UI/UX Articles and Interesting Tidbits of the Week
June//27//2025
Here are some interesting finds on UI/UX of the past week!
1.
6 Skills Engineers Need in the AI Era. Very interesting article from the Figma blog and author Jenny Xie. It focuses its attention and recommendations on what Engineers can be doing to improve how they work, keep training themselves, and continue to understand technological advancements. Some of the recommendations the article provides include: using AI for more than Automation, harnessing agentic capabilities (Agentic AI refers to AI systems that can operate with a degree of independence, making decisions and taking actions to achieve specific goals), and auditing the pull requests that are performed. The article showcases pragmatic approaches to leveraging AI, ones that the teams at Figma are doing themselves. Highlight of the article includes:
“As with most skills, the best way to learn is by doing. “Use AI tools as much as you can,” advises Marcel. “Play around with them and push the limits, and see where you surprise yourself. We all have preconceived notions of what these tools can and can’t do.” Jake agrees, sharing that it took actually using the Dev Mode MCP server to fully grasp its utility. “When you build something that’s already been designed, you’re trying to do more than use the right component,” he says. “One of the first things I do as a developer when I come to a design file is to zoom out and look at it at a high level. I use our MCP server to do the same — to tell me roughly what I should be thinking about to implement a big design.””
2.
Designers and UXRs Reactions to AI. This article from People Nerds (the dScout blog), sadly doesn’t have an author name to highlight, but the article itself is an interesting document of what Designers and Researchers expressed on the topic of AI while at Config 2025 (the Figma conference). Some of their repeated patterns included Brainstorming Partnership and Idea Generation, Faster Analysis Process, Assistance with Content Generation and Copy Editing, to name but a few. The article features some recorded interviews with professionals who attended the conference, and is well worth listening to. Highlight of the article includes:
“While some folks really enjoy the analysis process, others are overwhelmed by dozens or hundreds of participant entries. Config attendees expressed that tools like AI transcription, tagging, and highlighting themes save them hours (or even weeks!) sorting through the raw data and highlighting standout themes. Folks said that this was a great starting point, but they emphasized that it was just that — a starting point. They needed to jump in and assess its accuracy and ensure that the most accurate themes were being pulled before deeming the information “actionable insights.””
3.
Pre-Launch Testing. This self promotional article from the User Testing blog, may indeed be excessively focused on what the tool can deliver, but it is a healthy reminder that testing enables teams to assess the resonance, impact, and ability to elicit desire from their audiences in an effective manner. And this prior to launch, prior to spending considerable amounts of funds on releasing something that at times may not be the most impactful output. The article also mentions Experience Gap, meaning, the gap that exists between what clients and users are saying and doing, and what internal teams from various sections of the organization perceive to be the truth (in their own, at times, myopic way). It’s an interesting article and a worthy reminder of the importance of testing. Highlight of the article includes:
“Performance marketers and advertising teams need to test their creatives early. That’s where qualitative testing comes in — it captures the human side of your campaign that data alone can’t explain. Before committing a budget to a message or visual, qualitative feedback helps you understand what your audience sees, feels, and remembers. You can uncover emotional reactions, confusion points, and what actually sticks in your target customer’s mind. That’s the level of clarity needed to build high-performing, ROI-positive creative assets that don’t just look good, but work.”
