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A designer's guide to Cursor: How to build interactive prototypes with sound, explore visual styles, and transform data visualizations | Elizabeth Lin

How I AI

2025/06/16
How I AI

How I AI

2025/06/16
Elizabeth Lin, an independent design educator and Cursor power user, discusses how designers can harness AI tools to enhance creativity and streamline workflows. Through her experience teaching at platforms like Khan Academy and Primer, Elizabeth demonstrates practical applications of Cursor for interactive prototyping, aesthetic exploration, and transforming basic designs into polished interfaces.
The podcast delves into using Cursor to experiment with diverse visual styles, from brutalist to cyberpunk, allowing designers to explore unique aesthetics. It highlights the tool's capability to create interactive prototypes with sound and motion, simplifying traditionally complex processes. A key example is building a functional piano prototype with just one prompt. The conversation also emphasizes iterative design approaches, where restoring checkpoints and refining prompts lead to improved outcomes. Elizabeth explains techniques for teaching AI systems good taste by referencing influential designers and products. Additionally, integrating Cursor with Notion databases enables data-driven prototyping, exemplified by creating an interactive bookshelf similar to Goodreads. The episode concludes with practical advice on managing uncooperative AI and maintaining creativity through manual tasks, encouraging designers to broaden their inspiration sources.
05:08
05:08
Prompt Cursor for design styles like Vaporwave and cyberpunk
11:01
11:01
Reprompting Cursor transforms a basic site into different styles.
15:19
15:19
A functional piano prototype was created with cute sounds.
16:30
16:30
Having a baseline understanding shows what's possible without needing all details
18:28
18:28
AI makes sound design and interactivity more accessible for designers.
21:00
21:00
Teach AI tools like Cursor better design taste by refining prompts.
27:34
27:34
Using prompts teaches AI good taste in design
29:23
29:23
Cursor can be used to integrate with Notion databases for prototyping apps.
31:13
31:13
To handle uncooperative AI, repeat prompts or restart.