Building Grasshopper
What happens when you give an augmented designer a weekend and Claude: building a free, open-source mentoring platform through human-AI collaboration.
ReadFree-range Design Leader
Natan Santolo
I help teams design better products and I write about how design and AI work together.
About
I design things, and lately I build them too.
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.
The Book
The Augmented Designer
A field guide for designers who want to understand how AI can amplify their work — not replace it.
Explore the bookWriting
Latest articles
I Went to Fusecon and the Most Provoking Idea I Heard Was About a Potato
When a dinner conversation about potatoes sparked more insight than an entire day of AI presentations, I realized what's been missing from conferences lately.
ReadI Saw Chapter 2 and I Can't Wait for Chapter 3
A 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.
ReadThe Calendar Invite That Almost Drove Me Mad
When 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.
ReadI Wrote A Book For Designers About AI
The moment I knew I had to write this book happened during what should have been a routine coaching session.
ReadScrolling performance
How I fixed janky scrolling UIs, and the mental model I still use to keep interfaces smooth.
ReadAwesome Web Components
Why web components still matter, where they shine, and how to use them without forcing them everywhere.
ReadAngular Switchery
A practical case study on wrapping a UI library inside AngularJS without breaking two-way data flow.
ReadCurrying with JavaScript
A practical introduction to currying, and when it helps you design cleaner JavaScript APIs.
ReadTodo App with Chico UI
A small historical demo that taught me enduring lessons about UI libraries, scope, and product focus.
ReadPlayground
"Create what you wish existed." So I made this website where you can play snake with the arrow keys, enjoy!