Year of the Fire Horse | Reversing creative workflows | AI coding wins complete dominance | Usability scaling continues | 40 years of being right become 40 years of being wrong | Usability Engineering book passes 30,000 citations | Award-winning AI video
Jakob, I’ve followed your work since the mid-90s, which is why the tone of this piece genuinely surprised me.
For decades, you argued that usable systems don’t emerge naturally from technology—they require disciplined attention to human behavior. That insight helped secure UX a seat at the table inside engineering-dominated organizations.
This essay reads less like a roadmap for how the craft evolves alongside AI and more like a declaration that its era is ending.
Automation will absolutely change UX workflows. But if engineers with AI tools produce designs that look “good enough” to executives, the risk isn’t just faster production—it’s that organizations convince themselves they no longer need the discipline you helped build.
That feels less like stewardship of a craft and more like pulling the ladder up behind you.
I wrote a short reflection on why this moment feels less like a technological transition and more like a succession problem.
Jakob, I’ve followed your work since the mid-90s, which is why the tone of this piece genuinely surprised me.
For decades, you argued that usable systems don’t emerge naturally from technology—they require disciplined attention to human behavior. That insight helped secure UX a seat at the table inside engineering-dominated organizations.
This essay reads less like a roadmap for how the craft evolves alongside AI and more like a declaration that its era is ending.
Automation will absolutely change UX workflows. But if engineers with AI tools produce designs that look “good enough” to executives, the risk isn’t just faster production—it’s that organizations convince themselves they no longer need the discipline you helped build.
That feels less like stewardship of a craft and more like pulling the ladder up behind you.
I wrote a short reflection on why this moment feels less like a technological transition and more like a succession problem.
https://christinehaskell.substack.com/p/broken-succession