One more chatbot with a generic LLM response you ‘smell five miles against the wind’ (as you say in German). Type what you want, hope for the best. Micromanage your new AI trainee.
The strange thing with AI is that, yes, it is a tool, not a feature. But screwed into a product, a tool alone isn’t enough — it needs a character, an identity that feels native to your product. Then it becomes something integral, something people can relate to and feel good about. Have fun with, even.
We’re not the first ones bolting AI onto a product.
But I intend to bolt it on right.
Value
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July 31, 2026
in
Product Design
Only because it feels (!) like everybody is doing it doesn’t mean that it is the right thing to do.
Compulsion
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June 03, 2026
in
Product Design
Okay, this one is funny–and a bit sad.
I set up a shortcut for Siri to listen to my question, hand it off to ChatGPT, and read its answer out loud.
Siri
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March 17, 2026
in
Product Design
“Can we add a setting for that?” slowly kills the product. The default response to feature requests should be “no”.
What you don’t build is as important as what you ship. If an issue keeps coming back, ask “why”. And if that answer resonates, start digging.
“No” by default
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March 13, 2026
in
Product Design
Can we stop adding fancy light bulb switches to our apps and websites? It’s 2026. We have a system preference for that. Just use it already.
Dark Mode
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March 12, 2026
in
Product Design
Building is easy. Letting people know is not.
Discovery
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January 05, 2026
in
Product Design
If I ever get to teach UX, I’ll start with American kitchen layouts. Nothing says ‘user-centered design’ like upper cabinets at forehead height and a stove right next to the fridge.
Kitchen layouts
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July 06, 2025
in
Product Design
Speaking of materialism – do you like good stuff, too?
Good stuff
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October 28, 2024
in
Product Design
Eighty percent is enough. Ego aside, no one cares about the last 20 percent. You can tweak it later. Now ship it already!
Ship it
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August 23, 2024
in
Product Design
I said it once and I’ll say it again: autonomous vehicles won’t take off until the first manufacturer takes full responsibility for its robots.
Autonomous driving
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April 16, 2024
in
Product Design
Oops I did it again… updated my personal webpage. Credits to Onur Çoban for the inspiration.
Update
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April 10, 2024
in
Product Design
„I left my settings app in the other room yesterday“ — Jason Snell, sixcolors.com
Who needs standing desks when you can put each app in a different room and run around the apartment all day?
Vision Pro
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February 04, 2024
in
Product Design
Reading ‘Getting Real’ by Basecamp on how to build successful web apps. So many good quotes, it’s impossible to choose. This is the way. Or is it?
Getting Real
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January 27, 2024
in
Product Design
“Internet providers sell connections by capacity, but the difference between streaming a 4K movie 30 times faster than you can watch it versus five times faster than you can watch it isn’t particularly important.”
— Mitchell Clark, theverge.com
Faster internet
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December 10, 2023
in
Product Design
Starting a new job as a product designer. Will it be as fulfilling as I hope it to be? Who knows. For now, it feels like the perfect match.
And it will certainly open new doors in the future, in a field I feel so deeply connected to.
New chapter
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October 12, 2023
in
Product Design
The new Live Sticker feature of iOS 17 is just incredible. Finally, having kids (or pets) makes sense again!
Live Sticker
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October 06, 2023
in
Product Design