Latest / The Feed & The Thread / The Feed & The Thread - October 16, 2026

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The Feed & The Thread - October 16, 2026 · The Feed & The Thread

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  The AI experience doesn't care about your org chart. So why do
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  we still build in silos? Because we treat content and models as
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  separate things, not one flow. That disconnect is the real bug.
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  Welcome to The Feed and The Thread, brought to you by
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  our app for all the feeds and threads delivered right to your
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  pocket.
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  AI tools are moving fast, but the human systems around them
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  are lagging. We're building interfaces that ignore how
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  people actually work, and that gap is creating friction we
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  didn't predict. Paul Boag at Smashing Magazine asks in "Is
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  Your Organization Messing Up AI Adoption?" if our organizations
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  are actually failing at adoption. The issue is the
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  culture. When we roll out tools without addressing personal
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  benefit, staff see higher expectations instead of better
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  working conditions. That rewrites the assumption that
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  access to AI is enough to drive change. Kate Agena at UX
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  Design.cc argues in "The AI experience doesn’t care about
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  your org chart" that enterprise AI fails because it treats
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  content and knowledge as separate silos. Users experience
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  these elements as one connected flow. If an assistant reports an
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  invoice status but misses the payment block, the experience is
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  broken. We need to design for the flow. Nick Babich at UX
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  Planet explores "Dashboard design becomes easier with
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  Claude", showing how Claude lowers the barrier for dashboard
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  design. By automating layout generation, designers can shift
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  focus from pixel-perfect execution to higher-level
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  information architecture. This is a genuine shift in where our
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  expertise needs to be applied. Other reads today include
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  Jeffrey Zeldman on "Silly Old Bear" and UX Design.cc on a
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  seven-week AI workshop that wasn't really about AI.
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  Today, we're looking at a stack of questions that all point to
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  the same friction. We're asking how to price custom work, how to
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  learn skills that AI is now doing, and how to design details
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  that feel human. The core issue is that our tools are moving
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  faster than our ability to judge their output. Over on
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  r/UI_Design, a developer is asking for a direct choice
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  between two mini-player variations for an indie music
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  app. They want to know which implementation feels more
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  natural, and why. It's a small question, but it highlights a
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  bigger problem. When we build tools for our own apps, we often
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  lack the distance to see what actually works. The tension here
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  is that we're using AI to speed up production, but we're still
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  relying on gut feeling to polish the final pixel. If we can't
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  articulate why one button placement is better than
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  another, we're just guessing. In r/UX_Design, a startup
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  founder is expressing frustration with the generic
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  quality of AI-generated web designs. They're asking for
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  resources to improve their own skills because the output feels
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  hollow. This is a real signal. It's not just about learning
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  code, it's about learning design intent. The so-what's that speed
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  is becoming the default, but quality is becoming the
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  exception. If you can't tell the difference, your users will.
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  Over on r/hci, a user is asking what skills actually make
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  someone valuable in IT in twenty twenty six. They're wondering if
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  hard technical skills are enough, or if problem-solving
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  and communication are the most valuable assets. The answer is
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  clear. The tools are changing, but the human systems around
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  them are lagging. The value isn't in knowing how to use the
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  tool, it's in knowing what to build and why. That's the skill
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  that doesn't get automated. In r/web_design, a junior designer
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  is asking what to quote for a one-page site with heavy custom
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  art and motion. They're looking for pricing advice on a complex
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  brief. The issue here is that custom work is disappearing. If
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  you can't justify the cost of unique design, you're competing
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  on price, not value. That's a trap. Specificity is the skill,
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  and that's what you're selling. The takeaway is that we're
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  building interfaces that ignore how people actually work, and
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  that gap is creating friction we didn't predict.
• 4:02
  The Feed and The Thread is brought to you by Chicago Camps.
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  signals across UX, you can also check out Patterns and Signals
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  at the website patterns and signals dot com. Chicago Camps
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  at a future event at Chicago Camps dot org.
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  There's a specific line in Kate Agena's piece that stuck with
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  me, the idea that the AI experience doesn't care about
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  your org chart. She argues that enterprise AI fails because it
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  treats content and knowledge as separate silos, when users
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  experience them as one connected flow. That's the friction
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  point. We're building interfaces that ignore how people actually
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  work, and that gap is creating friction we didn't predict. It's
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  not just about the tool being smart, it's about the system
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  around it being broken. Exactly. And that connects to
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  Paul Boag's argument that organizations are failing at
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  adoption because they roll out tools without addressing
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  personal benefit. Staff see higher expectations instead of
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  better working conditions. That's a dangerous assumption.
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  We're assuming access to AI is enough to drive change, but if
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  the culture isn't fixed, the tool becomes another way to
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  track productivity. So we have a tool that can automate layout
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  generation, like Nick Babich's point about Claude lowering the
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  barrier for dashboard design. But if the workflow is still
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  siloed, that automation just speeds up the wrong process.
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  Right. It's not about the speed of the output, it's about the
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  intent behind the design. If you can't tell the difference
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  between generic and good, your users will. So the opportunity
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  is learning to judge their output. That's the skill that's
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  becoming the exception. Design intent is the new hard skill.
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  The tools are moving faster than our ability to judge their
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  output, and that's where the value lies.
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  That's The Feed and The Thread for today. We'll catch you next
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  time!