This weekâs 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 thereâs 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
â KEY TAKEAWAYS
Nobody knows what theyâre doing
This is especially true when youâre designing products for emerging technologies like AI. Itâs easy to look at people working on these AI-native products and assume they have it all figured out⊠but weâre all still learning and exploring whatâs possible. This came up in George Kedenburgâs 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
Thereâs a trend Iâm noticing in these interviews⊠the designers who are creating cutting edge use cases for AI are the ones actively exploring the technology with side projects. Reading essays isnât the way to learn. You have to want something to exist in the world and use that as a reason to figure out whatâs possible. For Maheen it was using AI models to colorize images of Pakistan. For Nate Parrott it was using AI to hallucinate in HTML.
