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📰 3 THINGS TO CHECK OUT
Introducing: The AI Product Design Certification
- Earlier this week, we announced a brand new certification: the AI Product Design Certification. This credential brings together our most popular AI courses into one structured learning path that helps designers master both sides of AI product design: designing with AI, and designing AI-powered products and experiences.
- Students can choose the Design Track, which includes AI for UX Design, AI Prototyping Camp, and Designing AI Products, or Design + Build Track, which includes these courses and Vibe Coding Camp. Both learning paths culminate in a capstone project created specifically for certification students and a credential that proves your ability to turn AI into a practical advantage in your day-to-day work.
- Now through June 30, you can take $200 off your enrollment with code AICERT200. Get all the details at our free info session on Thursday, June 18 at 1pm ET, where we'll cover the program structure and pricing (including special pricing for alumni) and answer your questions live. Register here.
The 4 Design Jobs AI Has Created
- Sarah Gibbons, Chief Designer at Nielsen Norman Group, argues that "AI design" is no longer a single discipline. As AI becomes embedded across products, workflows, and organizations, the work has already split into four distinct areas — each requiring different skills, responsibilities, and measures of success.
- Gibbons identifies four emerging design paths: designing with AI (using AI tools), designing AI products (creating AI-powered experiences), designing for AI agents (structuring content, systems, and data for machine consumption), and designing the AI itself (shaping model behavior, evaluation, and guardrails).
- Gibbons points out that the last two paths have high demand but very little supply of expertise. "Within a year, many more designers will have meaningful AI experience. Those who build depth in a specific direction now will have a significant advantage over those who stay broadly 'AI-adjacent.'"
If AI Can Build It, Why Do We Need to Maintain It?
- Designer Tina Singh explores the answer to a recent question from her boss: If AI is building the UI, why do we need to maintain it? She explores how AI is changing the value of design systems — if AI is generating screens, forms, and components on demand, the system's role shifts from producing parts to enforcing the rules that keep a product coherent.
- Singh believes the challenge is maintaining consistency across hundreds of AI-assisted decisions. Design systems increasingly become repositories of organizational judgment: documenting layout conventions, interaction patterns, accessibility standards, and behavioral expectations that AI models can't reliably infer on their own.
- "The parts are less valuable now. The rules are more valuable."
💜 PORTFOLIO INSPIRATION
After helping solve thousands of customer problems during his time at Apple and Meta, UX Academy graduate Hemi Himmler has brought that same empathy-driven mindset to product design. From helping educators identify struggling students earlier through an attention-focused dashboard to helping snowboarders prepare for the season with clearer, sport-specific training guidance, Hemi demonstrates a thoughtful balance of research, information architecture, and emerging AI-powered workflows, always keeping human needs at the center of the experience. Another strong piece of work reflected in Hemi's portfolio is the portfolio itself, which he built entirely from scratch—without templates or Framer—researching, designing, and developing the experience to reflect both his craft and personality.
Got a portfolio you love that you’d like to share with our audience? Email your suggestions to hello@designlab.com.
💡 INTERESTING STUFF...
- Mind the Product's World Product Day Hackathon
- How to Make Your Design System AI-Ready
- Agents of Chaos: Data From a 2-Week AI Agent Study
- Applying Dieter Rams’ Design Principles to Designing AI
Good design is as little as possible. Less, but better... — Dieter Rams, industrial designer
🧪 FROM THE LAB
Courses Launching Soon for Experienced Designers
Prototyping in Figma launches June 26. AI tools can spin up a prototype fast, but when the details matter, you need control over every interaction. This 4-week course teaches you to build high-fidelity Figma prototypes that capture exactly the behavior you've designed, so you can test with users, align with stakeholders, and speed up development. Join our live info session Thursday, June 18 at 12pm ET to learn more.
The next cohort of Vibe Coding Camp launches June 30. For designers and builders who want to ship real, working web experiences, this 4-week course teaches the modern AI development stack and gives you the confidence to build and ship functional products. Grab your seat now.
For New Designers: UX Academy Foundations Starts Monday
The next cohort of UX Academy Foundations launches Monday, June 15. Our beginner-friendly prerequisite course, Foundations is the first step to a design career. You'll learn core visual design skills, build proficiency with Figma, get exposure to AI tools, and work 1:1 with a dedicated design mentor. You'll leave with the skills you need to continue to UX Academy and a $500 tuition discount. Enroll Now.
