Pace at the Cost of Design

26 Jun, 2025

I was naive to think that adopting AI tools would lead to better design decisions. Here's the reality.

Designers and PMs will tell you: design is almost always the first thing sacrificed in the name of speed.

“Meeting timelines is important.” So what gets pushed down the list?
• UX best practices
• Design sensibilities
• Accessibility measures
• Design reviews and benchmarking
• Elements added just for taste

All of these become “later priorities”; things we’ll get to “once there’s time.”

With the rise of AI tools, I had hoped for the opposite:
• Faster prototyping
• Quicker dev cycles, so there’s more room to think and refine
• More room to focus on things that truly elevate experiences, like accessibility

But what we’ve got instead is:
• A one-size-fits-all design pattern factory
• Rinse-and-repeat UI with barely enough time to adapt them
• Pressure to “come up with something” in hours

Looking back, I realize how naive it was to assume that speed on one end would create space on the other. It rarely does.

Yes, there are times when design must take a backseat. But if that’s always the case, it’s no longer an exception, it’s the culture.