Design Newsletter - 12 (April, 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
The Llama 4 herd: The beginning of a new era of natively multimodal AI innovation (🔗 Meta Blog)
Meta has released LLaMA 4, a powerful multimodal AI model that can process both text and images together. It’s designed to understand complex inputs more naturally, enabling richer, more human-like interactions.
This is a big leap for anyone working with AI-driven design, research, or content creation. Multimodal AI means we can build smarter tools that “see” and “read” like we do, imagine better insights from image + text data, more intuitive user experiences, and faster creative workflows.
Introducing OpenAI o3 and o4-mini (🔗 OpenAI)
OpenAI has launched O3 and O4 Mini, smaller, faster, and more efficient AI models designed for better performance on limited hardware. These models provide high-quality outputs while being optimized for speed and cost-effectiveness.
These improvements make advanced AI more accessible to everyone, not just large companies or developers with powerful hardware. Whether you’re using AI for writing, customer support, education, or creative tasks, these models promise faster answers, lower costs, and the ability to use AI tools on more devices, including phones, laptops, and even edge devices.
ChatGPT Image Library (🔗 OpenAI)
OpenAI has also introduced an Image Library for ChatGPT users, available on the Web, iOS, and Android. This feature lets you easily access all images you’ve created in one place, without digging through old chats.
Duolingo will start teaching chess soon (🔗 Fast Company)
Duolingo, known for making learning fun, is now adding chess lessons to its app! This new course will teach users how to play chess, using the same bite-sized, gamified approach we love.
I’m a big fan of Duolingo’s updates and their creative approach to making learning exciting! 💚🦉 Can’t wait to see this one!
Grok Studio (🔗 Grok)
Grok Studio makes AI tools more accessible by combining docs, coding, and real-time collaboration in one platform. It’s free and useful for developers, creators, students, and more.
Compared to competitors, Grok Studio stands out with multi-language support, live code execution, Google Drive integration, and free access for all users. Excited to see where this goes! 🚀
Google's new AI Agent demo
Google showcased an AI Agent that can identify plants from videos, recommend products (like fertilizers), and even assist with purchases by adding items to your cart and confirming appointments.
This AI makes shopping easier by offering real-time help, identifying needs, suggesting products, and taking action for you. It can save time and may reshape customer service and everyday tasks with faster, smarter support.
Figma's 2025 AI report: Perspectives from designers and developers (🔗 Figma Blog)
This month, Figma released their 2025 AI Report, showing how designers and teams use AI in real workflows. It highlights trends, use cases, and AI’s role in shaping creativity and collaboration.
I found it really insightful! AI is becoming a true part of design, helping with ideas, prototyping, and content, while human creativity still leads. It points to a balanced future where AI supports, not replaces, our voice.
Interface Insights
UI & UX micro-tips: 8-bit anniversary edition (🔗 Marc Andrew)
Marc shares quick practical tips for improving your UI/UX designs, inspired by the 8-bit gaming era. From typography and layout to interaction design, each tip focuses on small details that make a big difference in creating clearer, more engaging user experiences.
8 Design Tips to Reduce Cognitive Load (🔗 Uxcel)
This lesson from Uxcel explains how to design interfaces that are easier for users to process. It covers practical tips like simplifying layouts, chunking information, using clear visual hierarchy, and minimizing distractions all to help users focus and navigate with ease.
AI transparency in UX: Designing clear AI interactions (🔗 Allie Paschal)
The article highlights how design systems like GitLab’s Pajamas, IBM’s Carbon, and Twilio’s Paste are starting to address AI transparency, but calls for clearer and consistent UI patterns to help users recognize and trust AI-driven features.
Steal these brilliant design tactics (🔗 Felix Lee)
In this newsletter, Felix Lee breaks down successful design tactics from top products like Notion, Figma, Airbnb, Spotify, and Miro. He highlights how Notion uses multiple types of social proof to build trust, how Figma’s transparent cancellation flow improves user experience, and how Blinkist’s clear free trial process boosts signups and reduces complaints. Each example shows how transparency, trust, and clarity can significantly enhance user engagement and retention.
Knowledge Drops
How I’m using AI to streamline persona and journey map creation (🔗 Kyle Soucy)
In this article, UX expert Kyle Soucy shares how Generative AI tools like ChatGPT can support (but not replace) UX researchers by helping to accelerate the creation of personas and journey maps. She outlines a step-by-step process from collecting data and writing prompts to refining AI outputs, and emphasizes that human insight remains important for accuracy and empathy. AI can help bridge creative gaps (e.g., persona storytelling) and save time, but it must be balanced with real research and critical scrutiny.
The Return of the UX Generalist (🔗 NNgroup)
This is a must-read for designers reflecting on their future roles. As the industry shifts, teams are increasingly valuing versatile UX professionals who can adapt across research, design, and strategy. This article highlights why being a UX generalist is becoming essential again, especially in leaner teams where cross-functional skills drive more impact. It’s a timely reminder to embrace breadth, not just depth, in your UX career. 🤓
A crisis of meaning in UX Design (🔗 James Harrison)
James Harrison explores why many designers feel burned out and disconnected from purpose. As UX shifts from innovation to optimization and AI threatens to replace parts of the role, designers are losing their influence. He calls for a return to meaningful work by aligning with business value, embracing emerging technology, and pushing creativity forward.
Tool & Source Time
FLORA now integrates with Google Gemini 2.0 nodes, enabling faster, smarter creative workflows. Designers and developers can now build with modular AI logic, blending visual creation and decision-making like never before. A powerful step toward AI-native design systems.
Figma’s Latest Updates: Smarter Systems, Smarter AI (🔗 Figma Blog)
Figma has rolled out a wave of updates focused on streamlining design system workflows and enhancing AI capabilities:
Design System Improvements:
Figma introduces better tools to manage and scale design systems, with improved organization, component tracking, and handoff features to reduce friction in daily design work.
AI Features Now in Beta for All Paid Plans:
Figma AI now lets paid users quickly rename layers, enhance image quality, and replace placeholder content, all in one click, powered by OpenAI.
New Image AI Tools (using GPT-4 + gpt-image-1):
Figma’s new AI tools let you edit images directly and generate visuals from text prompts, now also accessible via API.
Skill Sharpeners
Product Design Strategy Course (🔗 Future London Academy)
Learn directly from the VP of Product Design & Research at Headspace in this hands-on course by Future London Academy. Gain advanced skills in building product roadmaps, aligning design with business strategy, and confidently advocating for your vision in front of PMs and CPOs. Perfect for designers ready to lead with influence.
Business Thinking For Designers (🔗 CDO School)
CDO School is designed for experienced designers ready to level up. With 13+ expert-led courses, 150+ tools, 1:1 coaching, and weekly live sessions, it helps you sharpen your strategy, define your impact, and lead with confidence.
Looking forward to connecting again next month! 🫶🏻 Many thanks for being a part of this journey! ☺️
