📰 3 THINGS TO CHECK OUT
Nevan Scott on Bringing Designers Closer to Code
- Designlab course creator Nevan Scott grew up designing and coding before they were separate disciplines. We sat down with him recently to talk about his perspective on craft, code, and why this moment in design might be a second chance for designers to engage more deeply with the medium they work in.
- One of Nevan's courses, Advanced Figma, is a 4-week masterclass in Figma features and workflows, and the next cohort is launching June 5. In case you missed our Memorial Day Sale, we've extended it for only this upcoming Advanced Figma cohort. Save $150 when you enroll with code MEMORIALEXTENDED.
- If you're interested in sharpening your UI craft in Nevan's Advanced Design Craft certification program, join us next Wednesday, June 3 at 12pm ET for a live info session, where we'll walk through the program and answer questions in a live Q&A. Register here.
From 6 Hours Writing a Spec to Building a Prototype in 1
- Product Manager Sriram Kothandaraman shares his recent experience writing a spec, which took him six hours, and then building a prototype version, which took just one.
- Kothandaram points out that tools like Claude Code lower the barrier to prototyping, making the traditional PM → spec → engineering handoff model feel increasingly inefficient. PMs, designers, and engineers are becoming more fluid, collaborative builders capable of rapidly testing and communicating ideas through working prototypes rather than static documents.
- His advice to professionals? Start building. "Technical fluency is becoming table stakes. The question isn't whether to learn these tools—it's whether to learn them now when it's still an advantage, or later when it's a requirement."
AI Is Bringing UX Back to Creativity and Human Potential
- UX pioneer Jakob Nielsen reflects on how the goals of UX have evolved across three major eras of computing. Early design focused on empowering users to use the web more effectively. Then, over time, the ad-driven attention economy shifted UX toward consumption.
- Nielsen argues that AI may represent a meaningful reversal of that trend. According to recent data, people are using AI to learn new skills, solve problems, create content, and save time — signaling a return to technology as a tool for creativity, agency, and self-improvement rather than endless distraction.
- “We must use our machines not to turn our brains off, but to turn our potential on.”
💜 PORTFOLIO INSPIRATION
After running his own animation studio for eight years, Laurens De Mets transitioned into product design with a strong foundation in storytelling, motion, and visual craft — strengths that shine through in his UX work. In his project Utopia, Laurens designed an architecture exploration app that helps users discover overlooked modernist buildings through AI-powered route planning, curated recommendations, and a visual-first map experience. His team project Leep reimagines music collaboration through deeper artist profiles, social trust signals, and fan-driven discovery tools, blending UX strategy with creative community-building. Across his work, Laurens demonstrates a strong mix of research rigor, systems-level thinking, and high-end visual execution.
Got a portfolio you love that you’d like to share with our audience? Email your suggestions to hello@designlab.com.
💡 INTERESTING STUFF...
- Taste Over Haste
- Contra Launches Google Stitch Challenge
- Prompt Brush Celebrates Human-Drawn Prompts
- Dos and Don'ts for Markdown Files
I do not know if good taste is a talent you are born with, but once you think you have it figured out, it is time to start questioning things again. — Orlando Ruiz, creative director
🧪 FROM THE LAB
Free Event: AI Enablement for Design Teams
How can design teams actually integrate AI into their workflows, beyond scattered experiments? We're hosting a live webinar on Thursday, June 4 at 2pm ET to share what we’ve seen work across thousands of designers and teams, where organizations tend to get stuck, and how leading teams are building more practical, shared AI workflows.
We’ll also walk through Designlab’s AI Enablement Programs and how we tailor training based on each team’s goals, tools, and level of AI adoption.
