Senior Designer Webinar Series
I am operating in two modes nowadays. No, not like that.
The first mode is just such a source of joy. In that mode, I work with clients on juicy problems. I write laser-focused proposals that allow me to take away work from larger generic consulting businesses that parrot LinkedIn-level practices, so that the clients will get 5x the benefit for 1/5th of the price. I support teams and startups to create better products for their users and better environments for their teams to thrive.
In that mode I work on this newsletter and on my website to share what I learn. Some of the things that I want to say:
- Continue my rant on vibe AI-ing
- Talk about importance of boring, boring interaction design
- Write a design is dead post
- Walkthrough some good and bad apps/websites
- Detail my thinking on Der Neue Designer - why we are stuck in the past ideals of design that don't serve us.
I can't do any of these because of the second mode. The second mode is full of tragedy, sorrow and anger. I question everything about Narin's case, I can't forget about the infant abuses by the bebek çetesi, I think quietly about Kartalkaya, I lose my breath when I think about how people are left to death in Gaza, I breathe out an angry fire when I think about Mattia... And this is just before I start thinking about the İmamoğlu incident... arbitrary arrests, detention and torture, the protesting university students... the protesting high school students...
(For those not living in Türkiye, here is a very brief summary of recent protests on Wikipedia. For your own sanity, don't look up the rest)
The second mode is winning by a large margin nowadays... That is why you have an announcement and a collection of readings today. Until better days 🌟
Upcoming Event: Being a Senior Designer
Lovely folks at Brick Institute helped me put together a webinar series for senior designers. (Turkish only at the moment, I'm afraid...) Join us in the first two weeks of May to improve your skills as seniors in your organization. If you are not a senior yet but want to get a feeling about what responsibilities you should be ready for, join us.
The last module in the series is a panel, we will be announcing the panelists soon.
Here is the sign-up page with lots of details. Hope you can join us.
Reads
The 2025 Design in Tech Report: How AI Will Turn Designers into "Autodesigners": This is a must-see. John Maeda is a legend in computing. I was very fortunate to have read his Simplicity blog live - as he was writing those valuable posts at MIT Media Lab. Later in his career, he started working in advisory roles in large companies. His last position was at Microsoft and he worked with agentic AI. I must say, I was a bit surprised that he got into such a hype-driven domain. I was worried that he was pulling a Jakob Nielsen.