design that works well often fades into the background. it’s like a perfectly banked curve on a road. it’s something you don’t consciously notice because it silently makes the experience smooth and safe. that’s the kind of design i’ve grown to value most.
over the past few years being in tech, my understanding of design has evolved. i used to think of it as polish, but i’m beginning to recognize it as infrastructure. design is what translates power into usability, turning complexity into products people return to.
when openai announced its $6.5 b acquisition of jony ive’s design firm lovefrom in may 2025, it marked a strategic turning point: a reimagining of how humans will interface with artificial intelligence.
ive defined eras of digital interaction, from the tactile click wheel on the ipod to the capacitive gestures of the iphone. his design philosophy, rooted in skeuomorphism and later minimalist flat design, emphasized emotional resonance and cognitive clarity.
openai leads on capability. partnering with ive asks a new question: what should ai feel like? the ambition is to create a computing interface that’s ambient and anticipatory, while remaining intuitive. this is one where interaction feels like conversation, not command execution.
design in enterprise //
working on product at ibm’s watsonx suite, i’ve seen how user interface expectations shift based on a user’s technical proficiency. internal dev tools can prioritize performance transparency and CLI accessibility. but external-facing enterprise software, especially in ai, requires deep attention to user interaction and cognitive load.
on the watsonx platform, its evident how interface design impacts system adoption. even when backend model performance and data infrastructure are strong, user engagement can stall if workflows feel convoluted. i recently spoke with ibm’s senior design manager for watsonx.ai, who emphasized that product and design must be co-architected from day one. without that alignment, complexity overwhelms utility.
anthropic may outperform openai on benchmarks like SWE-bench and Terminal-bench, with its Claude 4 Opus surpassing GPT‑4 on safety and code generation tasks. but openai still leads in mindshare. why? brand affinity and a design-forward rollout strategy. their tools feel accessible, even if the tech is opaque. clearly, performance isn’t the sole factor in driving adoption.
software is already starting to shift //
fast-moving startups are pioneering this next interface paradigm:
arc browser, by The Browser Company, replaces traditional browser metaphors with fluid workspaces and spatial organization. its rapid release cycle and direct user feedback loop have led to 4x yoy active user growth.
coframe leverages gen ai to help teams prototype and evaluate ui changes in real time. their product connects interface iteration directly to user research, shortening design-test cycles significantly.
superhuman reimagines email with obsessive attention to speed and interaction design. everything from keyboard shortcuts to subtle animations aims to make the experience feel frictionless.
these products show what’s possible when design leads architecture and interface becomes the differentiator.
what the future might look like //
imagine a multimodal ai system (voice, gesture, spatial interface) that lives across your workspace, sensibly integrated. design will define how much of that feels supportive vs. disruptive.
the openai × ive partnership could produce the first truly consumer-native ai experience, one that’s functional and emotionally attuned. and, design will be the determining factor in adoption of ai-powered agents.
design’s shifting edge //
apple long set the standard for hardware-software design cohesion. under jony ive, the company defined usability through metaphors that made new technologies feel easily adoptable. but post-ive, the velocity has slowed. the vision pro promises immersive experiences, yet relies on gesture layers that can feel unintuitive.
by contrast, open-source design ecosystems and agile product orgs are iterating rapidly. The Browser Company ships weekly and adjusts based on user feedback. the edge has shifted from polish to responsiveness. in a landscape where behavior and expectation evolve fast, speed becomes a design value.
in that conversation with ibm’s senior design manager, he said something that stuck: “craft won’t disappear from the experience. the subtleties and nuance of craft…of human-computer interaction, will always matter.”
- manvi :)