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Gunnar Gray - Designing Perplexity, shaders, and voice interfaces

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Gunnar Gray - Designing Perplexity, shaders, and voice interfaces

Dive Club 🤿

2025/07/18
Dive Club 🤿

Dive Club 🤿

2025/07/18
OverviewShownoteHighlightsTranscriptChaptersPins

Shownote

This week, Gunnar Gray (Product Design Lead at Perplexity) dives into the art of designing AI-native experiences. He shares lessons from shaping Voice Mode and how prototyping with AI is changing the design process at Perplexity. Some highlights: * Why...

Highlights

In this episode, Gunnar Gray, Mobile Design Lead at Perplexity, shares insights into the evolving world of AI-native product design. He reflects on his journey from being a founding designer at Artifact to shaping voice experiences and dynamic interfaces at Perplexity. The conversation dives into the intersection of design and engineering, emphasizing the importance of speed, iteration, and cross-disciplinary collaboration in a fast-moving startup environment.
09:01
AI-native products represent a new medium requiring outcome-driven design approaches.
16:00
Rapid prototyping in code is crucial for effective voice design.
22:01
Real-time interaction in v3 allowed for a particle sphere visualizer
31:48
Cursor helped bridge coding gaps and enabled practical shader development.
41:26
The redesigned Discover feed led to better retention and engagement.
47:28
The speaker plans to upskill in coding using Cursor for speed and efficiency.
50:39
One speaker shares their annual goal of learning new skills, and this year it's coding with Cursor.

Chapters

From Artifact to Perplexity: Shaping AI-native design at a hypergrowth startup
00:00
How voice design comes to life: From concept to real-world interaction
12:45
Voice Mode evolution: From push-to-talk to hands-free, real-time feedback
19:20
Visualizing sound: How metal shaders and code elevate system feedback
25:07
Branding in motion: Balancing identity and usability in Perplexity's mobile app
38:20
Designing for purpose: Why every product surface needs a clear mission
47:28
The rise of the generalist designer: Why expanding your toolkit matters
50:39

Transcript

Gunnar Gray: Instead of going out and trying to find a bunch of tutorials on how to build metal shaders, you just ask Cursor, build it along with me. You're building, but you're also learning along the way. It almost feels silly to sit in Figma for too lon...