This weekās episode is with Maheen Sohail who is a senior staff designer working on generative at Meta. She joined as one of the earliest designers on both the VR and AI teams, so a big part of this discussion is about navigating ambiguity when thereās no clear playbook to follow.
We go deep into:
- New types of interface patterns for AI
- The unique ways she thinks about prototyping
- Ethical considerations when designing AI produdcts
- How Maheen explores AI models through side projects
- Why the goal posts for what it means to be a designer are shifting
- a lot more
ā KEY TAKEAWAYS
Nobody knows what theyāre doing
This is especially true when youāre designing products for emerging technologies like AI. Itās easy to look at people working on these AI-native products and assume they have it all figured outā¦ but weāre all still learning and exploring whatās possible. This came up in George Kedenburgās episode too.
Curiosity > everything
I asked Maheen what traits are more important than curiosity for people interested in designing AI products. Her answer? Nothing.
The importance of passion projects
Thereās a trend Iām noticing in these interviewsā¦ the designers who are creating cutting edge use cases for AI are the ones actively exploring the technology with side projects. Reading essays isnāt the way to learn. You have to want something to exist in the world and use that as a reason to figure out whatās possible. For Maheen it was using AI models to colorize images of Pakistan. For Nate Parrott it was using AI to hallucinate in HTML.
