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A designer's guide to AI: Why designing in Cursor lets you prototype 10x faster, simplifies collaboration, and accelerates getting ideas out of your head | Joel Unger

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A designer's guide to AI: Why designing in Cursor lets you prototype 10x faster, simplifies collaboration, and accelerates getting ideas out of your head | Joel Unger

How I AI

2025/05/12
How I AI

How I AI

2025/05/12
OverviewShownoteHighlightsTranscriptChaptersPins

Shownote

Joel Unger, design director at Atlassian, shares how AI is transforming the way he designs Trello and other products. He walks through real-world workflows using tools like Midjourney and Cursor to prototype complex interactions, re-create brand assets, an...

Highlights

In this episode, Joel Unger, design director at Atlassian, delves into how AI is revolutionizing the design process for products like Trello. He explores various workflows using AI tools such as Midjourney and Cursor to enhance creativity and efficiency in design tasks. The discussion highlights how AI allows designers to focus on more strategic aspects of their work while improving collaboration with developers.
02:46
Trello now serves as a personal productivity tool with an inbox feature.
04:25
Using Figma to spec out feature variations is tedious but effective
05:23
Cursor builds a three-panel system with drag-and-drop functionality.
07:39
Prototype initiated feature development and uncovered missed issues
10:50
AI allows one to directly tackle the core problems.
11:24
Cursor replaced After Effects for creating animations
13:51
Use an image mask with a black and white image in Midjourney to generate variations.
14:56
Midjourney helps test character consistency and creates a starting point for design decisions.
16:49
AI tools allow designers to focus on higher-level aspects
19:30
Use the 'neg' approach to get Cursor unstuck

Chapters

Intro and Joel's background
00:00
Trello's new productivity features
02:46
Traditional design process limitations in Figma
04:24
Using Cursor to prototype interactive panel systems
05:22
From prototype to production: collaborating with developers
07:39
How Joel used AI to prepare for the podcast
08:52
How AI saves designer time for deeper thinking
10:50
Last-minute logo animation using Cursor
11:23
Using Midjourney for character design exploration
13:50
Creating a mood board for Taco: the Trello husky mascot
14:56
How AI is changing design thinking and workflows
16:49
Lightning round and closing thoughts
18:18

Transcript

Claire Vo: How do you think about design differently now than you maybe did before? Joel Unger: Initially, I was a little anxious, like, is this thing going to take my job? But you quickly find out what the limitations are, and that your thoughts and prom...