March 23, 2026

Issue 580

Design’s Influence Is Expanding, and Here’s Why That Feels Hard
As AI accelerates creation and raises expectations, designers are navigating a field that’s bigger, faster, and more demanding than ever.

Modal vs. Separate Page: UX Decision Tree
How to choose between modals and pages, when to avoid modals, and how to determine the right level of interruption or navigation.

Onboarding is a transaction
Onboarding is one of the few moments where you have a user’s complete attention and their clear intent.

What Is Your Site’s AI Chatbot for? Users Can’t Tell
Users see little reason to use site AI chatbots. To prove their value, chatbots must solve problems that existing site features don’t.

Details That Make Interfaces Feel Better
A collection of small things that compound into a great experience.

Design in Tech Report SXSW 2026: UX to AX (YouTube)
Explores the shift to Agentic Experience (AX), moving from crafting interfaces to orchestrating outcomes with zero visual affordances.

OpenUI
A full-stack generative UI framework.

FigPrompt
Create Figma plugins without writing code.

Stitch 2.0
An AI-native software design canvas that allows anyone to create, iterate and collaborate on high-fidelity UI from natural language.

Elizabeth’s Declassified Guide to Product Design
A guide for aspiring product designers helping them land their first product design role.

Zero-Vector Design
An approach where the person with the vision should build the artifact directly, using AI agents as crew.

Dembrandt
Extracts design tokens from any website with one command.

Cindy Te
Cindy is a product and visual designer based in Seattle.

The Existential Designer: Facilitating Meaning Through Interaction
Designers like to talk about making meaningful products or using the tools of design to make meaning.

“We are entering a new world where creative machines will be our partners, not just tools.”
— Fei Fei Li

Thanks to this issue’s sponsor: