Designing in the New Creative Stack
I’ve always worked in the in-between: between product and design, between language and logic, between ideas and outcomes. My background is in linguistics and AI. I started out as an NLP engineer (deep into Perl and Python) before moving into UX, product, and leadership. I’ve never been drawn to any discipline for its own sake.
I was never drawn to code for code’s sake. I was never obsessed with UX for UX’s sake. Or visual design for aesthetics alone. What’s always driven me is the outcome.
That’s why I tend to move fluidly between strategy, writing, prototyping, and UX design. I care about how the product feels and how it works. I care about the emotional arc of the user and the architecture behind the screen.
I don’t draw hard boundaries, I find they just slow things down. I love working in teams where we can transcend our roles and focus on a great outcome.
The new generation of AI-native tools, in particular Cursor, Replit, ChatGPT, Claude, Lovable...have created a way of working that finally matches how I think. I can move between systems thinking, interaction design, prompt writing, and logic fluently, without having to wait on handovers or external validation. I can test real behaviors right away.
That feeling is real creative freedom. Especially for someone like me someone who began as a linguist, then became an NLP engineer: this isn’t new. Working with prompts, structure, logic, and language as code is how I started. The difference now is: the tools finally meet us where we think.
The Design paradigm shift
There’s a meta-shift happening in how products get made and designers are right in the middle of it. We’re entering an era where product creation is becoming more fluid, more expressive, and more real-time. Designers who have always been thinking of the craft as holistic are going to love this moment, but if you've been designing screens or UI only, prepare to be replaced.
AI tools are collapsing the gap between idea and execution. Designers are no longer just illustrating possibilities, we can move from imagining to prototyping to building them quickly. We’re no longer just shaping layout, we’re shaping logic and behavior. Isn’t just a new workflow, I think it’s a fundamental redefinition of what it means to design, an expansion of what we can do.
Like many of you, I’m a systems thinker, which means I rarely start with wireframes. Instead, I diagram flows, map user journeys, surface dependencies, and look at where bottlenecks or magic moments might arise. I use tools like Notion or a simple notebook to sketch the anatomy of the experience before touching a screen design.
I’m particularly interested in edge cases, feedback loops, and how a product evolves over time. Design isn’t static, it lives, adapts, and grows. I try to design with that evolution in mind.
01 : Start with Purpose
Every project begins with meaning. Who is this for? Why now? What change are we trying to create not just functionally but emotionally? I’m not interested in designing features. I’m interested in shaping the arc of an experience. This kind of purpose anchors everything else. Without it, the rest becomes surface.
02 : Map the System
My early flow is highly strategic. I map the system before I design the screen. I sketch out user types, data flows, decision trees, and mental models. I align product bets with UX scaffolding, thinking through things like:
- What data needs to be surfaced, when, and to whom?
- What feedback loops are essential to trust or engagement?
- What are the “magic moments” where AI insight can make the experience feel alive?
This is where the PM and UX disciplines merge. I think in flows, but I also think in shipping timelines, MVPs, and risk. The UX is never just a layer. It is the product.
Before I design interfaces, I sketch systems:
- User roles and flows
- Data sources and triggers
- Inflection points and feedback loops
- Edge cases and failure states
This is about choreography. I’m thinking through the logic of how it all fits together, where intelligence should live, how decisions are made, and what rhythm the product moves at.
03 : Write the Experience
Language is central to my process and not just at the end, but at the start. Words shape understanding. I often write PRDs, PRFAQs, product briefs, or UX narratives before diving into flows or pixels. Naming things is a big part of my process, clear language brings clarity to the team, the user, and the product’s intention. I write:
- A narrative and PRD
- Prompts and AI responses
- Empty states and error messages
- Microcopy and tooltip explanations
- Classifier labels and content filters
- System transparency and model intent
I work with tools like ChatGPT and Claude not only to generate content, but to co-develop the interaction. I test prompt logic, refine tone, and shape how the system expresses itself.
Because in AI products, language is the interface.
Before I write any code, I write a PRD just for myself and the Agent. I’ve learned that clarity upfront saves hours later. I use the PRD to define:
- The user need
- The core hypothesis
- What success looks like
- What data or APIs are involved
- The key logic paths and outputs I want
These sit nicely in Replit or Lovable's "Project knowledge" and help ensure that the agent understands the context so it can collaborate effectively with me. It will also save you heaps of prompts!
04 : Build with AI and Code
Here’s the biggest shift: I don’t work in Figma much anymore. I design directly in code and logic, using a small but powerful stack:
Replit/Lovable is ideal for design-focused prototyping. I use it to build landing pages, mock flows, and quick MVPs using Tailwind, Shadcn, or other open-source component libraries. It’s especially great when I want to feel the interaction and bring strong UI craft into the process early.
Cursor is my go-to for more complex prototypes especially when logic, data, APIs, or AI algorithms are involved. I treat it like my personal AI pair programmer. It’s fast, responsive, and lets me stay in flow even when I’m deep in technical reasoning.
GitHub is where I commit my code and track versions. This is how I'm able to evolve things intentionally.
I break the experience (from the PRD) down into prompt blocks. That’s where I begin building, not at the screen level, but at the interaction and language level. From there, I can scaffold code around the core behaviors I’m trying to shape.
Right now, I’m hopping between tools. I haven’t locked into a rigid stack and I love that. It keeps me flexible, experimental, and focused on outcomes instead of perfection.
05 : Design the Feel
Once the logic and structure work, I focus on feel.
- What’s the tempo of the experience?
- Where are the quiet moments?
- Does the system speak with warmth?
- Is there friction, or flow?
- Does it feel like care was taken?
This is the part of design that’s easiest to lose when you’re distant from the real product. But now that I’m building it myself, I can shape these moments directly tuning the rhythm, tone, and atmosphere of the experience.
A Note on Engineering
Let me be very clear: This is not about replacing engineers.
I have deep respect for engineering. I know I’m not building complex infrastructure, handling scale, or designing fault-tolerant systems.
What I am doing is designing the experience more directly. I no longer have to hand off a Figma file. I no longer need to describe how something should feel, I can show it really quickly. I’m working with behavior, not just interface.
This is about speeding up feedback. About designing with code, not just sketching around it.
UX Design is evolving fast
What UX designers should be doing now includes:
- Prompt engineering
- System logic design
- Going past lightweight coding
- AI behavior shaping
- Deeper emotional choreography
- Writing evals
We’re designing the how it feels to relate to a system that thinks. How to collaborate effectively with and AI system.
Resources you may love:
Benhur Senabathi's Vibe coding tips for designers
Celia Ford's The case for using your brain
Ethan Molicks' Cybernetic teammate
Anton Osika on Lenny's sharing his journey of building Lovable