r/productdesign

Most times, i've got project ideas, feature requests, stakeholder feedback and random thoughts all jumbled together. Traditional notes aren't cutting it anymore.

Has anyone had success using mind maps to organize chaotic thinking? I need something that lets me dump everything out visually and then make sense of it all. Most times, I end up staring at the screen, and the next thing, it's lunch break, and I have barely done anything.

Hello everyone. So, I'm a not-so-recently graduated male in industrial design, and I say male because my gender it's causing me some serious issues in pitching an important project of mine. Or maybe I should say that people are having issues with me being male. This project refers to an innovative article of design that crosses several fields in terms of application and user experience, but it mainly refers to the industry of maternity. The project doesn't entail anything weird or dangerous or "physical" about women. Long story short, almost five months ago I joined a group of youngsters in a meeting at the employment center of the city. It was my turn, I showed them my portfolio, and when I started talking about that project in the maternity field the immediate response was... grotesque. They were looking at me like I were some kind of alien, and two women were even laughing covering their mouth. Then, interrupting me, they said "Next!". So I got up and I left the office without talking to anyone or looking back. I called two ex professors of mine that heavily encouraged me to pitch that project, and I told them what just happened. They told me not to bother about the employment center, and they told me again (already did in the past) to go directly to those companies that deal with the industry of maternity. Fine, I trust them, they are professional designers, they worked both in our country (Italy) and abroad with really important companies. They were even able to do an "Atlantic crossing" and work with a company in the US, a feat not many are able to brag about. BUT. But to this day, after several months, I still haven't pitched that project. A few days ago they both called me and asked me why I still haven't done anything with that project. Mind you, they don't get anything out of that, they're just still being professors with me. So I told them. I told them that I really don't like the idea of being disrespected (and especially women do that), because I'm a male with a project to be pitched in the industry of maternity. And more than that, I don't like the idea of being, maybe, even dragged in something more dangerous like accusations of harassment or even worse because I'm a man. Because that's exactly what I was reading on the faces of those women during the meeting at the employment center. My ex professors kept on telling me to stop bothering about that, that that very project is really important for my career and totally marketable, and go full throttle with it. So I'm here to ask you for hints and suggestions. Both men and women. Does anyone among you ever worked as a man in the maternity industry? Did you have some kind of issues because of your gender? Do you know some man that did have/didn't have issues because they were male? Do you have some practical example, real work and real projects, that you can give me? Please note that I can't really say anything more specific about my project, both for obvious reasons about privacy and copyright of the patent, and because there's other people involved. Thank you in advance to anyone that will take their time to answer me, I wish you all a good day/evening.

I recently started working full time and everyday after work i become a completely different person

i used to freelance before this so evenings meant work, edits, clients, building stuff

now?

i come back home, sit down for “a bit” open my phone… and its 11:47 already

and it’s not even like i’m fully exhausted just lazy in a very specific after-7pm way

And I’m trying to get out of it because I actually want to build my own agency, not just think about it.

But doing that alone, every single evening, after work? Clearly not working.

So I started thinking…

Content creators have content houses.

Startup founders have co-working spaces.

Gym bros have training groups.

Why don’t designers have something like that?

Imagine this: A small group of designers.

All working 1–2 hours every evening. Not freelancing randomly but actually building something together. Sharing clients, improving each other’s work, staying accountable.

Not some corporate thing. Not some boring “networking” group.

More like:

“Hey, we all showed up today. Let’s build.”

I don’t know exactly what this turns into yet. But I know doing it alone after a full day of work is hard and im pretty sure many think about it too

So I’m putting this out here

If you’re a designer who:

• wants to do more than just your 9–5

• is tired of just consuming content every night

• actually wants to build something real

Drop a comment or DM me.

Let’s see if we can create something like a “design house” just without the house (for now).

And if you’re around HSR, even better makes this easy to do consistently.

And there’s this opportunity at the hub they have this co building thing we can also discuss that

If it sounds like u are sounds intersting drop me a comment or dm I’ll get back

I see tools like Google Stitch and Claude Design coming out and keep thinking they take the relatively easy part of design (actual solutions) and do it faster I guess, also usually worse. Where I see genuine value in Figma MCP to Claude Code for prototypes or live products, these other prompt to design tools feel like a parlor trick to me.

But I see people reveling in it. Going straight into prompting designs without touching a canvas. Trusting the tools to interpret their words and create a viable feature.

So a few questions I have:

1. Is anyone who uses these workflows generally creating anything novel, or very simple features? If the former, how are you controlling the output and is it good?
2. How many iterations does it take to get right? Will the token-based-prompt model work at scale?
3. Is any one else worried about the death of good ideas? How can ideas blossom into others without that time spent pushing on visual iteration?

Generally curious from those using AI tools exclusively what types of problems they are solving for those who aren’t using it, why not?

going through AI thugs on LinkedIn. people shouting, screaming and dancing on LinkedIn that we did pushed out first PR. yyaayyyyyyy

why the f you need to? You want to transition to the job which is more in danger because of AI. dude AI will do the coding. don't pet yourself on the back that you did push some code.

whyyyy, Meaning most of these people don't know how to do good design. Improve design with AI don't switch to mediocre tasks just to pet yourself on the back.

celebrating the freedom to push code???? whyyyyyyy

man, be a FE directly if you want to be don't make design shit. already designers have less respect in orgs. by doing this we are reducing our value even less.

people, rise and understand the beauty of design. you think you learned a lot. man Anthropic itself is hiring designers. they are one of the main pillars of the whole industry. get better at design first.

please folks don't follow this crap. you will be unemployed first rather than someone who is designing from scratch and working on craft.

Hi team 👋 anyone who been in similar situations or other who knows about this can reply, also consider me as a beginner in this situation.

Hi actually I'm a self taught designer, also i follow yt video, what other designers doing, etc to shape me well, but when I'm working all last 2+ years I'm feeling like whether each company have their own way? Am I over complicating/ overthinking/ trying to be more pixel perfection,

I know there is no perfection, but yeah it depends, even i know some designers now not using Figma but pushing features and things faster, others like me doing traditional approach but also with help of ai in fast prototype,

My biggest doubts is currently I have to touch multiple modules in our company webapp, so my way is design in Figma make , once accepted then again detached all, and build my own design with all perfect and then handover to dev similar like you can see all doing, but here in this team dev also not using any dev seat also I can see sometimes they are not much need near work or padding and all, they just look and do , sometimes I can see that using slightly different color than what i suggest, also some changes in size and all,

So my doubt is whether i should aim for features and things than being like yotube guru saying as neat handover and all,

Any people working in small team how actually your design process, I don't need to know mid or big team because they have enough designer to clean and handle files.

Recently, there have been some internal projects where we were instructed not to use Figma at all and instead start from scratch using any AI tool we’re comfortable with to collaborate and deliver design work. This will turn into a company-wide case study to evaluate how we design using only AI.

Given that our VP of Design is heavily focused on AI, it seems inevitable that we’ll move toward a more Claude-centered toolset. As a manager, I was also included in some confidential discussions where we were told that the entire team may transition away from Figma by the end of the year.

What do you think about this and how would you approach it?

Hi everyone,

I’m 33 and considering transitioning into Product Design. I’ve built a few mobile apps, and during the process I realized I really enjoy everything related to UX/UI — thinking about user flows, interfaces, and how people interact with products.

Now I’m seriously thinking about focusing on this path, but I want to be realistic before going all in.

Is Product Design still a good career choice in today’s market?
What should I focus on to become competitive?
And for those who started later or switched careers — what challenges should I expect?

I’m open to any advice, hard truths, or things you wish you knew before starting.

Thanks in advance 🙏

I wanna know what makes a good tier product designer. Soft and hard skills

​

We’re about to endure three weeks of hype from people praising Claude Design as the "end of design."

But if you’ve actually grinded through dozens of AI tools for design, you know the "Research Preview" label is there for a reason.

I calling in French "Claude Bousingn"

AI is great at analyzing 100+ design systems to output what is mathematically functional (UX/UI best practices). But a Designer’s job isn't just to make things that work, it’s to make things that fit a brand.

How do you transform "standardized efficiency" into a unique brand identity? AI can't bridge that yet.

Ofc sometimes creative did make flops or creative stuff whitch didn't work but not sure standardise is a solution for design.

For generic web design, the value of a designer is shrinking. I expect big marketing teams to start mass A/B testing hundreds of AI-generated layouts, a trend we already see in perfume ads where templates are tested at scale and only the "winners" are tweaked by humans.

I have got somes mantras :

"Everything online is code." If it's on a screen, it's code. And if it's code, it can be automated.

Another mantra I live by: "Qualitative data works best with experienced people."

Data alone is noise. It takes an experienced designer to interpret why a specific aesthetic or flow resonates.

The tool won't replace the human, but a sophisticated Agentic System, one that manages the entire reflection and data analysis process could replace a reflextive and creation part.

The system will.What’s the limit of data analysis before we reach a truly "Agentic" design reflection? Curious to hear your thoughts.

This post have been translated from french

Hi. I wanted to solve the smoke problem with traditional incense. This device (21:7:3 ratio) uses a water-scrubbing system and a silent fan (USB-C powered for safety). It purifies smoke while preserving the scent. I'm looking for honest feedback from fellow designers. Thank you!

https://preview.redd.it/6cvqh6wx68wg1.png?width=344&format=png&auto=webp&s=29c3381903367913680c09402ccfe3048f810ffc

Has anyone here interviewed with Avenue Code in the US for a Product Designer role?

Would love to hear about your experience — what the process was like, types of interviews (portfolio, whiteboard, etc.), timelines, and overall difficulty.

Any insights would really help. Thanks in advance!

Quick questions for Devs/PMs:

1. What technical level is expected for a working student? (Logic vs. Frameworks?)
2. How much should I focus on "Product" (KPIs, Users) vs. "Dev" (Coding)?
3. What’s one question I can ask to show I understand the product lifecycle?

Lastly, if you could give me just one "pro-tip" about product development that I won't find in a textbook, what would it be?

Thanks!

Hi all! I am a senior at NYU working on a research project around engineering workflows in CAD/PLM environments.

I've been talking to a few engineers (including my partner), and something that keeps coming up is how much time gets eaten up by things like:

- searching for parts

- dealing with approvals

- setting up simulations

- fixing issues late in the process

I'm trying to understand how widespread this actually is across different industries.

If you work in CAD/PLM and have 3-5 minutes, I put together a short anonymous survey:

https://nyustern.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_bDDNjDZOMb8MuDc

Happy to share results back here if people are interested.

Thank you in advance, I greatly appreciate it! Your input is directly advancing research aimed at improving some of the pain points engineers face every day.

Hey

Je bosse sur une idée de tool pour designers, et j’aimerais avoir des retours honnêtes avant d’aller trop loin.

Le but serait de créer un outil qui simplifie la gestion de projets design (suivi des tâches, feedback client, organisation, devis, etc.), parce que j’ai l’impression que beaucoup jonglent entre plusieurs outils pas toujours adaptés.

Du coup je suis curieux :
Comment vous gérez vos projets aujourd’hui ?
Qu’est-ce qui vous saoule le plus dans vos outils actuels ?

Si un outil était vraiment pensé pour les designers, vous voudriez quoi dedans ?

Je peux aussi partager plus en détail ce que j’ai en tête si ça vous intéresse 👀

https://preview.redd.it/t3w6x4emu8wg1.png?width=634&format=png&auto=webp&s=7c2bdfd1bbf3ac3dfbb5cfc2176f247740690a19

I am building a mobile app for a very complex supply chain portal. Because of the complexities, the desktop has 2-3 level menus. How does this work in a mobile app using material design system and ios? For example Menu level 1: sales, level 2: Training, level 3: product training for x, y and z etc.