Who are we designing for now?

"Not long ago, designers were deep in Figma variables and pixel-perfect mockups. Now, tools like v0, Lovable, and Cursor are enabling instant, vibe-based prototyping that makes old methods feel almost quaint. What's coming into sharper focus isn't fidelity, it's foresight. Part of the work of Product Design today is conceptual: sensing trends, building future-proof systems, and thinking years ahead. But besides the current momentum, we still have to focus on real problems that bring real value as of now."

"As AI agents become embedded collaborators in our systems, designers face a powerful and pressing question: Who are we designing for now? Suddenly, we find ourselves in the middle of a new Experience dilemma: designing for both people and programs. That means exploring new personas and reconciling different approaches: emotional intuition, logical execution, and the coherence of both. Let's have a look at the pitfalls of this dilemma and explore what we have to consider while designing for both humans and machines."

AI is rapidly transforming design workflows, shifting emphasis from pixel-perfect mockups to instant, vibe-based prototyping tools. The priority for product design is moving from fidelity toward foresight: sensing trends, building future-proof systems, and thinking years ahead. Designers must still solve present problems that deliver real value, balancing long-term conceptual work with immediate user needs. AI agents are emerging as embedded collaborators and new kinds of users that parse data rather than experience feelings. Design for agents requires new UX abstractions—structured data, semantic HTML, accessible roles, predictable metadata, and clear context. Interfaces must remain intuitive for humans while being machine-readable to ensure coherent human-agent interactions.

Read at Medium