The Augmented Designer

A UX Designer’s Guide to the Future

Your AI Journey Begins

Dear designer, researcher, creative thinker—

You picked up this book because you sense something shifting in our industry. You’re right. AI isn’t just another tool in our toolkit; it’s fundamentally changing what it means to design experiences. But here’s what most people get wrong: AI isn’t here to replace you. It’s here to amplify what makes you uniquely human—your creativity, empathy, and ability to understand complex human needs.

Think of AI as learning a new design language. When you first learned about typography, color theory, or information architecture, you weren’t just memorizing rules. You were expanding your ability to communicate and solve problems. AI is the same, except this language lets you collaborate with systems that can process information at superhuman speeds while you focus on the superhuman insights only you can provide.

This book isn’t about becoming a data scientist or machine learning engineer. It’s about becoming the designer that companies desperately need—one who can bridge the gap between human needs and AI capabilities. The one who asks not “What can AI do?” but “What should AI do for our users?”

Every generation of designers has had to master new materials. Your grandparents in design worked with ink and paper. Your parents mastered pixels and screens. You’re working with intelligence itself. And that’s not intimidating—it’s exhilarating.

Let’s begin.