Issue #768: I don't use Figma anymore, and it cost me my job
Struggle together, Building beautiful websites with Claude, Design as a garden, Building an AI-ready design system library, and more.
Highlights of the week
- Voting for Readymag Websites of the Year 2026 is now live - The award spotlights inventive projects made with Readymag, a design tool for creating outstanding websites. Explore the shortlist and vote. - Readymag sponsored
- I don't use Figma anymore, and it cost me my job - AI closes the distance between an idea and a working thing. It doesn't close the distance between people. - Balázs Szalontai
- Struggle together - I learned programming and design by trying, failing, and trying again. When I hit a wall, I figured out how to climb it. - Ryo Lu
- Building beautiful websites with Claude (video) - James McDonald is one of my favorite visual designers on the planet… but recently he took on his first ever contract where he's responsible for both designing and building his ideas from scratch. - Michael Riddering, James McDonald
Read all week, picked once. The best design links, every Tuesday.
Product design, UX/UI and PM
- Design as a garden - A different way to think about creative work. - Justin Jay Wang
Design engineering
- Building an AI-ready design system library - My design system now starts in code, and I generate my Figma library from it. Code always wins, and Figma is a mirror, not a second truth. - Christine Vallaure
Inspiration and creativity
- I gave my website a boss fight - I missed an internet with more personality. Building a little piece of it involved Claude, 4,096 colors, and a surprisingly difficult pair of legs. - Paul Bakaus
Last but not least
- Designing a skill - If you think about it for a second, skills are the apps of the agentic era. - Noman Ijaz