Design's Obituary, the Shielding Problem, and the Future of Human Computing?

Dear Reader,

Halloween is around the corner, and some people are already carving R.I.P. on design's tombstone.

Before you start looking for a black suit, get caught up on the last two weeks.

Buckle up, there's going to be some ups and downs!

Will design be the first AI casualty?

Figma Investor Gokul Rajaram posted "DESIGN: THE FIRST AI CASUALTY" on X, and it's up to 767K views. He claims 2026 is the end of product design as a standalone, in-house title, and instead, there will be a few strategic designers per org and design system consultants.

It's an interesting and very public opinion for someone invested in Figma. His advice to designers is interesting: start a design agency, become an entrepreneur, or become a "builder" by adding PM and engineering skills.

The replies are very comforting, though, with Lenny of Lenny's Newsletter chiming in that he thinks the exact opposite will happen. Drop a comment to the post on X if you dare.

On "Shielding" Designers

Nurkhon Akhmedov described something in this article that I've seen so much in my career, and it's turning into a death sentence in the age of AI: shielding designers from the business realities.

When PMs define the problem, researchers tee up insights, and engineers give detailed constraints, there isn't much room for anything more than pixel pushing.

If you don't get any say on the inputs, all you have are obsession with the outputs. That's the place that many designers find themselves, just as the outputs are being taken over by AI.

Nurkhon's advice:

Have an opinion about the brief before it's written
Connect your work to outcomes without a PM translating for you
Get comfortable in rooms where stakeholders disagree

So when is the last time you wrote your own brief? It's time to unshield yourself.

Span of Control

The number of direct reports that a manager can handle is called their span of control. A general rule of thumb here is around 5 to 9 employees would be a normal span of control.

Some say with AI, the number can be larger, but there are limits. What's your manager's span of control?

Don't complain about wifi if...

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Amazon, what are we doing?!

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A designer on Reddit pointed out this weird way to make prices look lower by making the first number super small. This really looks like a mistake in rendering the code. I just hope normal people also think so, and don't fall for it.

It's not just wrong. It looks broken.

Tavus claims it's doing "human computing"

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This startup is building conversational AIs that can talk to you like a real person on Zoom. Meet Tavus, a company that sells you "PALs" or AI avatars that can join a call and act almost lifelike. In fact, 48% of people think it's real, apparently...which aren't great numbers but kind of terrifying when you think about.

The model can render a video from a single image, and there are no controls to be seen, just a vague nudge to "build something" with Tavus. Grandma is about to learn a real expensive FaceTime call from someone that looks 48% like you.

Apparently, Salesforce is already using an AI sales rep from Tavus. Imagine having that thing try to sell you B2B software? I

Use this when your boss wants to use Tavus

The honest designer salary thread on Reddit

Why are there so many of those slick, over-branded websites with design salary data these days? Well, here's the opposite of that.

It's a simple Reddit thread with people randomly and mostly anonymously posting their salary levels. It feels more honest than what's usually out there. But remember...comparison is the thief of joy.