand the human context behind them. Daleen Rabe at UX
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  Design.cc makes this case in "Let the AI have the pixels",
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  arguing that designers must stop competing with machines on
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  precision. The shift is from pixel-pushing to practical
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  wisdom, which means making sound judgments in ambiguous
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  situations. AI can generate layouts, but it can't replicate
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  the nuanced understanding of ethics or business goals. Your
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  competitive advantage is no longer speed, but strategic
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  judgment. Roman Pichler at his own blog expands this idea in
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  "Emotional Intelligence for Product Managers: The
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  Competitive Advantage AI Can’t Replicate", focusing on the
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  emotional intelligence that product managers need. He
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  contrasts IQ with EQ, noting that high intellectual
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  capability often fails without the ability to manage emotions.
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  Successful leadership requires understanding human dynamics,
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  which data analysis simply can't replicate. It's about
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  relationship management, not just requirement gathering. San
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  Rita shares their design philosophy in "No Two Paths
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  Alike: Inside San Rita’s Approach to Digital
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  Experiences", published on Codrops, rejecting standard
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  templates in favor of bespoke discovery. They treat every
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  brief as a unique path, advocating for adaptive
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  strategies that evolve during the project. This challenges the
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  industry's push for standardized systems by highlighting the
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  value of non-linear processes. Flexibility matters more than
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  consistency when uncovering specific user needs. Other
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  articles today from UX Design.cc on file archiving, the habit of
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  logging off, and why flaws can be features.
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  There's a quiet tension running through the community today.
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  We're seeing a shift away from speed as the primary metric. The
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  focus is turning toward depth. Designers are asking what
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  matters when the mechanical work disappears. Over on r/UXDesign,
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  someone asked a deceptively simple question. Is skincare
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  marketing actually a better teacher than design school? The
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  post suggests these brands visualize complex data with
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  surprising clarity. It challenges us to look outside
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  our industry. We often ignore how other fields handle
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  information architecture. This matters because clarity is
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  universal. It isn't bound by tools or trends. If a lotion
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  bottle can explain ingredients simply, we can explain user
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  flows. In r/UserExperience, a student asked if an undergrad
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  psychology paper helps land a research role. They want the
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  iterative nature of design, not rigid academia. This highlights
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  a real friction point. Credentials signal rigor, but
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  practice signals empathy. The industry needs both. Yet we
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  often treat them as separate tracks. The question reveals our
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  anxiety about legitimacy. Are we researchers or designers? The
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  answer is usually both. Depth of understanding trumps the format
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  of the degree. Back on r/UXDesign, the community is
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  questioning our output. Are we designing products or just
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  designing screenshots? The concern is valid. Perfect
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  visuals often ignore error states. They ignore
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  accessibility and technical limits. This is the trap of
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  speed. We optimize for the portfolio, not the user. The
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  real value lies in the messy middle. That's where context
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  lives. Screenshots are static. Products are dynamic. We must
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  design for the latter. Another thread in r/UXDesign seeks a
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  Figma alternative without AI. The request is specific. They
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  want open source software that excludes generative features.
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  This is a reaction to the noise. Some designers feel overwhelmed
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  by prompt-based suggestions. They miss the tactile control of
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  the tool. It shows a desire for intentionality. When tools
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  decide for us, we lose agency. The pushback isn't anti-
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  technology. It's pro-craft. We need tools that serve the
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  vision, not dictate it. Finally, a new graduate in
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  r/UXDesign asked how to launch a project. They have the design
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  skills but lack the coding knowledge. This is a common gap.
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  School teaches the prototype, not the product. The question
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  exposes our siloed training. We design in vacuums. But real
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  products require maintenance. Understanding deployment changes
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  how we design. It grounds us in reality. The path forward is
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  collaboration. Or it's learning the basics. Either way, we must
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  bridge the gap. The thread today suggests a maturation of
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  the field. We're moving past the hype. We're returning to the
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  human context. That's where the real work begins.
• 5:01
  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 pixel perfection to strategic judgment feels like
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  the most significant structural change in our field right now.
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  It's less about judgment and more about survival. If AI
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  handles the layout, we have to handle the ethics. That's a
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  heavier burden than moving pixels. Exactly. Roman Pichler
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  calls it emotional intelligence. It's the one thing data analysis
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  can't replicate. You can't algorithm your way through human
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  dynamics. But I worry we're romanticizing that. New grads
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  are asking how to launch projects without coding
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  knowledge. They're learning design in a vacuum. That gap is
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  real. But it's not a coding gap. It's a context gap. They need to
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  understand why a decision matters, not just how to build
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  it. So we stop teaching tools and start teaching consequences.
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  The skill isn't making the screen look good. It's knowing
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  why that screen shouldn't exist. We're moving from execution to
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  interpretation. And interpretation requires a voice
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  that machines simply don't have.
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  That's The Feed and The Thread for today. We'll catch you next
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  time!