Specialized tools ?? design generalists
Welcome back. This week's issue is going out on Thursday to make space for the U.S. election. And I'm reminded that I thrive in chaos.
I can't stop adding projects to my plate. I'm starting a weekly livestream design show. Tune in this Friday to watch me get a bit unhinged as I react to the latest design tea with Hunter Hammonds.
Even if you're not interested in purchasing, the landing page and backend are worth checking out—both built in Framer.
—Tommy (@DesignerTom)
The Wireframe:
The New Shape of Design Tools
Here's the reality: Tools are becoming more enabling than they've ever been in the era of software production.
The floor of what's possible is rising, while the years of experience needed to deliver quality work is decreasing.
And it's not just marketing hype—these tools are actually delivering on their promises.
Let's dive into what's shaping this evolution →
The Tools Defining 2024
AI for Information Gathering
Gone are the days of "Let me Google that for you." And fleeting are the days of LLM hallucinations. Now we have AI-powered search with citations and fantastic workspaces to capture multiple queries.
This is the new table stakes for early product discovery.
Knowledge Management
Notion has completely taken over my workflow—and I'm not alone. After a failed attempt to adopt it in 2021, I tried again in 2022 and haven't looked back. Here's why:
How I use it: Everything from managing D&D campaigns to running UX Tools to planning my upcoming livestream design show (on YouTube Live this Friday - grab the link here).
No-Code Design Tools
Framer has absolutely lived up to my prediction of being one of 2024's hottest tools. Some highlights:
Together with Dovetail
The Smarter Way to Centralize Customer Insights
Keeping track of customer insights shouldn’t feel like searching for a needle in a haystack. Enter Dovetail’s Customer Insight Hub, the AI-powered solution that centralizes and organizes scattered customer feedback into actionable insights—at every stage of product development.
Have your customer insights—user interviews, support tickets, sales calls—in one place, ready for analysis. The Customer Insights Hub helps you:
Are you ready to transform messy customer data into actionable insights that scale over time?
Design Tools Survey 2024
Jump into the new survey (early access) before we publicly announce it next week.
Your feedback is more important now than ever as our industry navigates the innovations ahead.
I'm curious to compare this year’s and next year’s surveys.
Since 2017, the story of our annual design tools survey was steadily about the emergence of Figma vs. Sketch vs. Invision.
And as that story concluded, the narrative of the last couple of years has been about which verticals the new incumbent (Figma) would enter next.
But what’s exciting to see is just how in-demand new, novel and specialized design tools are becoming.
We saw this reinforced with Apple’s acquisition of Pixelmator.
If I had to guess, this year’s story won’t be significantly different from that pattern, but as the new tools prove effective and laggard teams start to adopt them later, I'm excited to see how the trends change.
Next Wave: 2025's Most Promising Tools
AI Workflows
While I'm hesitant to call "AI Generation for Design" a major hit in 2025, there are some interesting developments:
Democratized Research
This is where AI is making immediate impact heading into the new year. The same way we saw the Figma vs. Sketch vs. Invision race unfold, I think we’re about to see a heavyweight match between a few major players here:
New Wave of Prototyping
I love what Framer has become, but boy am I nostalgic for the prototyping tool it once was. However, there’s one prototyping tool I’m excited to dig into next year.
Motion Design for Everyone
No more "I guess I'm a motion designer now" complaints—these tools will leave you with no excuses:
Micro Tools on the Rise
As designers become more equipped to build, we're seeing more niche solutions to our problems:
The Specialization Paradox
Here's what's fascinating:
As tools become more specialized, designers are becoming more generalized. The pendulum has swung toward tooling, but it will inevitably swing back to less tangible design skills.
The future belongs to designers who can:
As Soleio recently mentioned on Dive Club, we're seeing two types of designers emerge: those who can ship product directly to customers and those who can build blueprints. Both have their place, but I find myself firmly in the shipping camp.
The Bottom Line: "Jack of all trades" is becoming "Ace of all trades."
The limitations of mastering a single vertical are disappearing. It's never been easier to be a truly multidisciplinary designer—a design team of one.
Get in the reps. If you've been a working designer, you just got dealt an Ace in your hand.
See you next week,
Tommy
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