Gavin Nelson - Prototyping, interaction design, and learning SwiftUI

Someone asked me recently... if you had to join a design team, who would you want to work for?And my answer was easy... PerplexitySo today's episode with Henry Modisett (https://x.com/henrymodis) (Perplexity's VP of Design) is a deep dive into what makes their design culture so special.Some highlights:- How to create a culture of decisiveness- What signals Henry is looking for in designers- Factors that influence Henry’s leadership style- How to lay the right foundation for your design org- Why Henry is doing feedback differently at Perplexity- Henry’s strategies for building world class design teams- + a lot more

9 Tammi 47min

Kyle Zantos is leading the new UX Tools Labs where he's responsible for figuring out what matters for new design tools and workflows.As a result, he's pretty quickly become my go-to source as I transition into more of a builder with AI.So this conversation is a deep dive into very specific tactics you can use on your own design engineering journey.We'll go through recommended tools, workflows, and Kyle's process for building a design engineering "Skill" using Claude Code.Kyle’s portfolio site: https://zantos.coLeva control panel: https://threejsresources.com/tool/levaCompound Engineering plugin: https://github.com/EveryInc/compound-engineering-pluginJhey Tompkins: https://x.com/jh3yyDerek Briggs: https://x.com/PixelJanitorWill King: https://x.com/willkingEmil Kowalski: https://x.com/emilkowalski

7 Tammi 48min

We talk a lot about using AI at startups…But what are more established companies doing to scale AI prototyping?What are the best ways to use AI to prototype with your design system?That's what today's episode is all about because we're talking with Lewis Healey (https://x.com/Lewishealey) and Kylor Hall (https://www.linkedin.com/in/kylorhall/) about how they scaled AI prototyping at Atlassian.Some highlights 👇- Their vision for a truly AI-native design system- What's worked to scale AI prototyping adoption- Tips for reducing hallucinations when prototyping- ways to help AI make sense of your design system- Their novel approach to prototyping with “templates”- How the role of design system designers is changing with AI- + a lot more- Atlassian Design System (https://atlassian.design/)- Figma Make (https://www.figma.com/make/?gad_campaignid=23356954992&gbraid=0AAAABCTX0ItGAe7RZBBeUOUindISLe0Un) (AI prototyping tool)- AI Builders Week (Atlassian internal program) (https://www.atlassian.com/blog/inside-atlassian/ai-product-builders-week)

2 Tammi 52min

Today's episode goes deep into all of the design details in a new video collaboration tool called Flask.But the reason I’m so inspired by this product goes far beyond the UI/UX…Flask is designed and built by one person—Enrico Tartarotti—who was a PM before this so his journey is the perfect example of what it looks like to thrive as a generalist builder.So this episode tells the story of what it took to build a well-crafted product and all of the lessons that he learned along the way.Enrico references the Mom Test for user research and the episode with the Supercut Founders

29 Joulu 202548min

As one of the fastest growing companies in the world, Lovable is scaling their design team by tapping into the [Dive Talent Network](https://www.dive.club/talent-network).So I interviewed their Head of Design, [Nad Chishtie](https://x.com/nadonomy), to learn everything I can about how to get hired as a designer at Lovable.Some highlights:- A breakdown of a recent design hire’s portfolio- How to avoid getting your portfolio screened out- How to crush the later stages of the hiring process- How you can win Nad over with side projects alone- What to do if you’re not confident in your visual skills- The 2 things Nad cares most about when hiring designers- Spotify’s cross-functional squad model (https://medium.com/found-ation/agile-team-organization-a-deep-dive-on-the-spotify-model-f5b32dfc37dd)- Matt’s portfolio (designer hired through Dive Talent Network) (https://www.lfs.gd/)

19 Joulu 202558min

What does it look like to own web design for one of the fastest growing AI companies in the world?And how do you get that opportunity if you don’t have companies like Apple or Airbnb on your resumé?That’s what this episode with [Roman Tesliuk](https://x.com/RomaTesla) is all about.He walks us through the Eleven Labs Figma and talks about the tiniest of design decisions all the way to how he’s building a scalable website system.We also go deep into Roman's side projects and all of the ways he's becoming a builder with AI 💪Roman’s App Stacks project - https://appstacks.club/ and portfolio site - https://pixelwrld.co/

15 Joulu 202555min

I’ve probably learned more about visual design from MDS than anyone in the design community.So I wanted to go deep into the creative process behind the all-new Shift Nudge website to see how he explores visual ideas.He takes us through his Figma file that is full of very good ideas that didn't ship.And he even shows us how he built his own Mosaic tool in v0 which became the core motif of the site.So if you're interested in seeing the windy creative process behind one of the truly great designers today then I think you're going to enjoy this one.

8 Joulu 202547min

I get shown a lot of tool demos and one thing is clear…Canvas-based UX will play a pivotal role in how we interface with AI.It’s a big reason why Figma just bought Weavy 👀So I interviewed Steve Ruiz who is the founder of tldraw where he's spent over 3 years and $5 million dollars building the perfect canvas (which powers many of the startups that we've studied on this show).Some highlights:Why he’s been obsessing over fairiesSteve’s principles for good tool designHow he was able to learn to code so quicklyWhat Steve’s learned through his AI experimentsHow he’s thinking about the future of agentic designa lot more

1 Joulu 20251h 2min