Quick note from me
I haven’t lived through a moment in our industry where things were changing this fast. I grew up without the internet, used a telephone cable to go online, bought my first phone at 14 and played Snake on a Nokia 3310. But that was kid time. I didn’t have to think about how tech changes impact work.
History likes to repeat itself, and who knows what else will come. AI is still rolling out to the mainstream, but the speed is incredible. What is true today might not be true tomorrow. Moments like this remind me of the one skill that matters most when everything changes: adaptability. How can you show it as a designer?
Story outline
Tip 01: Explain how you combined AI and human thinking
Tip 02: Show your system thinking skill
Tip 03: Talk about a workflow change, not only about AI toolkit
Tip 04: Show how you helped your team adopt AI
Tip 05: Communicate your AI project clearly
🫶 Together with Mobbin
A better way to study app animations
I used to waste hours screen recording app animations just to study motion. Record on my laptop, upload to Google Drive, screen record again on my phone. Total chaos.
Today, Mobbin launched an Animation Library, a curated collection of real motion patterns from world-class apps and websites. Browse by type, platform, or use case to see how top products handle motion. No more saving!
Why this is useful for designers:
Study motion patterns from apps millions already use
See how real products handle transitions, loading, and micro-interactions
Reference actual implementations, not abstract principles
And btw, presenting your work in this recorded format is a great way to make your own portfolio site more engaging too.
Tip 01
Explain how you combined AI and human thinking
The most interesting AI project stories I’ve seen aren’t everything was done with AI or nothing was done with AI. They show a designer’s critical thinking, how they evaluated AI output, what they learned, and what they did with it.
Your decisions don’t live only in Figma anymore. They also live in your prompts and in how you collaborate with this technology. This can prove you're an intentional designer.
What does this look like in practice?
You connect your prompts to business goals and user scenarios
You show what you accepted, what you rejected, and why
You consider edge cases and test multiple scenarios
You explain why you considered an output “done”
Tip 02
Show your system thinking skill
For years, systems thinking has been attached mostly to senior designers. Now, it's becoming a fundamental skill for any designer in the AI era. The ability to think top-down, from the bigger picture to the details, in layers, in systems.
You can show systems thinking in your portfolio in many ways:
Your new solution placed inside a bigger ecosystem of products, features, or technology
Your AI feature designed for users whose mental models know nothing about AI (87% of the world's population hasn't used AI at all yet, source)
Your prompt structure that goes beyond a single, generic phrase
Tip 03
Talk about a workflow change, not only about AI toolkit
Everyone talks about tools: "instead of Figma I use Claude", or similar. But a tool can be replaced tomorrow. When I recently helped a startup with hiring, a list of AI tools wasn't enough. Adding a tool doesn't prove you've adapted for the better.
What would actually make recruiters believe in your AI skills?
Showing that you can let go of your own design process and adapt.
You stopped doing competitive audit screenshots manually. Why?
You eliminated a round of low-fi wireframes. What replaced it?
You restructured your research synthesis. What's the before and after?
You let go of a process you relied on. Was the outcome better?
Tip 04
Show how you helped your team adopt AI
Adoption is harder than discovery, especially in a group. Everyone is experimenting with AI on their own. The real challenge is getting a team to change how they work. If you helped your team adopt a new workflow, that's a leadership story that you should share.
Companies don't just need designers who can use AI. They need people who can bring others along. Show:
What problem or resistance you noticed
What you created to help (a prompt library, a shared workflow, a template)
How the team's process changed
What got better: speed, quality, consistency?
Tip 05
Communicate your AI project clearly
AI brings new complexity to our language. "LLM systems", “prompting", and other buzzwords are everywhere now. In portfolios too. But it's not the smartest who win, but the clearest.
A hiring manager should understand in a few seconds why you designed an AI feature. Jargon works in a technical blog post. A portfolio is a different context.
A great AI project means nothing if you can't explain it simply. Show that you can:
Explain an AI feature without relying on buzzwords
Adjust your language for who’s reading (hiring managers vs designers)
Make the value of your design obvious, not the technology behind it
Tell a clear story in seconds, not minutes
🫶 Together with Framer
Bring your visual work to life on your site
Framer recently introduced Masonry Grids, making it easy to create dynamic, image-led layouts with a single click.
Why this is useful for portfolios and visual sites:
Visuals keep their natural proportions
Layouts feel more organic and less rigid
Great for image-heavy work like UI, illustration, or branding
Pairs well with effects like stagger and lightbox for subtle motion
If your portfolio relies on visuals, this update makes layouts more flexible and expressive without adding complexity.
Ready to build your portfolio on Framer? Start today
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Keep designing ✨
Aneta
