The Cover
Free-range Design LeaderDesign, AI & creative workWriting since 2012

I design things, and lately I build them too.

Editor's letter— Natan

A decade of leading design teams taught me one thing: most products don't fail because the pixels are wrong. They fail because nobody actually understood the people using them. So that's the work, research, strategy, and the messy organizational change it takes to make a company listen.

Lately I'm obsessed with a quieter question, how designers and AI work together once you strip away the hype. I wrote The Augmented Designer about exactly that: AI as a way to amplify your judgment, not replace it.

And because I think we should build what we wish existed, I built Grsshppr, a mentoring platform that belongs to the community, not to a growth chart. It's where I coach on startups, UX, product, and design. Pull up a chair.

There's no such thing as final.
Lately

Thoughts

All thoughts 
  1. No. 202 · 13 Oct 2026Creativity isn’t limited by the capability of the tools, but limited indeed by the lack of practice.
  2. My first thought pushed directly from my phoneNo. 201 · 13 Oct 2026
  3. No. 200 · 30 May 2022The sky is blue due to the blue light is scattered more than other colors because of its smaller wavelength. But who cares, it's beautiful.
The book · Free to read online

The Augmented Designer

A field guide for designers who want to understand how AI can amplify their work — not replace it.

  1. IThe AI Landscape9 min
  2. IIHow AI Works9 min
  3. IIIDesigning for AI Systems12 min
  4. IVAI Tools for Design Workflows9 min
  5. VThe Future of UX9 min
  6. VIYour Journey Begins3 min
Explore the book

The Index

11 articles · 2012 to 2026
  1. 2026Quote It BackI rewrote the instructions my AI colleague reads before every conversation. Then I asked it to read them back to me. It read the old ones.
  2. 2026Building GrasshopperWhat happens when you give an augmented designer a weekend and Claude: building a free, open-source mentoring platform through human-AI collaboration.
  3. 2025I Went to Fusecon and the Most Provoking Idea I Heard Was About a PotatoWhen a dinner conversation about potatoes sparked more insight than an entire day of AI presentations, I realized what's been missing from conferences lately.
  4. 2025I Saw Chapter 2 and I Can't Wait for Chapter 3A Thai dancer, a chat window, and the most compelling case for human-AI collaboration I've seen on stage. This is what augmentation looks like when it's done right.
  5. 2025The Calendar Invite That Almost Drove Me MadWhen a simple calendar invite caused existential panic, it became the perfect example of why context matters in UX design. A practical exploration of user perspective and human-centered design principles.
  6. 2025I Wrote A Book For Designers About AIThe moment I knew I had to write this book happened during what should have been a routine coaching session.
  7. 2016Scrolling performanceHow I fixed janky scrolling UIs, and the mental model I still use to keep interfaces smooth.
  8. 2016Awesome Web ComponentsWhy web components still matter, where they shine, and how to use them without forcing them everywhere.
  9. 2016Angular SwitcheryA practical case study on wrapping a UI library inside AngularJS without breaking two-way data flow.
  10. 2013Currying with JavaScriptA practical introduction to currying, and when it helps you design cleaner JavaScript APIs.
  11. 2012Todo App with Chico UIA small historical demo that taught me enduring lessons about UI libraries, scope, and product focus.
Back page

The snake still lives here

"Create what you wish existed." So I made this website where you can play snake with the arrow keys, enjoy!