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Syntax - Tasty Web Development Treats

1006: Can AI Make Good Design?

Syntax - Tasty Web Development Treats

Wes Bos

Tech News, Technology, News

4.91.2K Ratings

🗓️ 20 May 2026

⏱️ 35 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Wes and Scott talk about whether AI can actually create good design, or if it just remixes the same patterns over and over. They dig into AI-generated UX, design systems, YouTube thumbnails, Google’s design.md spec, programmatic design, and the tools designers are actually using today. Show Notes 00:00 Welcome to Syntax! 03:20 Can AI actually make you creative? 08:52 Why AI-generated YouTube thumbnails all look the same 10:34 Can good design be extrapolated from patterns? 13:46 Google’s design.md and AI steering documents 16:57 Can AI make good UX? 19:37 Brought to you by Sentry.io 21:03 Can good design be programmatic? 23:57 Can AI optimize design for outcomes and conversions? 27:40 Should designers use AI to enhance their work? 32:41 The AI design tools people are actually using Hit us up on Socials! Syntax: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Wes: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Scott: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Randy: X Instagram YouTube Threads

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Welcome to Syntax. We lost the first like 20 seconds of this episode on Riverside, so I'm here recording it again.

0:06.5

I went to find the shirt that I was wearing. I spilled Schwarmaputin on it so it's dirty. So listen up.

0:12.4

We're going to get the editor to try cut it in perfectly. And I'm just going to start saying what I was saying at the beginning of it.

0:19.9

We have a show on AI design.

0:22.0

And don't turn it off just yet because this isn't the AI design show where guys are like,

0:26.3

oh, I one shot at this, but it looks amazing to me.

0:29.4

And I think designers are toast.

0:30.8

No, that's not what this show is about.

0:33.0

This show is about, we know that AI can write pretty good code, and that's great because it's very

0:39.5

deterministic. It's, you can be tested, things like that. But design, like, can a model create

0:44.3

something that is good, that is functionally useful, that converts well for the business that

0:48.3

helps the actual end user? We're in this, like, weird space right now where it seems like

0:52.9

everybody is just ripping each other off.

0:55.4

Every app looks exactly the same and there's tons of new tools to help you.

0:59.5

So in order to get to the bottom of this, we're going to attempt to answer some of the following questions.

1:03.1

Can AI be creative? Can it make you creative? Can good design be extrapolated?

1:07.9

What about user experience? Can AI make a good user experience? You know,

1:12.5

does it know about all of the complexities of your UI of what people are trying to get done?

1:16.9

Can you make good design programmatic? We've talked about this in a previous many episodes of like,

1:23.0

can you programmatically pick good colors? Like with math, Those things are kind of hard to get to.

1:28.1

So we'll answer that question. Can I AI make design that influences the end goal? So buying something,

1:34.5

you know, or helping somebody get to the end use. Why are they using your application at the

...

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