Latest / The Feed & The Thread / The Feed & The Thread - February 22, 2026

Transcript

The Feed & The Thread - February 22, 2026 · The Feed & The Thread

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  Today we're diving into why most AI products fail before the
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  first user interaction, focusing on how hype often overshadows
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  real problem-solving. And in the community, designers are getting
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  honest about the day-to-day grind of the craft itself.
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  Welcome to The Feed and The Thread, brought to you by
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  Chicago Camps. Our next UX Camp event is coming up on Saturday,
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  May 30. Tickets are free - with an option to pay if it's in
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  budget for you. There's an open call for speakers so now is your
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  chance to get on stage and share your ideas! The Feed & The
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  Thread is also in the App Store. Find us online at feed and
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  thread dot com.
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  Some notable pieces crossed our desk for today's episode. Let's
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  check them out! In a new piece titled "Why most AI products
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  fail before the first user interaction," Arin Bhowmick at
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  UX Design.cc argues that many AI projects falter because they
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  prioritize hype over solving real problems. The RAND report
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  he cites shows successful AI projects focus on problem-
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  solving from the get-go, emphasizing design thinking and
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  skilled talent to maintain institutional knowledge. Over
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  at Nielsen Norman Group, Brian Utesch and Tammi Fitzwater's
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  latest "Tracking Adoption of Research Recommendations: The
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  Recommendation-Adoption Score" introduces Cisco’s RAS metric.
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  This measures how much research value reaches users,
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  highlighting the importance of structured tracking to avoid
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  overstating adoption and losing credibility. Also worth noting
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  – new pieces recently from CSS- Tricks, Intercom Blog, and
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  Codrops. Be sure to check them out in your feeds!
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  Time to see what folks are talking about today. Over in
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  the UX Design subreddit, a designer is asking a question a
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  lot of us have probably thought about: are we designing for
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  aesthetics more than clarity? They're seeing it especially in
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  e-commerce and SaaS, where things look polished but users
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  are still struggling. It's the kind of tension that never fully
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  goes away in this field. Also in the UX Design subreddit,
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  someone shared a really honest post about running an entire
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  design cycle on autopilot. Just going through the motions,
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  feeling numb to the work. The responses are thoughtful; people
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  are talking about how to recognize when you've lost that
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  spark and what it takes to get it back. And on a related note,
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  another designer made the point that designing every day is
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  easy, but showing up every day is the hard part. It's less
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  about skill and more about the discipline of staying consistent
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  when motivation isn't there. That one seems to be resonating
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  with folks. Yeah, lots of introspection in the community
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  today.
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  Chicago Camps is hosting UX Camp Summer on Saturday, May 30.
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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. This is a
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  great value!
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  Today, we talked about how many AI projects stumble by
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  prioritizing hype over real problem-solving, as highlighted
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  in Arin Bhowmick's piece. And it's clear from the community
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  that designers are doing a lot of soul-searching right now,
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  whether it's questioning if we're prioritizing aesthetics
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  over clarity, or recognizing when the work starts running on
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  autopilot. Thanks for tuning in, we'll catch you next time.
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  That's The Feed and The Thread for today. Keep designing with
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  intention!