Everyone is designing with AI, not for it

AI summary focused on the core points of the original article.

A shift from productivity (How) to the essence of the product (What)

Currently, most designers are focusing on using AI to streamline their work processes or launch products faster (How). However, the author emphasizes that we should ask, "How is AI changing the form and interaction of the products we make (What)?" They point out that keeping a fixed UI and simply adding AI features on top of it is only design for a bygone era.

Historical context and the evolution of design paradigms

The article points out that at important moments in web history, designers' ways of thinking have changed.

Early 1990s web: It was designed around fixed layouts using tables and widths.
2010s mobile revolution: With the arrival of smartphones, web design shifted to Responsive Web Design, proposed by Ethan Marcotte, and the web became standardly flexible in response to screen size.
2026 AI era: We have now reached the era of 'Malleable Design' beyond responsive web.

The concept of Malleable Design

The new possibilities AI provides break the limits of 'fixed interfaces that look the same to every user.' In a malleable design environment, instead of offering a single version of an Alpha/Beta product, users can directly reconstruct and personalize dashboards, editors, and layouts within the product to suit their own work goals and preferences.

The pleasures of the past and the software of the future

The author recalls the individualized pleasure users felt in the MySpace days, when they could customize layouts, backgrounds, and soul food lists themselves. By applying this to work software for modern logistics system managers or content marketers, the author suggests that we can provide a custom software environment that fully supports a specific individual's work efficiency, rather than a one-size-fits-all screen for the masses.

In conclusion, the author advises that when reviewing future design work or product briefs, we should ask ourselves whether it is truly "designed with old-era assumptions, or has it captured the flexibility of the AI era?"

XPLORED View

This piece moves beyond the habit of seeing AI only as a tool to "make things faster," and invites us to imagine an era in which the product interface itself can differ from user to user.

Good situations to read it in

When you want to rethink the product structure and interactions themselves, beyond simply layering AI features onto existing screens
When designing products like dashboards, editors, or workflow tools where each user's context and goals differ greatly

Takeaways

The design question in the AI era should shift from "How can we make it faster?" to "What can we make differently?"
Malleable design expands personalized UI beyond simple recommendations into an experience where users reconstruct software to fit their own work.

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