10 Lessons From The Best Designer I Ever Worked With | Alex Cornell (Meta AI)
The top 3 ways for anyone to learn design from scratch, the #1 mistake that people make in design, and insights from designing at Meta, Substack, and Linear
Dear subscribers,
Today, I want to share a new episode with Alex Cornell (Meta AI, Linear, Substack), one of the best designers I ever worked with.
For my paid subs, I listed 10 lessons from Alex on how to close the gap between design taste and skill, how to design AI interfaces and more.
The best designer I ever worked with | Alex Cornell
Watch now on YouTube, Apple, and Spotify.
Alex has designed many incredible products at Meta, Linear, Substack, and his startup Cocoon (an app for close family and friends). We talked about:
3 proven ways for anyone to learn design
The #1 mistake that people make in design
How interface design will change with generative AI
This interview is a must-watch if you want to learn from one of the best designers.
10 lessons from Alex after 15+ years as a designer at Meta, Linear, Substack, and more
When we worked together at Meta, Alex was widely respected for his craft.
Here are his top lessons on:
Top 3 ways for non-designers to learn design
Bridging the gap between design taste and talent
#1 mistake the people make in design
Favorite process for designing a new product
Balancing North Star with what’s shipping next
Learnings from designing Substack and Linear's apps
Big companies vs. startups
Using AI in personal life
How AI will change interface design
Building good design taste over time
What are the top 3 ways for non-designers to learn how to design?
I started in music and there are many parallels between these professions. To get better at design, you need:
Constant exposure. Read interface guidelines like Apple’s cover-to-cover. Follow the latest products so you know what’s possible. If you're not constantly exposing yourself to new ideas, it'd be hard to conceive of them on your own.
Copy stuff. In music, you learn by playing other people's work. In design, you learn by trying to re-produce design interfaces from existing products. By putting in the reps, you start building a sense of what your style is.
Practice and put in the work. There's value in working constantly. I'm very fast when I work on anything because I've gotten used to the shortcuts. I'm able to quickly do what I need to do and that only comes through practice.
How can someone close the gap between design taste and talent?
Ira Glass has this great quote about the gap between taste and talent.
His point is if you get into a field like design, it's presumably because you have good enough taste to appreciate it. The problem when you start is you're terrible! The delta between your good taste and skill is frustrating.
But if you have good taste, you have the barometer to evaluate yourself as you work to get better. The only way to do that is to put in the reps to close the gap.
So expose yourself to great design, copy as much as you can, and practice, practice, practice is how I'd tell someone to get better at design.
What's the #1 mistake that people make in design?
Resist being too clever.
That’s an instinct that many designers have to temper. If you get too clever, your interface will be beautiful but hard for users to understand.
If I share flashy work on Twitter, other designers would be stoked by it. But what actually matters is what users think, and users usually prefer what’s familiar to them.
How do you prefer to work with PMs when designing a new product?
I like to alternate between unbounded in-person conversation and solo iteration.
Here’s how I work with the best PMs: