Apple Names 2025 Design Awards Winners (2 minute read)
Apple announced the winners of its 2025 Design Awards just before WWDC, recognizing 12 apps and games across six categories. The winners primarily consisted of indie apps and startups, with generative AI apps notably absent for the second consecutive year. Notable winners include Watch Duty for Social Impact, which provides wildfire information during California emergencies, and Play for Innovation in developer prototyping. Apple emphasized how developers utilized its tools to create better user experiences rather than focusing on AI-centric applications.
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Introducing Our Dev Mode MCP Server: Bringing Figma Into Your Workflow (10 minute read)
Figma announced the beta release of its Dev Mode MCP server, which integrates Figma directly into developer workflows to enable design-informed code generation. The server works with agentic coding tools like Copilot, Cursor, and Claude Code by providing design context through the Model Context Protocol standard. It offers pattern metadata, screenshots, interactivity examples, and content details to help LLMs generate code that matches codebase patterns and design intent. Future updates will include remote server capabilities and deeper codebase integrations based on user feedback.
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Gemini app gets UI tweaks, swipe left to launch Live gesture (1 minute read)
Google has updated the Gemini app, introducing UI tweaks like a swipe-left gesture to launch Gemini Live and reverting the plus menu back to a vertical list layout. The prompt bar has also been updated, reordering chips to place Video (Veo) first and introducing a new Canvas icon featuring a split circle. While the swipe gesture remains in beta, other updates, including compact menus and visual refinements, are now live in the stable Google app.
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AI Is Flipping UX Upside Down: Navigating the New Era of Design (4 minute read)
AI is fundamentally disrupting UX design by shifting focus from traditional visual interfaces to AI-first systems that minimize or eliminate complex UIs. Tools like Figma risk obsolescence as AI generates interfaces from simple prompts, while conversational and predictive systems handle user interactions behind the scenes. UX professionals must evolve beyond pixel-perfect design to embrace strategic AI integration, developing prompt engineering and AI analytics skills. The transformation presents opportunities for designers who adapt by treating AI as a collaborative partner rather than viewing it as a threat to traditional design methods.
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Your Manager Is Not Your Best Friend (7 minute read)
Commiserating with direct reports may feel natural, but it's highly corrosive to team trust and organizational cohesion, subtly encouraging division, victimhood, and poor cross-team collaboration. Instead, effective managers should take a therapist-like approach—empathetic but curious and objective—using questions, perspective, and clear frameworks to steer conversations toward constructive action rather than shared grievances.
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Why is quality so rare? (8 minute read)
True quality remains rare despite rapid advances in technology and scale because the pursuit of craft—deliberate, caring attention to detail—has been sacrificed for speed, cost, and metrics. Yet quality is a choice: when individuals and teams intentionally center care, taste, and belief in their work, they create products that feel right, resonate deeply, and succeed organically.
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Brandon drops the agency speak with new identity (4 minute read)
Brandon has unveiled a bold rebrand, dropping "The Brandon Agency" to reflect its evolution into an integrated, insight-driven growth partner with a clear, provocative voice and dynamic visual identity. This complete repositioning emphasizes momentum, creative risk-taking, and a continued focus on impactful, outcome-driven marketing rooted in the agency's long-standing values.
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Common Problems with Design Pattern Libraries (12 minute read)
Design pattern libraries face critical challenges, including inconsistent component usage across teams, weak governance and maintenance, accessibility gaps, and disconnected workflows that create implementation drift. Solutions involve establishing clear documentation with usage guidelines, implementing strong governance frameworks with semantic versioning, building accessibility audits directly into components following WCAG standards, and connecting libraries to development workflows through code-synchronized tools.
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The UX butterfly effect (8 minute read)
The design of social media platforms like TikTok, driven by feedback loops to maximize user engagement, has led to significant unintended consequences including worsening teen mental health, environmental degradation, and social isolation. Tools like systems maps, impact ripple canvases, and iceberg visuals help designers anticipate these broader effects by making visible the complex, often hidden, relationships within systems.
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