What happens when machines erase the very steps that guide us towards greatness?Image source: Adobe StockThey say AI isn’t a threat to a designer’s job. It’s just a tool. It can’t replace refined design skills such as taste, strategy, and vision.On the surface, this is a valid argument. But it’s also a paradox.Gaining those skills requires experience wrestling with the very tasks AI now makes unnecessary — cranking out layouts, grinding through late-night revisions, and sketching idea after idea to find the right solution. I know this because I was forged through these tedious processes — most veteran designers were.The question today is — how do entry-level designers in the age of AI develop high-level skills — like creative judgment — when the traditional path that once honed our abilities is now being paved over by machines?As a young designer, I had a natural eye for aesthetics and I was fast. That made me valuable. And while design is more than making things look pretty, back then, if you had the talent to solve problems quickly with strong visual appeal, you found a job easily. But that early recognition did more than validate my talent — it gave me a foundation to grow from.Over the past 18 years, I’ve worked as a creative director, brand strategist, UX engineer, and university professor. These roles go far beyond raw talent or speed — they demand critical thinking, adaptability, and strategic clarity. But all of it traces back to those formative moments as an entry-level designer performing the tedious tasks.Lately, I’ve been thinking about how rare those moments are becoming.The creative industry has shifted — especially for those just starting out. AI tools like ChatGPT and Midjourney, and automation tools like Figma plugins can now generate polished, professional work in minutes.The initial talent and speed that once helped novice designers like me propel ourselves forward are becoming sadly irrelevant.The rise of AI has created a strange kind of disruption. For new designers, the challenge isn’t just developing their talents — it’s being forced to skip the part where ability is tempered and tested, and jump straight into a career without the climb.I’m not against AI technology. I use it daily. But I do feel a kind of grief for the creative world that once allowed you to earn your place through a natural process. I worry that newcomers won’t get to feel that thrill — the pride that comes from struggle, from failing, iterating, and finally watching something fall into place.As a university design instructor, I see the gap widening. Students believe talent will set them apart. But talent now is not enough. The qualities that truly matter — the ones AI can’t mimic — don’t come baked in. They come with experience.You don’t develop taste by hitting “generate.” You don’t build vision without seeing your ideas fall flat in public. You don’t learn strategy by watching a machine solve problems you never got to grapple with with yourself.That’s the paradox.AI removes the climb. But the climb is where the growth happens. And when you skip the struggle, you skip the transformation.Which brings us back to the real question — how do new designers grow when the first steps are being erased?You’ll have to create your own friction. Resist the shortcuts. Slow down. Try it the hard way — not because it’s efficient, but because it’s formative.It means building things from scratch, even when a template or AI is faster. It means struggling through a problem without googling the answer right away. It means sitting with imperfect work longer than feels comfortable — and finding your own solutions instead of relying on instant ones.Write your own case studies, even if no one asks for them. Sketch by hand before refining. Design something meaningful for someone you know — something imperfect, something real — not something polished for someone you’re trying to impress.I could list a thousand examples of what to do — but it wouldn’t matter. Real creative judgment isn’t something you follow step-by-step. It’s something you discover by wrestling with problems that don’t have clear answers. It’s built by experimenting, by getting it wrong, by chasing ideas that don’t come from a prompt or a tutorial.Because mastery can be mimicked. A portfolio can be polished. A brand can be templated. But becoming — that inner shift forged through failure, persistence, and self-discovery — cannot be faked.Remember, friction isn’t the enemy. It’s the forge.If you’re just starting out, you’re not behind. You’re in a system that forgot how to train you.So train yourself. Embrace the mess. Get it wrong. Share it anyway.That’s how you build what AI can’t. That’s how the work starts to feel like it’s yours. That’s how you grow.Don’t miss out! Join my email list and receive the latest content.AI is stripping away the forging process that shapes designers was originally published in UX Collective on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

We may earn a commission from links on this page.Lots of apps are getting built-in AI features these days, and they’re often disappointing. They’ll summarize (sometimes incorrectly) the same data that’s already available in charts or graphs elsewhere in the app. But the AI advisor that was recently added to the Oura ring's app takes a different strategy, one that I’ve come to appreciate over the past few weeks since its launch. Instead of just reporting data, it asks questions. It asks you to do a little analysis, a little introspection. And I think Oura is really onto something here. Some of the questions the Oura Advisor has asked meI’ll admit that, at first, I was interested in what the Advisor could tell me. Anytime I asked it a question, it would give an answer but then bounce it back to me. How was I feeling? What things have I tried lately? These seemed like dodges, not insights.The Advisor will also pipe up with some extra questions from time to time, in a notification on your phone. "Your sedentary time has decreased to 6h 11m,” it told me one day. “How are you feeling about your movement?" If you tap on the notification, it will start a conversation with you about that topic. Here are some of the questions it’s asked me lately: (After noting some poor HRV numbers recently) “How do you feel about your recovery practices, and is there anything you’d like to adjust?” (After I told it I had been sick) “How are you feeling about your overall recovery and balance in daily routines?” (After reporting my recent stress scores) “How are you feeling about managing stress this week?” (After suggesting relaxation methods) “Do any of these resonate with you?”One day, the Advisor even explained its strategy to me. “Thinking back on the last few days, how have you felt about your sleep quality? Self-reflection can reveal insights about your priorities and help you adjust your routines. If you’re up for it, sharing your thoughts could open the door to valuable information that could enhance your rest even further.”Fine. I answered the question in good faith, telling the bot about something that I know had been affecting my sleep—that I like to have a little wind-down time in the evening, and that this has lately been turning into revenge procrastination where I try to claw back a little relaxation or enjoyment even when I know it’s eating into my sleep time. “It’s understandable to want extra relaxation time after a busy day,” it said. It then congratulated me on some small improvements I’d made, and suggested the incredibly obvious advice of starting my wind-down routine a little earlier. Then it asked me: “How does that sound to you?”I know it’s not telling me anything I couldn’t have told it. The Advisor is just restating my own concerns in a gentle, curious manner. But, goddammit, I think it’s helping. Why asking questions is so powerfulWhen we look to someone else to solve our problems—be they an app or a human being, like a therapist—we generally already have the information we need. We just need to go through the process of setting our thoughts in order. What is most important? What should we do next? What tools do we already have that can help us? Since this process doesn’t require new information, just thinking through what we already have, it doesn’t actually matter if the thing we’re talking to is a dumb robot who knows nothing about us. One of the best demonstrations of this is a program written in the 1960s, the famous chatbot Eliza. Inspired by Rogerian psychotherapy, all the Eliza bot did was turn your own statements into questions, occasionally recalling something from earlier in the conversation, and from time to time asking you if this relates to your mother. Eliza wasn’t AI in any sense of the word, just a bit of code simple enough that it could be written into a webpage or hidden as an Easter egg feature in a text editor. You can try out a simple version of Eliza here. When I studied for my personal training certification, I had to learn a lot about motivational interviewing, something that is recognized as evolving from Rogerian, person-centered techniques. The idea is to help a person with their “behavior change” (eating better, exercising more, etc.) by getting them to talk about their own motivation for making the change. You don’t tell them what to do, you just allow them to tell themselves. As long as you play along with Oura’s AI—actually answering the questions—you can have this experience anytime you want, without having to talk to an actual therapist or trainer. The advisor is more sophisticated than Eliza, remembering things you told it a few days ago, and having access to your data from the ring's sensors. But it uses data summaries as a jumping-off point, rather than expecting you to be impressed that a bot can read your data at all. Oura recognizes that the value of its Advisor is not in having all the answers, but in having plenty of good questions.

Boox, a company that makes E Ink gear ranging from palm-sized devices to desktop monitors, has a new pair of ereaders. The Go 7 and Go Color 7 (Gen II) combine a Kindle Oasis-like form factor with Android 13. For the first time in this lineup, they support handwriting, courtesy of a $46 stylus. And since the E Ink tablets ship with the Play Store, you can use any ebook storefront you like. The Boox Go Color 7 (Gen II) uses E Ink Kaleido 3 tech, also found in the Kobo Libra Colour and Kindle Colorsoft. (However, Amazon modified the latter with a custom display stack.) Like those competitors, the Go Color 7 shows color content at 150 ppi and black and white at 300 ppi. Meanwhile, the Go 7 has a monochrome Carta 1300 Monochrome display that shows content at 300 ppi. Boox Both devices have an asymmetrical form factor with physical page turn buttons on one side. They're the latest design inspired by the Kindle Oasis, which Amazon discontinued last year. Variations of this form are also found in the Kobo Libra, Sage and Elipsa lines. If you've never tried one of these offshoots, they're made for maximum one-handed ease. One advantage Boox's readers have over competitors is that, since they run Android and include the Play Store, you can install whatever reading app you like. Ditto for note-taking apps, browsers, mail clients, social apps or anything else you want. (But don't expect anything with video to be usable on E Ink screens.) The Go 7 and Go Color 7 each have 4GB of RAM, 64GB of internal storage and microSD support. Each device weighs 195g (6.9oz). Boox Although both Go 7 readers support pen input for note-taking, highlights and markups, you'll have to spend more to enjoy that. That's because, alongside the devices, Boox is launching a $46 InkSense stylus with 4,096 pressure levels of sensitivity. The pen, which looks a bit like a gray Apple Pencil, has a multifunction button on the side and recharges via USB-C. You can preorder the $250 monochrome Go 7 from Boox's website today. The company expects it to ship around May 7. Meanwhile, the $280 Go Color 7 is listed as "coming soon." This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/tablets/booxs-new-go-7-e-ink-tablets-support-handwriting-with-a-46-stylus-182026839.html?src=rss

The week's 7 biggest tech stories from Insta360, LG, Xbox, Alexa+, and more for April 26, 2025.

California's new regulations would impact Waymo, Tesla, Zoox and other driverless vehicle makers

In The Gorge, DNEG takes viewers on a final plunge into a world shaped by destruction and desperation. From expansive digital environments to a visually intense nuclear blast, the studio’s work transforms the brutal landscape into a character of its own.The team crafted sweeping vistas and intricate terrain using a combination of CG environments, matte paintings, and complex simulations to portray the raw intensity of the film’s post-apocalyptic setting. One of the most striking sequences—a full-scale nuclear wipeout—was developed with meticulous FX work, blending volumetric explosions, debris, and lighting to heighten the devastation.By balancing visual spectacle with emotional storytelling, DNEG’s effects amplify the film’s tone, making The Gorge not just a location, but a visceral experience. The post The Gorge – VFX Breakdown by DNEG appeared first on Vfxexpress.

Americans worried about their country’s sky-high rate of crash deaths haven’t had much to cheer lately. Although pedestrian fatalities remain near an all-time record, U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy wants to stop funding “active” transportation projects such as sidewalks. A prominent webpage encouraging safe street designs has disappeared, and layoffs have rocked the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the federal agency responsible for minimizing crashes. But at the state level, an encouraging trend is emerging. From California to Maryland, state legislators are exploring the use of new technology, known as Intelligent Speed Assist (ISA), that can prevent the most reckless drivers from blasting past the speed limit. Even at a time of entrenched political polarization, ISA has garnered bipartisan support. “It’s really growing much more rapidly than we anticipated,” says Amy Cohen, the head of Families for Safe Streets, a national advocacy group backing the various ISA bills. She and her allies hope to sidestep the Trump administration entirely, relying instead on states to promote the adoption of lifesaving car technology. The safety argument against speeding is ironclad. Blazing-fast vehicles take longer to brake and exert more force in a crash, thereby endangering everyone else on the roadway. Across the U.S., around 12,000 people died in speeding-related crashes in 2022, almost a third of the national total. “Super-speeders” going more than 20 mph over the limit can cause catastrophic harm. In 2022, a driver in North Las Vegas, Nevada, flew through an intersection at 103 mph, killing himself and eight other people. Despite the risks, super-speeding is disturbingly common. Last year, law enforcement in Rhode Island issued 292 tickets to drivers exceeding 100 mph, while Ohio’s highway patrol cited 38 people for doing so in a single day. Since police inevitably miss many infractions, super-speeders often get away with it. Automated speed cameras provide a more reliable means of enforcement, but their deployments are often mired in controversy. (Camera-based ticketing is banned completely in many states.) For the speeders who are caught, penalties may be limited to a fine or a driver’s education class. Even a license suspension doesn’t necessarily change behavior: A federally funded study found that 75% of people with suspended licenses continued to drive. Rather than relying on dubious ex post penalties, ISA systems make extreme speeding difficult or even impossible. The technology, which can be installed while a car is manufactured or afterward, uses GPS to identify the speed limit on a road segment and then deter drivers from going more than a programmed amount beyond it. “Passive” ISA systems issue tactile or audible warnings that attract the driver’s attention, while heavier-handed “active” systems block additional acceleration after the maximum threshold is reached. (ISA works through the gas pedal; it does not affect braking.) ISA has attracted growing attention from researchers, safety advocates, and policymakers. As of last year, the European Union requires all new cars to contain passive ISA. In the U.S., the National Transportation Safety Board has called on NHTSA to impose a similar ISA mandate, but the agency has shown no signs of doing so. Impatient with federal inaction, state leaders are taking matters into their own hands. Last year, California State Sen. Scott Wiener proposed a bill requiring ISA on all new cars sold in the Golden State. To the surprise of even many supporters (and to the consternation of the auto industry), Wiener’s bill passed both of California’s legislative chambers before Gov. Gavin Newsom ultimately vetoed it. Now, a new wave of state bills is advancing a narrower and seemingly less controversial application of ISA technology. Rather than call for passive ISA on all new cars, advocates are arguing that active ISA—which can make extreme acceleration impossible—should be placed on vehicles owned by people with a history of reckless speeding. Last year, the District of Columbia became the first jurisdiction to pass such a law. This spring, Virginia passed its own bill, which gives judges the option of requiring ISA if a driver exceeded 100 mph. Legislatures in Arizona, California, Georgia, Maryland, and New York are now considering their own proposals. (Proposals typically include a limited “override” feature allowing further acceleration during an emergency.) “The bills are all a little bit different,” Cohen says. “But they are all taking the worst drivers and saying that this technology has to be put in their cars for the duration that a license is suspended.” Politically, a focus on reckless drivers offers crucial advantages over a blanket ISA requirement like those that the EU has adopted and California has considered. Since only a small fraction of drivers are super-speeders (Cohen estimates the share at under 2% in New York state), the bills’ passage won’t affect most residents directly but can protect them from danger posed by others. The auto industry is also less likely to oppose such measures, since an ISA mandate for new vehicles presents a much greater threat to existing manufacturing and marketing practices. The recent state proposals have shown bipartisan appeal: Virginia’s bill was signed into law by Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, and bills have passed the state house and senate in GOP-dominated Georgia as well as Democrat-led Washington state. Cohen says that her basic pitch, revolving around safety and fairness, seems to resonate equally well on both sides of the aisle: “We’re not taking away your car; we’re just saying that you can’t drive recklessly,” she says of the current state bills. “You have to get to your destination safely, and not kill anyone along the way.” If successful, the states’ legislation could serve as a gateway for broader ISA deployments, potentially including public fleets (as New York City has piloted). A single car with ISA can also prevent multiple drivers behind it from recklessly accelerating, so even a small number of ISA-equipped vehicles could have a dramatic impact on regional or even national road safety. For now, Cohen’s primary goal is convincing more states to climb aboard the ISA bandwagon. Families for Safe Streets has helped coordinate the various campaigns by building a resource page, answering FAQs, and arranging for crash victims to give supportive testimony during hearings. With the Trump administration showing hostility toward regulations of all kinds, a state-based approach toward traffic safety offers promise. “It’s inspiring to see how quickly some legislators can move,” Cohen says. “We’re pushing—and hoping that others follow suit.”

Somewhere between building nuclear fusion reactors and decoding the human genome, humanity paused… and decided that peeing shouldn’t be a messy ordeal. Enter the Nautilus urinal: a piece of plumbing so thoughtfully engineered that it makes the 100-year-old standard look like a cruel prank played on pants and public floors everywhere. Scientists at the University of Waterloo – yes, fittingly named – approached the urinal problem with the same earnest precision usually reserved for spacecrafts and particle accelerators. They didn’t just eyeball it. They fired a dyed-water jet through a urethra-mimicking nozzle onto test surfaces angled meticulously between 0 and 90 degrees. What they found would make even Newton nod approvingly: angles over 30 degrees are splash factories. Anything shallower drastically tames the wild energy of a stream. That led them to craft the Nautilus, a urinal that captures and channels urine like a fluid dynamics masterpiece, reducing splashback by a staggering 98%. Designers: Kaveeshan Thurairajah, Xianyu (Mabel) Song, J D Zhu, Mia Shi, Ethan A Barlow, Randy C Hurd, Zhao Pan (University of Waterloo) Visually, it’s a sleek swirl of ceramic engineering, a tighter, more inviting spiral that looks more like a modernist sculpture than a bathroom fixture. Unlike the brutish slanted walls of traditional urinals, the Nautilus hugs the stream, guiding it along a smooth, gentle curve with the elegance of a Formula 1 racetrack designed purely for liquids. And while there’s a brutalist Cornucopia prototype that looks like it came from Elon Musk’s fever dream, the Nautilus is the undisputed champion, working for users of almost any height, which is kind of a miracle when you realize how unregulated the chaos of public restroom aim usually is. And this wasn’t just an aesthetic choice. The Nautilus was torture-tested with poor aim scenarios, erratic flow rates, and simulated misfires. Yet, it consistently captured everything with a grace that makes you wonder why we tolerated Jackson Pollock floors for so long. The data is even more satisfying: switching North America over to Nautilus-style urinals could save up to 10 million liters (2.6 million gallons) of water per day. That’s not small change when cities are scraping the barrel for every drop. It’s easy to romanticize grand challenges – curing cancer, saving the planet – but life is a patchwork quilt stitched from a thousand tiny annoyances. Pee splash isn’t glamorous, but it’s real. It’s the kind of everyday indignity that quietly erodes dignity and comfort without anyone noticing until suddenly, they’re standing in it. That’s the magic of design thinking at its best: no problem too petty, no dignity too small to preserve. And the payoff is tangible. Imagine cleaner public bathrooms, lower maintenance costs, fewer eco-unfriendly cleaning products being dumped down the drain. Suddenly, a small tweak in geometry feels like it shifts the axis of civilization a few degrees toward better. Maybe the real sign of a society leveling up isn’t flying cars or robot butlers. Maybe it’s how little urine ends up where it shouldn’t be.The post World’s First ‘Splashless’ Urinal keeps the Floor Clean and your Pants Pee-free first appeared on Yanko Design.

Maksym Haydar’s 'Memories' feels like a scene lifted from a graphic novel — rich with depth, detail and storytelling