Latest / The Feed & The Thread / The Feed & The Thread - March 14, 2026

Transcript

The Feed & The Thread - March 14, 2026 · The Feed & The Thread

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Michael Buckley says reliability is now the only currency that
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matters for designers. So raw design talent is suddenly
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worthless in this new AI landscape? Exactly, because AI
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can generate the talent, but it can't guarantee the reliability.
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That's a terrifying shift for anyone who just learned to
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design. Let's get into it.
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Welcome to The Feed and The Thread, brought to you by
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Today's Feed confronts a shift where reliability now matters
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more than raw skill, and our tools might be hiding their own
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flaws. Michael Buckley at UX Design.cc makes this case in
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"Reliability is the currency of opportunity in the age of AI."
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He argues that as artificial intelligence lowers barriers to
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production, employers rely on trusted referrals rather than
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portfolios. That rewrites the assumption that visual talent
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alone gets you hired, because a portfolio can't show how you
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handle a crisis or a tight deadline. Now, Maria Rosala at
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Nielsen Norman Group warns about "The Methodological Problems
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Hiding in Your Research Tools." She notes that integrating AI
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into platforms amplifies blind spots by presenting incorrect
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findings with unwarranted confidence. This creates a
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vulnerability where automation plans and moderates studies
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without the solid foundation of expert methodology. And Joe
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Attardi at Smashing Magazine details the move in "Moving From
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Moment.js To The JS Temporal API." He highlights that the
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legacy library causes bugs with mutable objects and adds
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unnecessary weight to your application. The new native API
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offers immutability and better time zone support, which helps
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you shrink your bundle size significantly. Also publishing
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recently: Jeffrey Zeldman, Intercom Blog, and UX Design.cc.
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Dropping in to share what's actually happening in the design
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community today. Over on r/UXDesign, people are asking
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which wireframing tools they're actually using in twenty-twenty-
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six. It's a simple question, but it reveals a field trying to
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settle down after years of rapid tool switching. We need to know
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if our workflows are finally stable or just shifting to new
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shiny objects. There's a raw conversation happening about a
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designer who cried during a third-round interview because
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burnout finally caught up. One commenter reminded them that
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their worth isn't defined by a single job or a hiring team
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under pressure. This isn't just about one bad day. It's a sign
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that the industry needs to stop treating emotional exhaustion as
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a failure of character. The discussion around vibe coding at
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work is getting real, with some designers saying they're being
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forced to use it. One person noted it takes them infinitely
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longer to design, and they still need an engineer to help. Yet,
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another view suggests having more control over implementation
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lets us shape the experience better. It's a messy tension
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between speed and quality. And it's a great reminder that your
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job probably won't be taken by AI, it'll be taken by someone
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who knows how to use AI to do the job. It's just a tool folks;
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if you've not adjusted since Visio, maybe reflect on that,
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and maybe reflect on whether you're being forced to use a
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tool you're uncomfortable with, or being given an opportunity to
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upskill because you're seen as someone who is valuable to the
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organization. The overall mood today in r/UXDesign feels heavy
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but honest, with practitioners finally admitting the cracks in
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the system.
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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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Buckley's point that reliability is the new currency really
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shifts the goalposts for how we get hired. That sounds great
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until you remember the designer who cried during a third-round
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interview because the system is already broken. Exactly, but the
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article suggests that visual portfolios no longer prove you
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can handle a crisis or a tight deadline. And yet we're asking
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people to prove that exact resilience while they're being
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forced into vibe coding that slows them down. So the real
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skill isn't just the code anymore, it's knowing when the
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AI output is wrong and having the confidence to fix it. That
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confidence is hard to find when the research tools are
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amplifying blind spots with unwarranted certainty. It
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creates a higher bar for expertise, where the most
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valuable designers are the ones who can spot those flaws. I just
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worry that bar is too high for people who are already running
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on empty. Maybe the bar is high, but the people who clear it'll
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be the ones building the future. And that's the right perspective
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- it's just new tools, and new opportunity to learn.
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That's The Feed and The Thread for today. We'll catch you next
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time!