Field Notes
Working opinions from the current build.
Some of these will age badly. That's the point of writing them down with a date. Published here first, then on LinkedIn.
Essays
Each one started as a problem inside a build and turned out to travel. That's the test of whether it was an idea or a workaround.
AI UX is a behavior specification, not a visual style
Aug 2026 · 8 minNine stages of an agentic action, five automation classes, and the four stages after execution where trust is decided.
Most design system arguments are jurisdictional
Aug 2026 · 6 minOn priority orders, ownership boundaries, and why the button-colour meeting never ends.
Using AI as institutional memory, not as a chat window
Aug 2026 · 5 minFour files, two rituals, and one sentence that stops proposals from being recorded as decisions.
Promotion, not proliferation
Aug 2026 · 5 minWhy the rejects are the content, and how an internal design studio quietly builds a second design system.
What I'd tell a designer starting today
DraftFrom ad agencies in Chennai to leading a design team. Coming soon.
Short notes
Less finished opinions. A paragraph each.
AI makes production cheap and review expensive
Everyone budgets for the speed-up. Nobody budgets for the domain expert who now has to read three times as much generated documentation. This is the cost that will quietly eat your velocity gains.
The PRD is the wrong artefact for AI builds
Requirements, then plan, then tasks beat a traditional PRD by a wide margin. The format matters more than the detail. A shorter, better-structured doc hallucinates less than a thorough, badly structured one.
Never open with a blank chat box
Structure first. Show the actions before you invite the question. Open-endedness is a capability, not an interface.
Enterprise-ready doesn't mean complex
Competing with twenty-year-old GRC platforms on flexibility is a losing game. Win by being the product that looks and works simpler while solving the harder case.
A settings request is usually an undecided design
When customers ask for a toggle, they're often telling you that you haven't made a call. Opinionated flows beat configurable ones in almost every small-business context.
Most UX problems are IA problems in disguise
Seven tabs, inconsistent click targets, stacking drawers. None of those are bugs. They're the accumulated cost of never deciding what the area is for.