Design and dev collide

Framer, Webflow, Figma pages (coming soon?), ChatGPT, all of these things are merging together to allow the unicorn of an idea—design and dev happening together.

We’re not there yet. Right now you mostly need a person who understands both disciplines to be able to design and engineer apps. But we’re fast approaching a world where some designers can use these tools to code their own ideas.

Will it be as good as a senior engineer taking designs and working alongside the designer? No. Not in 2025, and maybe not for a while (if ever). But the results will be fast, somewhat good, and allow for quick ideation.

I work on a team with amazing engineers. I work in collaboration with them daily to do challenging and interesting projects. The work we do is rewarding, and won’t be replaced by AI.

However.

As with any startup and product team, we have bets we’re making to push various features. If we can cycle faster on ideas we can push further toward the numbers we’re trying to move.

If, as a designer, I can get to the test phase faster—even if it’s just user testing to validate an idea—I can then work with engineers on the more challenging problems. We can test faster or more, working on the things that actually matter.

That’s my hope for AI and all the design and dev tools that are getting better with each passing month.