Juicy Talks
AI-powered product design. Made by Omer Frank, shaped by AI.
Juicy Talks
How designers stay valuable when AI creates everything
We reframe the designer’s role from maker to curator as AI floods the canvas with options. Judgment, empathy, and intent become the edge—trained through deeper study, cross-disciplinary inputs, constraints, and deliberate AI drills.
• the shift from execution to curation
• why AI averages while humans define intent
• taste as professional judgment, not preference
• empathy and emotional tone as design levers
• the five methods to train judgment
• constraints and variable isolation to learn faster
• the “one of twenty” AI drill to sharpen decisions
• trusting the gut and naming what feels off
• competing on discernment, not speed
Welcome to Juicy Talks. Today we're diving into something massive, really unavoidable, that's happening in the creative world. Specifically for designers. AI is changing, well, everything, the whole definition of what a creative professional even does.
SPEAKER_02:It really is a huge shift. I mean, think about the paradox here. If AI can spit out, say, 50 interface designs in just a few seconds, what's left for the human designer? Where's the value? It's definitely not just speed anymore.
SPEAKER_01:Right. Not the execution.
SPEAKER_02:No. What keeps coming up is it's about human taste, the judgment, those two things.
SPEAKER_01:Aaron Powell Okay, so let's unpack that for you listening. What we want to do today is map out this change, this new role for designers. Pinpoint that human skill AI just can't copy. And really importantly, give you some concrete ways to actually build up that design judgment. Because that's the new edge, right?
SPEAKER_02:Absolutely. The tools have basically uh flipped the script for years. Design value was tied to the craft, the time spent making things perfect.
SPEAKER_01:The heavy lifting of creation.
SPEAKER_02:Exactly. Now AI can handle a lot of that technical stuff, the code, the pixels, the layouts. But here's the thing the machine has zero clue which of those ideas is the right one, which one actually deserves to exist.
SPEAKER_01:Aaron Powell, I like that framing deserves to exist. It feels significant. So we're moving away from being the maker, you know, crafting every little detail towards being more like an editor or a curator. Trevor Burrus, Jr.
SPEAKER_02:Precisely. A curator. Think about it. AI gives you a hundred options while you're grabbing coffee. The skill isn't making the options anymore, it's filtering them intelligently.
SPEAKER_01:Aaron Powell And that curation, when it's done well, that's actually a higher form of creativity, isn't it?
SPEAKER_02:It really is. It requires understanding context, seeing potential in something rough, and knowing what to discard. That's crucial. Imagine a gallery curator. AI fills the room, maybe chaotically, with paintings, sculptures, everything.
SPEAKER_01:Total overload.
SPEAKER_02:Right. But the human curator arranges it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Decides what doesn't belong. They organize the pieces to tell a story, to create meaning for the brand or the user.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Without that human touch, you just get noise. Polished noise, maybe. And that's the danger, isn't it? Teams rushing AI output. You get designs that look fine, they tick the boxes aesthetically.
SPEAKER_02:They look familiar.
SPEAKER_01:But they lack soul. They don't have that cultural nuance or brand personality, that specific feeling. So your taste becomes this vital quality filter, separating good enough from something genuinely great.
SPEAKER_02:Aaron Powell, which brings us to the core human advantage, intent, and having a point of view. AI's limitation is fundamental here. These models are essentially very sophisticated remixing machines. Okay. They blend patterns from all the data they were trained on. So naturally they drift towards the average, what's common, what's familiar.
SPEAKER_01:Aaron Powell That makes sense. Like optimizing for what already exists. Is that why so many early AI tools defaulted to those sort of clean Appesque or Google material design interfaces?
SPEAKER_02:Aaron Powell Exactly. They find the established aesthetic and stick close to it. It's safe. But the human designer, you bring your unique perspective, your experiences, your cultural understanding, your creative vision lets you break the rules intentionally.
SPEAKER_01:Ah, okay. So AI follows patterns. Humans can purposefully break them.
SPEAKER_02:Right. You can combine things unexpectedly, inject personality, disrupt things in a way that feels meaningful, not just random.
SPEAKER_01:Aaron Powell, but hang on, does focusing on taste make design seem, I don't know, a bit elitist? Like if it's all subjective taste, are we excluding designers without certain backgrounds or education? AI feels more democratic in a way.
SPEAKER_02:Aaron Powell That's a really important point. And it's something we need to clarify. We're talking about professional judgment, not just personal preference. It's not about liking fancy art. It's about making these non-technical, value-based calls informed by empathy.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, so it's tied to empathy, not just aesthetics.
SPEAKER_02:Yes. Designers decide not just the look, but crucially the feel. Should this onboarding be playful? Or maybe more serious and professional?
SPEAKER_01:Emotional decisions.
SPEAKER_02:Totally. Should an error message feel warm, reassuring, or should it be direct, instructional, especially in a crisis? An algorithm can't solve that. It needs human insight, emotional calibration, understanding the user's context. AI data sets just don't have that depth. The best design has always been about solving the problem with the right emotional tone. That's still the human domain.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, this is where it gets practical for you listening. If judgment is the superpower, how do you actually get better at it? And the good news is taste isn't some magic gift you're born with. It's a skill. You can train this design judgment muscle with practice.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, absolutely. Let's get into the playbook. First step: look deeper, not wider. Stop the endless doom scrolling on inspiration sites.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, we're all guilty of that. Just noise, total.
SPEAKER_02:Total noise. Instead, pick maybe five designs you truly admire: a website, a chair, a building facade, whatever, and really dissect them. Take them apart.
SPEAKER_01:And dissecting means not just looking at what's there.
SPEAKER_02:Exactly. Look at what they left out. What decisions did they make not to include something? Ask why it feels balanced. Why does the hierarchy work? Often great taste is in the subtraction, the negative space, what's been streamlined.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, less is more, but understanding why it's less.
SPEAKER_02:Precisely. Second method. Build your taste library. Deliberately. Collect references. Screenshots, sure, maybe even physical things, but here's the critical part. You must add notes. Write down exactly why you think something works or why it fails.
SPEAKER_01:Ah, the why is key, not just collecting pretty pictures.
SPEAKER_02:And you have to include bad design too. Stuff you genuinely dislike. Understanding what doesn't work sharpens your understanding of what does. Articulating it is the muscle growth.
SPEAKER_01:Makes sense. Fight against the bad stuff. Okay, what's next?
SPEAKER_02:Third, and this one's maybe broader, study across different disciplines. Don't just look at other UI patterns. That just reinforces the average that AI already knows.
SPEAKER_01:Right. Break out of the bubble.
SPEAKER_02:Look at architecture. Learn about hierarchy, space, how a building guides your eye. How can that apply to a dashboard layout? Look at fashion. Study contrast, rhythm, texture, weight. That translates directly to typography and visual flow. Look at film, timing, mood, composition, emotional pacing. AI struggles with that intuitive synthesis.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. That's about broadening input. Now, how about applying it? Practical exercises.
SPEAKER_02:Right, let's get hands-on. Fourth method train with constraints. Yeah. Radical constraints. Give yourself a little micro challenges like redesign the screen, but you can only change the typography. Nothing else.
SPEAKER_01:Ooh, top.
SPEAKER_02:Or only the color palette. Constraints force you to prioritize. They reveal what really matters in a design. When you can't just add more stuff, you have to make fewer, smarter decisions. That sharpens your judgment fast.
SPEAKER_01:I like that. Forced focus. And the final method, does it involve AI itself?
SPEAKER_02:Yes, strategically. Use AI as practice. Generate, say, 20 variations of a screen with a tool, then force yourself force yourself to pick only one.
SPEAKER_01:Just one out of 20.
SPEAKER_02:Just one. And then you have to articulate, maybe to yourself or your team, why that specific one is the right choice, why it deserves to exist over the other 19.
SPEAKER_00:That sounds like the ultimate curation workout. Filtering signal from noise.
SPEAKER_02:It really is. It pushes you to define the intent. A designer with good taste doesn't just pick the prettiest option. They pick the one that solves the problem with the right feeling, the right message.
SPEAKER_01:And finally, trusting your gut. Is that part of it?
SPEAKER_02:Definitely. As your judgment gets sharper, you start to trust that instinct. Good taste isn't purely analytical, you feel it. If a layout feels off, uncomfortable, too cluttered, slightly wrong for the brand, investigate that feeling. Highly refined designers often describe almost a physical reaction to choices that aren't quite right. Learn listen to that.
SPEAKER_01:So pulling this all together, the main takeaway from this deep dive seems to be when the actual making part becomes easier, maybe even commoditized by AI.
SPEAKER_02:Which is happening fast.
SPEAKER_01:Then your ability to choose, to refine, to add that layer of meaning, that becomes your superpower, your key advantage.
SPEAKER_02:Absolutely. You're the conductor. You set the vision, the direction. The AI is the orchestra. They'd be technically perfect players, but the final result, the music, reflects your judgment, your taste.
SPEAKER_01:The human intent shaping the output.
SPEAKER_02:Exactly. As AI takes over the mechanics, the uniquely human stuff gets amplified in value. Empathy, cultural understanding, making those value based calls. No algorithm can truly replicate that. So the advice is don't try to compete with AI on speed. Compete on discernment, on significance, your refined ability to see what works, understand why, and make intentional choices, your taste that's your most powerful asset now.
SPEAKER_01:Thanks for listening and Juicy Talks.
