A lot of talk about AI for design is all about the *surface*. But how would AI behave if it was trained to navigate the deeper layers of design, so that it could help you, or help itself, when asked to work on a design project? Made a skill pack for that: layers.jamiemill.com

Layers — AI skills for product designers

AI skills for product designers — guidance through the seven layers of product design.

layers.jamiemill.com

Sometimes I think I really lose by being a nuanced person. I rarely make strong statements like “we need to prioritise X for the good of the company” or “designers should have those responsibilities”. I see how absurd those absolutes are in complex situations that depend on individuals, contexts.

Arguments I heard at work that don’t hold much water: “We have to build this because we already spent $XXX designing it.” (Sunk cost fallacy) “We have to build this in one big batch because in small batches we’ll move on to other things and there will be no incentive to finish it.”

I’m enjoying @tldraw.com as a low-fi design tool. It’s fast, ergonomic, and just enough tools to express ideas without distracting myself with visual design details too soon.

adventofcode.com is a cool way to learn a new language. This is my first time trying Python, consulting ChatGPT for advice, and ways to make it more idiomatic, but not asking it to solve the actual puzzle. Here's my first few days: github.com/jamiemill/ad...

Many designers are 10 steps behind engineers in the discipline of shaping and shipping software. Here are some things many designers are yet to internalise, that would multiply their impact: 1. Small batch size to reduce risk and speed feedback 2. Walking skeletons to flush out obstacles

When advocating for a faster UI it’s helpful to have a semi objective measure in mind. Ask “which of these limits do we need to hit?” Instead of just complaining it’s too slow. www.nngroup.com/articles/res...

Response Time Limits: Article by Jakob Nielsen

How users react to delays in a user interface, whether website or application. The 3 main response time limits are determined by human perceptual abilities.

nngroup.com

Be careful marketing yourself as “self-taught”. Firstly, it’s never true: we all learn from outside sources — peers, books, conferences, videos, short courses. Secondly, it doesn’t sound like a selling point — it implies you’ve missed valuable external perspective.

Here’s a resource I created that many have found useful. It’s a riff on JJG’s Elements of UX, updated for how I think about navigating product design decisions and skill sets. jamiemill.com/blog/element...

The elements of product design

Explaining product design as a stack of decisions built on top of a stack of knowledge. With apologies to Jesse James Garrett.

jamiemill.com

UX and Product Design folks! I’m here for IA, conceptual modelling, product strategy, hybrid designers/builders, and improving design<>dev collaboration. So far I found the UX Sky starter pack from @spavel.bsky.social. Any other ways to find relevant people and conversations?