Author's Note

To the designer reading this: You chose this profession because you wanted to make a difference. To solve problems. To create beauty. To improve lives.

AI doesn’t change that mission—it amplifies it. You now have tools that multiply your impact, accelerate your learning, and expand your possibilities. But with great power comes great responsibility.

I need to tell you something important about how this book was created. I wrote this book with Claude AI, and our process embodies the very future I’m advocating for.

It started with real questions from real designers I coach—professionals feeling anxious about AI, wondering if their careers were ending. Their fears, confusions, and hopes shaped every chapter. From recorded coaching sessions and scattered notes, I crafted the initial structure, identifying what designers truly needed to hear.

Then Claude and I began our collaboration. I would provide the vision, the experiences, the human insights from my coaching sessions. Claude would help expand these seeds into comprehensive chapters, ensuring consistency, adding examples, and crafting language that resonates. When the text veered too technical, I’d redirect toward human concerns. When I was too abstract, Claude would add practical specifics.

This wasn’t AI replacing human writing—it was AI amplifying human insight. Every value in this book, every piece of empathy, every understanding of designer anxiety comes from human experience. Every metaphor was chosen because I knew how designers think. Every ethical stance reflects human values. But Claude helped me express these insights at a scale and depth that would have taken me years alone.

The irony isn’t lost on me: A book about human-AI collaboration was created through human-AI collaboration. I couldn’t have written this without Claude, but Claude couldn’t have written this without me. The vision, values, and validation came from my human understanding. The expansion, consistency, and comprehensive exploration came from AI’s capabilities.

This is the future I’m advocating for—not replacement, but augmentation. Not human versus AI, but human with AI.

Use AI thoughtfully. Question its suggestions. Advocate for those it might exclude. Maintain your humanity while wielding its capabilities. Just as I maintained my vision and values while using Claude to help craft this book.

The world needs designers who understand AI, but more importantly, it needs designers who understand why humans matter in an age of artificial intelligence.

Go forth and design that better future. We’re counting on you. And remember—if I could create this resource with AI while keeping it fundamentally human, imagine what you can create.