Trends in Design Tools for Professionals

An interesting trend I have noticed: many of the best PMs and designers I know have stopped relying on their traditional toolkits — specs, mocks, and PRDs — and are simply shipping code. They’re using tools like Cursor, Augment, Windsurf, Bolt, and Loveable to fork repos, build working prototypes, and even submit PRs. This quote from a recent conversation sums up what I keep hearing: “Honestly, I don’t see much value in Figma anymore… I’m better off forking the codebase and using Cursor to create living prototypes.” The reason is clear — AI copilots give non-engineers 10x more agency than before. But are code-oriented IDEs and plugins really the right form factor for this persona? I believe there’s room for a new category of ‘Visual IDE’ — purpose-built for non-engineers — likely centered around interacting with a live staging preview of the app, not code. Prototyping is the likely wedge use case — but I’m confident that a meaningful chunk of software development will ‘shift right’ to these personas over time. And serving them well will look profoundly different from serving engineers. I wrote a blog post outlining: - The behavioral shift of PMs & designers shipping code/prototypes/PRs with AI copilot tools - Why traditional IDEs are likely not the right interface for this persona - What an "integrated development environment” for non-engineers could look like, and the key challenges any such product would need to solve for (e.g. engineering handoff) I think there is significant startup opportunity here — and I’d love to connect with anyone exploring it, or any PMs/designers already embracing these workflows. https://lnkd.in/ggU3RXWT

“There’s an AI tool for that.” …has officially usurped “There’s an app for that.” But which ones actually help designers? Here’s a stack of tools that aren’t just hype and actually fit into *real* workflows: 🧠 Strategy + Research • Perplexity: Source-backed answers for rapid exploration • UXPilot: AI-assisted UX research and journey building • Dovetail: Transcription + thematic analysis of user interviews ✍️ UX Writing + Naming • Writer: Brand-aligned microcopy and grammar • Claude: Structured brainstorming, longform outlining, and ideation • ChatGPT: Excellent for prompts, patterns, and voice experimentation 📐 Wireframing + Planning • Figma AI: Layout autofill, summaries, and design suggestions • Diagram: Smart flows, wireframes, and branching logic • Magician: Icon and copy generation inside Figma 📊 Presentation + Documentation • Tome: Auto-generated slide decks from outlines • Gamma: Structured storytelling and interactive pitches • Scribe: Instant visual documentation of how-tos or processes Some save hours. Others save sanity. Either way, the future of design isn’t just AI hype—it’s AI strategy. 👇 Which ones are in your stack? #uxdesign #ai #generativeai ——— 👋 Hi, I’m Dane—I love sharing design tips + strategies. ❤️ Found this helpful? Dropping a like shows support. 🔄 Share to help others (& for easy access later). ➕ Follow for more like this in your feed every day.

Lo-fi wireframes are dead. AI just killed them. Had a fascinating convo recently with Will Newton (most senior designer at Amplitude) that's making me rethink the traditional product design process. The standard design flow (lo-fi → hi-fi → prototype → code) exists for one reason: economics. Each step gets more expensive, so we created this linear progression to manage costs and resources. But what happens when the economics fundamentally change? Will made an important distinction: "On the user experience side, the purpose of low fidelity is to figure out the information architecture without the distraction of what it looks like." But then he added the critical insight: "But if it's easier to do that in code because you can generate code, it's faster than drawing boxes and you can have three different versions that feel real... it's just the entire thing blows up." Now with tools like Bolt: ↳ Creating working code is faster than drawing boxes ↳ Testing 3 different functional versions is cheaper than 1 wireframe ↳ Real interactions replace simulated ones The kicker? Will's team at Amplitude has gone from 2 designers using these tools to the entire design org in just ONE MONTH. This isn't about prettier screens or better transitions. It's about: ↳ Having the right conversation sooner ↳ Getting feedback on what matters ↳ Reducing the gap between idea and implementation ↳ Finding problems before they're expensive to fix The best designers I know are already riding this wave, while others are still drawing rectangles. We're watching a real transformation happen in real-time. Are you seeing it too? Full episode: https://lnkd.in/gc9vknhd

Mockups used to take 2–3 weeks. Now prototypes go live in < 6 hours. Early teams are skipping the design step... They’re building real products from day one. 1. FROM IDEA TO V1, IN HOURS Founders are using tools like Cursor, Lovable, Windsurf, Bolt. They’re writing prompts...not specs ❌ Picking domains before naming the product. It’s not perfect. But it works. And it gets real feedback, fast. 2. AI IS WRITING THE BASELAYER You might think this is an edge case... it's not. Last month I ran a survey with YC startups. 20% of their total code is now AI-generated For internal tools, that jumps to 50% No scaffolding. No glue code. Just shipping. 3. DESIGN IS GETTING ABSTRACTED Last week I overheard a person close to Figma say: “The entire design step might go to zero.” Sounds wild. But it already happened before: - Sketch + Zeplin workflows faded overnight - Handoff tools became irrelevant - Collaboration became default We used to ask: “Does this design make sense?” very soon we may ask: “Does this actually work?” 4. THE FEEDBACK LOOP IS COLLAPSING Instead of: 1. Mockup 2. Share a link 3. Collect feedback 4. Maybe build a prototype... You go straight to: 1. Ship it 2. Try it 3. Improve it And that unlocks a better type of validation: - Does this solve my problem when I use it? - How does it feel on a real device? - Can we test acquisition channels today? 5. EVEN LARGER TEAMS ARE SHIFTING This week, Intercom’s VP of Design shared a screenshot. One of their designers pushed a PR. Ownership is shifting. Designers are building. This isn’t a faster version of the old loop. It’s a new one. Design, dev, testing, it’s all merging. We’re not just saving time. We’re removing steps. Some still call it vibe coding. Soon we’ll just call it building. ____ Image credit: @jxnlco

Today, I sat down and connected Figma and Cursor, and with just a few prompts, it generated a near-perfect coded prototype. The feeling I had wasn’t, “Oh no, what about our jobs?” It was more like: Designers using tools like this can dramatically accelerate how quickly we turn ideas into real customer value. The traditional barriers—needing to formalize requirements, or relying on a UI engineer to build the concept—are starting to fall away. Now, we can bridge that gap ourselves and go end-to-end through the product development lifecycle. In that moment, I realized—nothing will be the same. And most designers have no idea how powerful they can become if we truly master the tools breaking down these long-standing walls. Curious how others are using tools like these—what have you tried? What happens when we stop waiting and start shipping? #ProductDesign #AIDesignTools #DesignInnovation #GoBuildSomething #VibeCoding