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A daily, five‑minute roundup of the latest design trends, tools, and creative insights.
• Bite‑sized news for busy designers and product teams
• Practical tips you can apply right away
• Interviews with industry experts and innovators
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Welcome to The Deep Dive.
Today is May 23, 2025.
Imagine technology with no screen
that somehow understands you better than ever.
- Right.
Design isn't just about making things
look pretty anymore, is it?
- Not at all.
It's really about shaping how we interact with everything
and well, things are getting weirdly futuristic fast.
We've got some sources today,
newsletters packed with insights on design, AI, future tech.
- And they're hinting at some pretty surprising directions,
I think.
You see design really being pulled in new directions
by these huge tech shifts.
- Yeah, changes in interfaces, platforms,
even the tools designers actually use day to day.
- Exactly.
- So our mission here is to cut through the noise,
find the most important nuggets.
about where design is actually heading.
Okay, let's just jump right in
with maybe the most intriguing bit.
The future of interaction, starting with hardware.
- Ah, the Joni Ive and Sam Altman collaboration report.
- That's the one, a design legend
and an AI leader working together.
- Yeah, it's fascinating.
Two titans from pretty different tech worlds.
The sources say they're working on a new wearable AI device.
- A wearable?
Okay, like a smarter watch,
or what's the design supposed to be like?
- Well, the rumors, the details in these sources
point to something really compact.
Maybe iPod shuffle size, you know.
- Tiny.
- And here's the real kicker, potentially no display.
- No screen.
Wait, how do you even know it's working or what it's doing?
- That's the big question, isn't it?
The idea, based on these sources, is that it uses cameras and microphones to perceive the environment.
So it sees and hears for you.
Kind of. And the heavy lifting, the processing, that apparently happens back on your smartphone or computer.
Okay, so that forces a totally different way of interacting. Less tapping, more passive, relying on the AI.
Precisely. Less direct input, more ambient awareness.
This collaboration, Ivan Altman, on a screenless device, that feels really significant.
Like a potential shift away from the interfaces we know now.
Towards something more integrated, maybe almost invisible. It's a strong signal.
Okay, so that's hardware interaction. What about the platforms, the software side?
Our sources also mention Apple's next WWDC, right?
- Yeah, and the focus there seems to be squarely on software innovation, particularly visual
design.
Think iOS 19.
- What's the goal?
Just a refresh.
- Deeper than that, it seems.
- Yes.
- The sources suggest a big push for truly unified design principles across all of Apple's
platforms, iOS, macOS, everything.
- Unified design.
Why is that such a big deal?
- Well, Apple sets the standard for so many apps and developers, right?
When they push for consistency, it affects user expectations everywhere.
- So designers in the Apple ecosystem kind of have to follow suit.
- Pretty much.
It forces them to think about making their apps feel cohesive, not just on the phone,
but maybe next to a Mac app or even some future warehouse.
it shapes the whole user experience baseline.
- Right, okay.
So hardware interfaces might be disappearing,
platforms are aiming for more unity.
But what about AI?
How is AI changing the actual practice of design?
The source has had some wild examples here.
- Oh yeah.
This is where AI isn't just something
designers design for, but something they design with.
Or something that even changes what design means.
- Okay, like what--
- Well, take Google Canvas, powered by Gemini 2.5.
The sources say you can turn, say, a report into a web page,
or an infographic.
- Just from the report text.
- Or even build simple web apps,
just from you describing them in prompts.
And they're shareable, remixable.
- Wow, okay.
So I could just describe a basic tool and it builds it.
That lowers the barrier quite a bit.
massively. Another example, Coca-Cola and Adobe's new Physian platform. Physian!
Yeah, it uses AI Adobe's Style ID tech to automatically apply Coca-Cola's brand
standards when creating content. Much faster, much more consistent. Automating
brand guidelines. Mmm. That sounds like it could save designers time but also
shifts the work. It definitely shifts the workflow. Yeah. And then there's the
strategic view, like Metis CTO Andrew Bosworth. One source mentioned his rules
for the future. What stood out there? He talks about envisioning disappearing
interfaces, where the AI just handles stuff behind the scenes. It ties back to
that screenless wearable idea, you know, technology fading into the background. So
design becomes less about the button more...
about the invisible intelligence making things happen.
- Exactly.
But there's a counterpoint in the sources too,
a reality check on AI.
- Oh.
- Yeah, but AI tools used for evaluating designers
like in interviews.
- Yeah.
- One Piece pointed out they might struggle to value,
you know, real world stuff.
- Like what?
Budgets, office politics.
- Precisely.
Handling tight budgets, limited influence,
messy constraints.
- Yeah.
- The stuff that's often, well, actually design work.
- That's a critical point.
AI might ace the technical test,
but miss the adaptability needed in reality.
- Right, it raises questions about whether AI
currently gets what makes design effective
in the real world.
- Okay, so let's try and pull this all together.
We're seeing design potentially moving towards
less visible.
interfaces, screenless things, disappearing tech.
- Well, the platforms they run on, like Apple's,
are pushing for more seamless consistency.
- And then AI is just shaking up the whole process,
creating tools, automating tasks.
- But maybe still missing some
of the human nuances of the job.
- It feels like design is becoming less
about crafting specific objects
and maybe more about orchestrating
these fluid, intelligent experiences.
- I think that's a good way to put it.
Deeply integrated into our lives.
- It's a lot to think about.
So here's a final thought for you listening.
With tech changing the tools and interfaces so rapidly,
what fundamental human skills or principles
do you think will become the most important
for designers to really hold on to in the years ahead?
Something to ponder.