Articles
State of Design 2026
Opinion with data, in the first person. Each article opens in reading mode or in presentation mode, for our internal tech talks.
- 01
The three tribes of vibe coding
The profession didn't migrate to AI as a block. It split into three groups that coexist on the same teams, and adoption rises with seniority, not with youth.
4 min read · 11 slides
- 02
Prototyping is not shipping
Almost half of designers generate half or more of their output with AI, and only 1.4% trust that output without reviewing it. That's not a contradiction. It's the definition of a prototype.
3 min read · 11 slides
- 03
The anxious middle
The people who code most with AI feel more valuable. IC Designers, 58% of the profession, are the only group among designers with more fear than confidence. That's a management problem, not an individual one.
3 min read · 11 slides
- 04
Design system is the new API
Designers plan to invest more in design systems and tokens than in canvas tools. That makes sense. Tokens are the interface between design intent and the code the AI generates.
3 min read · 10 slides
- 05
They complain about the excess, then plan for more
The bottleneck in the 2026 design workflow is cognitive, not budgetary. And the profession complaining about too many tools is the same one planning to add more.
3 min read · 11 slides