Design Newsletter - 11 (March , 2025)
Hello! 👋🏻 Welcome to my monthly "Design Newsletter", where I compile the latest information, trends, and inspiration from the dynamic world of design. I am excited to share my discoveries with you!
Design, Technology, and Art News
Grok 3 Beta — The Age of Reasoning Agents (X.AI)
The most advanced model of xAI, Grok 3, has shown significant improvements in reasoning, mathematics, coding, and world knowledge, leaving many of its competitors behind in significant metrics. It has become a strong competitor to ChatGPT and is now among the most downloaded applications. If you want to learn more about the similarities and differences, check out this link: Grok 3 vs ChatGPT comparison.
Introducing 4o Image Generation (OpenAI)
OpenAI just introduced GPT-4o’s image generation capabilities — and it’s incredible.🤩 You can now generate, edit, and enhance images directly in the ChatGPT experience. Whether you’re designing visuals from scratch or tweaking existing ones, this is a major leap in how we create and interact with AI-generated content.
Samsung One UI 7 (Samsung News)
Samsung’s One UI 7 introduces AI-driven features like AI Select, which suggests actions based on selected content, and Writing Assist, aiding in text summarization and formatting, enhancing user experience on Galaxy devices. This reflects a broader industry trend, with smartphones like the Google Pixel 9 Pro XL and Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max also integrating advanced AI capabilities to offer more personalized and efficient interactions. 📱
March Pixel Drop: Updates for Gemini Live, Scam Detection, and more (Google Blog)
Google introduces several new features for Pixel products, including expanded support for Gemini Live with over 45 languages and the ability to add images, files, and YouTube videos to conversations. Google also launched real-time scam detection for calls and texts using on-device AI, and Satellite SOS is now available in more regions, including Europe and Canada. Additionally, the Pixel Watch 3 gains on-device menstrual tracking and improved step counting accuracy.
Interface Insights
A guide to AI prototyping for product designers (Ben)
Ben explores how AI is reshaping the design process, lowering the barrier for creation and raising the ceiling for innovation. He provides a practical framework for using AI across different prototyping stages, from refining prompts and building MVPs to testing interactions and UI responsiveness. I especially liked the author’s AI tool suggestions, which are categorized clearly and offer great starting points for designers looking to prototype smarter and faster. 🤩
AI is reshaping UI — have you noticed the biggest change yet? (Tia Sydorenko)
Tia Sydorenko discusses how AI is fundamentally transforming user interfaces. She highlights the shift from traditional, command-based interactions to more intuitive, intent-driven experiences where users determine desired outcomes and AI determines the best way to achieve them. This shift challenges traditional design methods and opens up new possibilities for more natural and adaptive user experiences.
Chat is dead: Why is it still the #1 designed AI pattern? (Elaine Lu)
Elaine Lu explores why chat remains the dominant AI interface despite its limitations. She highlights how chat allows for flexible, forgiving, and iterative interactions, making it the smart default, at least for now. Elaine notes that while chat isn’t perfect, replacing it will require interfaces that can understand user intent just as well or better. I found her thoughts particularly relevant because she questions what more intuitive and expressive alternatives might look like in the future of AI-powered UX. 🤔
58 rules for beautiful UI design (Taras Bakusevych)
Taras Bakusevych shares a practical framework called the Elegance Formula, which encompasses eight core principles: Empathy, Order, Essentialism, Guidance, Aesthetics, Innovation, Consistency, and Engagement. Each rule focuses on creating interfaces that are not only visually appealing but also intuitive, purposeful, and user-centered, providing a great checklist for anyone aiming to create elegant and functional user interfaces. 😍
Knowledge Drops
2025 Trend Predictions: Embracing AI in UX & Product Design (Vector Synergy)
The article highlights how AI is reshaping user experience and product design. It emphasises the growing need for designers to develop AI literacy that enables effective collaboration with data scientists and engineers. It highlights the importance of taking a multidisciplinary approach and ethical considerations to ensure AI-driven designs are user-centered and inclusive. It provides practical steps for designers to integrate AI into their workflows and advocates for continuous learning and adaptation in the evolving design landscape.
Building what customers need, not just what they ask for (Linear)
Linear’s blog post emphasizes the importance of understanding the underlying issues behind customer feedback rather than building exactly what users want. It emphasizes using feedback to sharpen product intuition, not dictate roadmaps, and introduces Linear’s “Customer Requests” feature as a way to centralize and contextualize feedback at scale, helping teams stay focused on real user needs while maintaining a strong product vision.
Natural Information Architecture (Intertwingled)
Peter Morville shares ideas from his upcoming book. He talks about how we can organize information in ways that are more like nature-connected, flexible, and cooperative, rather than strict and structured like a tree. He believes this natural approach can help us better understand things and make smarter use of technology and information.
Hyper-personalization: a practical UX guide (Taras Bakusevych)
Taras Bakusevych explains how digital products can offer highly personalized user experiences using real-time data, AI, and behavioral insights. It describes the shift from broad user segments to truly individual experiences, breaking down different levels of personalization—like basic, hyper, and even emotional personalization. The article highlights the types of data needed, such as user behavior and preferences, and gives practical tips for implementing personalization in a user-friendly and ethical way, like asking for permission at the right time and being transparent about data use.
The Disappearing UX Director: Are UXers Becoming Product Managers? (Carla M Valdes)
Carla discusses the noticeable decline in dedicated UX leadership roles, with responsibilities increasingly being absorbed by Product Managers. This shift is attributed to factors such as the evolution of Agile methodologies, a heightened focus on business-centric decision-making, and organizational restructuring within the tech industry. As a result, many UX professionals are transitioning into product management roles to maintain influence over product development and business strategies.
This trend has also impacted my company, highlighting a significant shift in the industry that warrants our attention.
Tool & Source Time
Inspiring interaction design library (Khagwal)
The “anything.to.design” platform offers Figma plugins that convert files like HTML, PDFs, Illustrator, and PowerPoint into editable Figma designs, streamlining design workflows and saving time.
Bring Anything into Figma (Anything to design)
The “anything.to.design” platform offers Figma plugins that convert files like HTML, PDFs, Illustrator, and PowerPoint into editable Figma designs, streamlining design workflows and saving time. 🤓
Figma Slides, now out of beta and with new features (Figma Blog)
Figma Slides is now live, letting teams create polished, interactive presentations right in Figma. New features include video controls, component support, animations, and PPTX import/export.
Replit is a browser-based IDE that supports real-time collaboration and AI-assisted coding. It’s useful for UX designers to build quick, interactive prototypes without deep coding skills, helping bring ideas to life faster and test user flows more effectively.
This is a curated gallery of top UX/UI designer portfolios from leading tech companies. It’s a great resource for inspiration, portfolio tips, and getting your work noticed.
Skill Sharpeners
The UX Design Awards – Autumn 2025 are now accepting submissions until May 15, 2025. This global competition honors outstanding user experiences across various industries. Companies, agencies, professionals, and young designers are encouraged to enter their best work. Nominees will be notified by June 3, 2025, with winners announced on September 3, 2025.
The 7 best books for design in the real world (Scott Berkun)
Great book suggestion in this post, loved the reflections on creative work and focus. I’ve already added it to my reading list! Worth checking out if you’re into thoughtful reads that inspire both personally and professionally. 📚
Design Patterns For AI Interfaces (Smashing conf)
SmashingConf is hosting an online workshop with Vitaly Friedman from June 4–18, 2025, focused on designing better AI interfaces. It covers practical patterns and techniques beyond chatbots to help designers and developers create smarter, more intuitive AI experiences.
Looking forward to connecting again next month! 🫶🏻 Many thanks for being a part of this journey! ☺️