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Nvidia open-sourced its Audio2Face AI tool, making realistic facial animation technology freely available to all developers. The tool analyzes audio features, such as phonemes and intonation, to automatically generate lip-sync and emotional expressions for digital characters. Audio2Face now includes plugins for Maya and Unreal Engine 5, as well as a training framework for customizing models.
Instagram is removing the post button from its bottom navigation bar and replacing it with a dedicated DMs button, alongside home, Reels, search, and profile tabs. The redesign stems from Instagram reaching three billion users, with growth primarily driven by DMs, Reels, and recommendations, according to Instagram head Adam Mosseri. Users will still be able to post content by accessing the posting feature from the top-left corner of the app instead.
Suzuki has unveiled its first logo redesign in 22 years, shifting from its glossy chrome look to a cleaner, more minimalist style suited for the digital age. The updated logo keeps its iconic "S" but now features a matte silver gradient with simplified ridges for better legibility, aligns with sustainability by using silver paint instead of chrome, and comes with a new tagline, "By Your Side."
The best designers aren't necessarily the most talented, but rather those most effective at implementing good ideas in the real world. Five key habits distinguish them: maintaining open minds that embrace curiosity over perfectionism, staying grounded in current workplace realities rather than fantasizing about ideal companies, practicing pragmatic idealism by breaking grand visions into actionable steps, reframing difficult problems using design thinking to help business leaders, and showing patience when educating colleagues about design processes. These traits enable designers to have a greater positive impact than those who rely solely on raw creative talent.
Figma has announced updates to its MCP server and Code Connect, which bring design context to any development environment, including IDEs, AI agents, and prototypes. The MCP server now supports remote access and works with Figma Make files, while Code Connect introduces in-app component mapping to align design and code components more easily. These tools help teams move from design ideas to production code more quickly by making the design system context portable across different workflows.
Naming in design systems isn't just semantics — it's a hidden source of friction, mistrust, and wasted time that scales into major adoption problems. Common traps like premature precision, visual-based labels, abbreviations, and outdated names create cognitive overload, while sustainable systems require function-first naming, clear taxonomies, quarterly audits, and documented rationale to keep names accurate, consistent, and trustworthy as teams and products evolve.
Qudemo transforms demo videos into interactive, AI-powered conversations, boosting engagement and accelerating sales with instant, contextual answers.
Explore and customise native iOS 26 UI components to unlock endless possibilities for your app.
Plexigen is an AI video generator for transforming text and images into professional videos with AI-generated audio.
AI is transforming UX design by enabling personalization at scale, accelerating user research through data analysis, and automating rapid prototyping and testing. The technology enhances accessibility features, such as voice recognition and screen readers, while reducing repetitive tasks, allowing designers to focus on creativity and strategy. Rather than replacing human designers, AI serves as a partner that amplifies their capabilities to create more innovative, data-driven user experiences.
Public feedback from X, Reddit, reviews, and other platforms provides more honest UX insights than traditional surveys, as users share unfiltered frustrations in real-world contexts. Teams should systematically collect and categorize this feedback, focusing on emotional language and recurring complaints to identify genuine usability problems rather than isolated issues. By turning these complaints into quick design experiments and testing fixes with the original complainers, companies can improve their products faster than relying solely on formal research methods.
EIGA developed a flexible brand system for Katholino kindergartens built around a cross-shaped heart logo, offering over 500 variations so each facility can express its individuality while staying within a shared framework. Supported by a custom child-friendly typeface, seasonal colour palette, and easy-to-use templates, the system empowers non-designers to create consistent, practical, and expressive communication while reinforcing the community's core value of “shaping childhood together.”
The World Illustration Awards 2025 announced winners from over 4,700 entries across 85 countries, celebrating diverse contemporary illustration work.
Luma AI partnered with Adobe to distribute its new Ray3 generative video model through Adobe Firefly.
Mercedes-Benz's new “Dream Days” campaign by BBDO India showcases the power of print with a clever newspaper ad that turns a steering wheel graphic into an interactive, hands-on experience.
Google Labs' Mixboard is an AI-powered design board tool that lets users generate, edit, and organize visual collections from text prompts, templates, or uploaded images, resembling tools like FigJam. It uses Google's new image model for quick edits and variations. Mixboard is currently available in a public beta for US users.
Figma expanded its Model Context Protocol server to support the Figma Make AI app builder, enabling AI models to access the underlying code, in addition to visual designs. The MCP server now supports remote access from various AI coding platforms, including Anthropic, Cursor, and VS Code, making it more accessible to developers. Additional features, such as Design Snapshot for converting Make files into editable layers and AI prompt-based editing within the Design tool, are coming soon.
Google is redesigning its Home app to prominently feature Gemini and Gemini Live instead of Google Assistant. The updated interface features an "Ask Home" search bar for AI automation, a revamped favorites page, and new icons accompanied by privacy disclosures for data collection. Google plans to announce new smart home devices in October, including a Nest speaker with built-in Gemini and various cameras for complete home automation.
Traditional 3-in-a-box development models fail in AI-first products because AI behavior is probabilistic and emergent, making sequential handoffs between PMs, developers, and UX designers ineffective and prone to distortion. The "Snowball" approach advocates for cross-functional teams that collaborate continuously, starting with data and live prototypes rather than static wireframes to validate AI concepts with real users. UX designers must evolve beyond Figma mockups to embrace "vibe coding" and work directly with AI tools, or risk becoming obsolete in an era where successful AI products require integrated teamwork from day one.
Five essential UX design frameworks help designers move beyond intuition to strategic problem-solving: the Elements of UX for diagnosing issues across five interdependent layers, Laws of UX for evidence-based decisions using psychological principles, Morville's Honeycomb for defining user value, Object-Oriented UX helps organize complex digital systems, and the Business Model Canvas connects design decisions to business outcomes. These frameworks collectively transform designers from "pixel-pushers" into strategic partners who can confidently defend their work and influence product direction.
In this post, Spotify's staff typographer, Bianca Berning, shares how she moved from graphic design into type design, her role in shaping Spotify's cross-platform typography, and the importance of custom fonts for cultural relevance across 74 languages. She highlights how Spotify treats typography as core (not a side project) and how AI helps streamline tedious processes like font updates. Berning advises aspiring type designers to seek inspiration beyond the screen and into the wider world.
Create scroll-stopping videos from any product link or image. Generate high-converting product clips and UGC-style videos with 1,000+ lifelike AI talking avatars.
Tile.dev is an AI-native platform for building and launching scalable, monetizable mobile apps with just a prompt.
Communication stands as the most crucial skill for freelance success, outweighing talent and portfolios in determining long-term client relationships. Freelancers who maintain consistent contact, set clear expectations, and respect client timelines retain clients for decades, while those who leave clients guessing quickly lose business. Simple systems for regular updates and acknowledgment of client communications build trust and transform one-time projects into lasting professional partnerships.
The inaugural World Boxing Championships in Liverpool marked the federation's first global event, aiming to secure Olympic boxing's future by emphasizing fairness and skill over spectacle. Local agency Continuous created a brand identity rooted in Liverpool's welcoming spirit with the message “Welcome to our corner” and a simple, flexible visual system that set amateur boxing apart from professional boxing while resonating with both local and global audiences.
São Paulo's new Instituto ViaFoto is a 1,000 m² cultural hub for photography, exhibitions, and creative exchange founded by David Feffer. Agency Asia created its visual identity, designed to reflect photography's dual role in capturing moments and shaping culture. The brand extends across exhibitions, workshops, and digital touchpoints to position photography as an immersive, transformative experience.
A new report suggests Apple may use Samsung's CoE (Color Filter on Encapsulation) display technology in both the Vision Air headset and at least one iPhone in 2027, enabling thinner, brighter screens.
Hiring top design talent in 2025 requires more strategic effort as AI raises product quality expectations and competition intensifies between large companies and startups.
Screen readers already handle emojis well - adding AI to fix poor content practices would create expensive, unreliable technology that changes the original meaning.
Microsoft introduced project files to Paint that function like Photoshop Documents, allowing users to save work with layers intact and resume editing later. The update also adds opacity sliders for pencil and brush tools to control transparency levels. Windows 11's Snipping Tool has gained markup features, while Notepad has received free AI writing assistance for Copilot Plus PC users.
Google's Nano Banana image-generation model has made India its leading market, propelling the Gemini app to the top of the charts with 15.2 million downloads this year. Indian users are creating unique local trends, such as retro Bollywood portraits, AI-generated saree images, and vintage cityscapes, which are spreading globally. Despite leading in usage, India contributes only 1.5% of Gemini's $6.4 million in revenue, although it shows the fastest month-over-month spending growth at 18%.
The EU is reviewing its 2009 e-Privacy Directive, which created the widespread cookie consent pop-ups, and may relax the rules to reduce user frustration. Possible changes include adding more exceptions or letting users set consent in their browser. Privacy advocates warn this could weaken protections and expand data use for advertising.
Research serves as a critical leadership tool for creating stakeholder alignment and shared understanding, not just data collection. AI tools undermine this process by eliminating human participation in knowledge creation, preventing the development of ownership and commitment that drives organizational action. Effective UX research requires building stakeholder mental models through collaborative engagement, a process that AI cannot replicate, despite promises of increased efficiency.
Smart-device apps require clear, visual step-by-step onboarding flows to prevent users from abandoning devices during setup. Reconnection should mirror the initial setup with automatic detection and detailed guidance, as users rarely recall the exact steps. Apps must also support flexible device management, provide honest progress indicators, and handle errors transparently with specific messaging and actionable solutions.
The UX-maturity model outlines how organizations progress in UX across strategy, culture, process, and outcomes. Maturity can regress if practices stagnate, leadership changes, or UX becomes siloed. Teams can prevent drift by watching for early signals, keeping lightweight check-ins, broadening ownership beyond UX, and integrating maturity into ongoing business processes to maintain momentum.
Upload your photo, describe your style, and reimagine any home interior, exterior, or garden using AI.
Crevas unites Veo3, Kling, and ChatGPT in one canvas, allowing you to create faster, refine with AI Chat, and collaborate in real-time.
ReadyBase lets users create production-ready documents in minutes through an AI-native, chat-to-PDF interface that prioritizes speed and value delivery.
Being AI-native requires hands-on experimentation with AI tools rather than just designing AI interfaces. True AI-native professionals build personal tools, push AI systems to their limits, and develop strong opinions through constant use of various models and platforms. Hire designers who demonstrate genuine AI fluency through personal projects, documented failures, and in-depth toolchain knowledge, rather than theoretical experience.
Trust in AI systems can be measured and designed for, identifying four key components: ability, benevolence, integrity, and predictability. Calibrated trust—not blind trust or distrust—is the ideal user state, requiring transparent design that acknowledges AI limitations and potential errors. UX professionals must advocate for genuinely trustworthy systems while avoiding "trustwashing," which manipulates users into false confidence, particularly by addressing user fears about job displacement through ethical research and design practices.
Illustration has declined in advertising due to risk-averse clients, slower production, and misconceptions of it being “childlike,” but it remains powerful for distinctiveness, flexibility, and impact, especially in murals, toolkits, and digital activations. Experts see a resurgence ahead, with opportunities in motion, hybrid projects, and illustrators acting as creative partners, making illustrated campaigns stand out in a photo-saturated landscape.
Tesla is finally addressing its controversial door handle design.
Remote design work enables designers to transform traditional employment into a location-independent lifestyle.
HEX created Maple's research division identity by exploring voice as rhythm and frequency.
Figma upgraded its rendering engine from WebGL to WebGPU to unlock new performance optimizations, requiring significant changes to its graphics interface and shader processing systems. The transition involved creating explicit draw-call arguments, implementing uniform buffer batching, and building a dynamic fallback system to handle device compatibility issues. After extensive testing across multiple device types and careful rollout monitoring, Figma successfully deployed WebGPU while maintaining performance baselines and enabling future optimizations like compute shaders.
Framer's Design Pages transforms the platform from a web builder into a comprehensive design tool with features like vector editing, P3 colors, and advanced masking. The new freeform canvas allows designers to experiment without worrying about responsiveness, then convert iterations into web pages with one click. Design Pages are completely free with unlimited projects and pages, and integrate with Wireframer for generating layouts.
Google Chrome 141 for iOS introduced Liquid Glass design updates, including a refreshed Tab Grid, modernized context menus, rounded corners in sheets and settings, a new pinwheel-style tab loader, and a floating keyboard shortcut bar. The changes highlight Chrome's unique iOS interface. Most other Google apps remain split between older Material Theme and newer Material 3 designs.
AI has fundamentally broken the traditional design agency model by enabling cheap, fast, and high-quality work simultaneously for the first time. The proposed "Anti-Design Agency" approach embraces AI tools, works transparently in public, and charges lower prices due to increased efficiency. Traditional agencies that ignore AI will become irrelevant as designers who leverage AI can deliver faster results at more accessible price points.
Freelancers and small agencies should focus on "right-sized" projects rather than chasing big jobs they're not ready for. The key is delivering 10× ROI by charging clients 10% of the value created—for example, charging $1,000 for work that generates $10,000 in revenue or savings. Success comes from starting with smaller projects where you can guarantee outsized results, then gradually scaling up as you build proof and confidence in delivering larger value.
Entry-level design jobs are disappearing as AI, budget cuts, and remote work erode traditional apprenticeships, leaving newcomers to rely on unpaid gigs, cold outreach, and self-driven projects. What emerges is an uneven system where only the well-connected or persistent succeed, while AI accelerates learning but risks weakening creative foundations—pushing originality, peer networks, and self-started paths to replace the old career ladder.