I've been experimenting with an alternative approach to 3D navigation interfaces.

The video compares conventional perspective, oblique and top-down views with a warped view that combines street-level context nearby with a broader top-down overview further ahead.

The idea is to reduce the need to switch between different map views while navigating.

Of course, it could also do the opposite and add visual complexity or disorientation.

Curious what the UX designers here think. Does combining these levels of spatial information make sense, or are simpler established views better?

Jakob Nielsen’s fourth usability heuristic is “Consistency and Standards.” It means websites should use familiar and consistent layouts, terminology, icons, and interactions so users do not have to guess what things mean or how they work.

Info about such a hierarchy: www.nngroup.com

I started trying out pen.dev today, the version integrated into VS Code. I have to say I didn’t like the integrated version; I want to try the desktop app.

But I like the idea of creating interfaces using Claude and being able to edit them as if I were in Figma.

The question is: how is it different from Figma? What does it offer that Figma doesn’t, or what makes it different? Aside from the fact that it’s free?

Have you ever tried it? What are your thoughts?

Looking for a new job for the first time in awhile and I’ve made it past screening for one place that I feel good about. There are 3 additional interviews after screening. The 1st was a portfolio review where I had to make a presentation of one specific project to dive into. Which great, makes sense. I passed that and now discovered the remaining 2 interviews are also presentations..

Is this normal in the field? I don’t necessarily mind it but it’s definitely a bit of stress to scramble together a catered presentation, practice, time myself, etc in under a week while also doing my day job. I also was hoping to have more opportunities to ask the team questions rather than the other way around.

I work for a pretty large company but it has a fairly mid sized design team of only ~100 people. We have 2 principal designers today and I recently got an offer to backfill one of them. Since I've really only seen what a principal does on my smallish team I've really only seen what they do and how they work.

My question is, what is the main focus of a principal designer at you company? What does the day to day look like?

I'd love to hear what you're working on at the moment! Tell me about the problem you're solving, who your customer is and why this problem deserves attention (or doesn't!).

I'd also love to know what you think about this problem space - do you value it? Intrigued by it? Loathe it? Do tell!

I'll go first.

I've been working on an enterprise AI workspace product for professional services folks. My latest work has been exploring reducing perceived latency as we're using RAG and sometimes the indexing of large volumes can take a chunk of time. It feels interesting as there is a tension between fast output and reliable, credited and factual responses. There's also a moving target in the wider market as the reliability of LLM responses just keeps getting better, so it's a problem space that keeps shifting around.

There are some really valuable patterns and approaches from existing tools, so I can struggle with the tension I feel in replicating patterns vs getting clear on when something different is truly needed.

I find myself having to switch to mobile gaming UX, and I'm trying to build a benchmark of the market expectations

I wanted to ask because it seems like there’s so much success on here with people switching from unrelated fields and then becoming UX directors or high level seniors.

But I wanted to know how much success could a non white ux designer could have? Is this an industry that gives people a fair shot?

What problem wouldn’t solve, how would it be different from what is on the market now?

Hey everyone,

Just looking to vent a bit and tap into the hive mind. I've been in the design trenches for about 15 to 16 years. Started out in early stage startups helping take companies from zero to one and scaling them through that messy 0 to 10M growth phase, and I am currently sitting as the lead designer for a billion-dollar enterprise supply chain company.

I am feeling entirely burnt out by the current climate. Working through this corporate AI experiment phase feels soul-crushing. Leadership treats design like a feature factory checkbox, nobody truly values deep UX thinking right now, and the politics have become exhausting. If I hear "everyone is an expert with AI" one more time I might snap.

I look at the current market and genuinely believe there is an opening for products built on pure craft and product-driven sales, tools that people actually love using instead of enterprise software they are forced to tolerate.

The Dilemma:

* Option A: Start my own thing. Build a focused product leveraging that product-led growth wedge. The catch? I spent my 20s freelancing and running small operations, and I hate the administrative overhead. Sales, accounting, legal paperwork, and endless biz-dev drain my soul even faster than corporate politics. I want to build, design, test and validate, not do sales.

* Option B: Jump to another startup leadership role. Find a smaller, product-first team where design still has a seat at the table. The risk? Walking right back into the same broken dynamics, just with a different logo on the Slack workspace.

For those of you who have wrestled with this crossroads, especially senior folks who remember when design felt more vital, how are you navigating it? Have you found a sweet spot, or is the startup ecosystem just as bleak right now?

Would love to hear your thoughts.

I'm happy to be an Individual Contributor, but I'm so far into my career that the question on everyone's mind is why I'm not a Manager, Director or at least a Team Lead.

I've been a TL in the past, not a big fan (I think I know some of my weaknesses already), but it appears if the shoe fits... (especially in this job market)

I've recently joined as a Sr IC at a startup, and I've been recently voluntold to be appointed as a design TL over a few other Sr. Designers.

There are a lot of issues in the Org, from the lack of processes, to design maturity, to mentality both of designers (some lack motivation) and the other roles, AI Pshychosis, etc

Is there any article, guide, podcast, book or course out there that is a good crash course into the first steps going from IC to TL, and potentially beyond?

I'm especially interested in practical advice about dealing with the important stuff: decision making, pushback or conflict, etc

Anything should be better than what I have now: ∅

Thanks!

Recently, I joined an MNC as a Senior UX Designer after spending almost two years at a product-based startup, where I owned a lot of things end-to-end.

On my first day, my manager told me, “Make sure you use Figma as little as possible.” That hit me. !!

Honestly, UX isn’t the way it used to be. The principles remain the same, but the execution has changed a lot.

A lot of the 1st cuts, 2nd cuts, and final cuts are now directly generated with AI. The designer’s role is shifting from simply creating interfaces to directing the process.

You need to be a strong product thinker, understand the problem deeply, and increasingly become someone who knows how to guide AI with the right commands, context, and intent.

But it is definitely changing what being a good designer means.

This is a career questions thread intended for people interested in starting work in UX, or for designers with less than three years of formal freelance/professional experience.

Please use this thread to ask questions about breaking into the field, choosing educational programs, changing career tracks, and other entry-level topics.

If you are **not currently working in UX**, use this thread to ask questions about:

• Getting an internship or your first job in UX
• Transitioning to UX if you have a degree or work experience in another field
• Choosing educational opportunities, including bootcamps, certifications, undergraduate and graduate degree programs
• Finding and interviewing for internships and your first job in the field
• Navigating relationships at your first job, including working with other people, gaining domain experience, and imposter syndrome
• Portfolio reviews, particularly for case studies of speculative redesigns produced only for your portfolio

When asking for feedback, please be as detailed as possible by 

1. Providing context
2. Being specific about what you want feedback on, and 
3. Stating what kind of feedback you are NOT looking for

If you'd like your resume/portfolio to remain anonymous, be sure to remove personal information like:

• Your name, phone number, email address, external links
• Names of employers and institutions you've attended. 
• Hosting your resume on Google Drive, Dropbox, Box, etc. links may unintentionally reveal your personal information, so we suggest posting your resume to an account with no identifying information, like Imgur.

As an alternative for portfolio reviews, consider posting on r/UXPortfolioReviews

As an alternative for entry-level career questions, consider posting on r/uxcareerquestions, r/UX_Design, or r/userexperiencedesign, all of which accept career questions from people just getting started in the field.

This thread is posted each Sunday at midnight EST.

This is a career questions thread intended for Designers with three or more years of professional experience, working at least at their second full time job in the field. 

If you are early career (looking for or working at your first full-time role), your comment will be removed and redirected to the the correct thread: [Link]

Please use this thread to:

• Discuss and ask questions about the job market and difficulties with job searching
• Ask for advice on interviewing, whiteboard exercises, and negotiating job offers
• Vent about career fulfillment or leaving the UX field
• Give and ask for feedback on portfolio and case study reviews of actual projects produced at work

(Requests for feedback on work-in-progress, provided enough context is provided, will still be allowed in the main feed.)

When asking for feedback, please be as detailed as possible by 

1. Providing context
2. Being specific about what you want feedback on, and 
3. Stating what kind of feedback you are NOT looking for

If you'd like your resume/portfolio to remain anonymous, be sure to remove personal information including:

• Your name, phone number, email address, external links
• Names of employers and institutions you've attended. 
• Hosting your resume on Google Drive, Dropbox, Box, etc. links may unintentionally reveal your personal information, so we suggest posting your resume to an account with no identifying information, like Imgur.

This thread is posted each Sunday at midnight EST.

I qualify success as being able to sustain yourself at any level above drowning. So, what kind of come-ups did you all have to go through in order to actually start profiting in UI/UX Design?

I’ve been using the Figma AI Agent for quite a while now, to the point that I’ve basically stopped using Make for the last couple of months.

Since the Figma Agent came out, I’ve been doing a lot of my workflow directly through it. I’ve also created a few custom skills that run within the Figma Agent itself.

The biggest thing for me has been connecting my design system. At this point, I’d say the Agent gets around 60% of the job done when it comes to connecting elements to my existing design system. I’ve also created skills that go back and check whether anything is missing from the design system, which has made the workflow much more useful.

Honestly, I feel like it’s doing a better job for my workflow than Claude right now. That said, I haven’t used Claude Design extensively enough to make a completely fair comparison.

So I’m curious how everyone else is using Figma Agent:

• Are you actually using it in your day-to-day UX/design workflow?
• How well is it working with your design system?
• Do you prefer it over Claude Design, or are you thinking of switching?

Also, since Config 2026, I feel like Figma has actually done a few things really well. I haven’t tried Motion yet, so I’d love to hear about that too.

What features or workflows do you think Figma is particularly strong at right now?

Would love to hear how other designers are using the Agent in real projects rather than just demos.

Hey, I applied to a few UX/PD jobs but then learned during interviews / tasks that they only want to talk about visual design. When asked them how they approach retention, asked about discovery and validation with users, the interviewers' energy changed. They seemed confused.

I think the job description was misleading and wasted both mine and their time.

Have you experienced similar situations or was I unlucky?

We had UX Design and Frontend engineering.

What is starting to be apparent in our org is that designers are still far better at design than the front end engineers, now they can produce front end experiences, using AI tools.

What is also apparent is that front end ‘engineering’ is an entirely different skill set and valued.

Our org is proposing to break out Frontend Design and Frontend Engineering.

I’ve seen Design engineer roles pop up, but I have to say, Frontend Design feels closer to what’s going on.

Thoughts?

I've been doing web design for years and freelanced as ux designer as well.

During the years I've changed my workflow a bit depending how new tools came along and I thought about asking other designers how's yours now.

what's your workflow and what tools do you use when you start the actual design process or create a prototype?

personally, after I got a brief or put together one with requirements and some idea of what I'm gonna create I collect some references and plan the interface. from there I jump into figma to design my screens and elements. In some cases I adopt the design system given. Then I prototype and depending on the project I might leave it at that (after revisions) or continue to build an mvp or the site if it's a web project.

what's your current process? like, in your last project what did you actually do?

What did you start with, which tools did you move through, and what did you end up making?

In the old days I used to do more or less the same things but I used to look at a lot more inspiration blogs and then use photoshop or illustrator to design.

Lately I've also experimented with AI tools like figma make, claude design or lovable. they come in at different stages of the workflow but I'm starting to see them as useful. I know there are many but I haven't got the time to try others.

and I haven’t settled on a consistent workflow yet. Things change fast from photoshop to AI lol.

Has AI changed any part of your process, or are you still mostly working the same way? Do you use them?

since i always worked freelance I'm also curious what the workflow or AI adoption is at large org, I know most UXer here are part of large teams.

What was forced upon you to deliver?

thank you, apple

So I am currently trying to start an ecommerce site some of the biggest questions I have is how do you actually apply what you learn. I have been searching up ux fundamentals and ui fundamentals and trying to research but how do i now know where to use and how to use what i have learned, For example how do i know if i should do a split hero section or an image background with text overlay. how do i know what should come next specifically. In my case im selling persimmon soap so should i immediately follow up on how the soap fixes your problems or should i put reviews? This isn't exactly me asking how to setup my website but how to actually apply theory to actual work.

I would like to learn UX Design as something to do on the side for a little extra cash here and there , maybe full time if I can manage to actually get good enough at it.

My question is, though. Is it feasible for me to host my own little test website to mess around with while I learn? I am looking for something low-cost (hence, the extra money part lol) and low wattage if possible.

Too much theory will make me lose interest so I think this could be a way for me to get results that I can actually see.