AI is too large to understand through a single analogy. The Internet explains early adoption, human history explains the next 30 years, biology frames longer-term speculation, and Norse mythology reminds us that tools are not gods.

Dark design patterns | 8 usage patterns for ecommerce search | Search engine traffic drops rapidly | AI overcomes “The Mythical Man-Month” | AI does well in UI design vs. human designers | The story of Ada, Countess of Lovelace | Scenario for European AI until 2031 | Virtual girlfriends/boyfriends rack up double the use of dating apps | Job openings for data visualization design

Gen Alpha is not mini-Gen-Z | Personas as Packaged Software | Sentient Design is a new book about AI as a design material | My hero: Dr. Thomas K. Landauer of Bell Labs/Bellcore | YouTube’s Thumbnail Generator | Recommended AI short videos | Amazon changes the name of its AI shopping assistant from Rufus to Alexa | Claude Fable 5 released

Reviving the UX goal of empowering users | Writing in marketese kills marketing | Supposed impulse buying is often the result of months of building consideration | Honoring a human factors pioneer, Dr. John D. Gould of IBM | Prompting tip for small text fields: use Chinese

Humans have been dreaming of thinking machines for more than 2,700 years, but real work on building them started in 1943 with the first neural networks. Progress during the following 80 years was slow, with many disappointments and “AI Winters,” but advances built up over time as compute scaled. Themes seen during this long history persist to this day.

Apple Computer 50 years anniversary | The New UX for AI | Excellent AI support chat from Substack | New reasoning image model: Luma Uni-1 thinks through what to draw | AI is more creative than humans and will likely get even more creative in the future with more compute | Upgraded AI music model Suno 5.5

Summary: The GUI’s success wasn’t about any single invention, but a synergy of 4 elements: Window, Icon, Menu, and Pointer, through a 60-year history of usability improvements. But the era of WIMP is drawing to an end with a radical shift toward Generative UI and World Models, in which static menus are replaced by fluid, intent-driven AI interactions. (I made all the comics in this article with Nano Banana Pro.) The evolution of the Graphical User Interface (GUI) represents

Summary : AI exhibits better empathy than human clinicians | Compute limits should be made transparent in the user experience | User interface modes usually lower usability | Seedream 4.5 image model now with improved text rendering | How feasible is it to build an AI company outside Silicon Valley | The Kling video model now generates speaking characters UX Roundup for December 8, 2025. (Nano Banana Pro) Creation by Discovery New music video about how creators explore the la

AI products have changed from invisible enhancement of classical user interfaces to soon become the main avenue for users to engage with digital features and content. This may mean the end of UI design in the traditional sense, refocusing designers’ work on orchestrating the experience at a deeper level.

The transformative potential of the AI revolution is a career opportunity. Early engagement in AI creates joy and self-realization.

AI’s impact on job markets will likely mirror previous innovations. The projected 10,000x increase in AI by 2027 will bring wealth and jobs.

Summary : UX has come a long way since its early beginnings at Bell Labs in the 1940s. As we enter Year 2 of the AI revolution, it’s...

Top 10 foundational UX insights | 76% of online services use dark design patterns | Low-latency voice communication | Video as hero images

Discrete response options best measure users’ subjective satisfaction | Disguising test users | Shopify AI helps merchants' IA | LDM GenUI

First computer mouse in museum | Beware dark AI design | 293% y/y growth in companies’ AI spend | Most drivers think they’re above average

Auto-sync makes YouTube captions easier to create | SUS questionnaire user satisfaction is too long | Revolutionary first Mac GUI

Julie Zhou recalls Facebook’s early user interface designs | Tools for generative UI need a hybrid UI | Early eyetracking reseach

Jakob Nielsen’s 10 usability heuristics were defined from a factor analysis of a large set of usability principles.

Jakob Nielsen has worked in user experience since 1983. Much changed, including moving from academia to practice but the mission remains!

UX suffers from constant reinvention of the terminology used to describe our concepts, leading to confusion, miscommunication, and rework.