Vibe coding tools fall short on scaling.
Project overview & My role
Designing AI-native workflows at a fast-moving startup
Ion is an an AI design tool built for makers and lean product teams, streamlining the design-to-dev workflow to produce components that could be directly used in the product. I joined during a pivotal shift toward AI agents, thereby wearing multiple hats throughout including
Spoke with 12+ designers, PMs, and founders to define target user
Designed agent-first user workflow over many iterations
Published 15+ new components to the team's design system
Key challenges
The product was in MVP stage with an intention to sharpen its direction beyond just a vibe code tool. Our goal was to identify a clear market niche and improve long-term sales. Through interviews with teams ranging from 3 to 50 people, I concluded 2 user archetypes and 2 opposite-looking product directions.
Instead of prioritizing workflow-focused users who want to automate certain design tasks, we chose to focus on the hybrid users, teams who value creative exploration but welcome AI-assisted support. This pivot allowed us to build on existing features while aligning with business goals: reframing the product from a vibe code tool into an active collaborative assistant.
The current product follows a one-sided interaction: users enter prompt and receives a visual feedback. The “prompt-to-response” flow failed to support more complex needs such as iteration variation, the want to integrate research insights, design system request etc.
Existing product workflow follows a one-way path.
Our opportunity
How might we dynamically involve ion to elevate the design process?
Users are actively using AI as a second brain.
Although 65% of users used AI for prototyping and copywriting, they express frustrations about the back-and-forth, the limitations of text prompts, and results not ready for production.
What starts as a quick prompt often turns into a fight for accuracy.
Users want and need creative control to remain authentic.
User often need to add some final touches before moving on.
Users seek a cohesive workflow that connect the dots.
The tools should be easy to integrate with users' current workflow.
My contributions at a glance
Enhancing AI workflows while providing more ways to create
Integrating AI functionalities and manual design controls to provide user creative freedom and workflow efficiency
Ion AI lives next to user's cursor. The chat is designed to resemble communication apps to create the collaborative design experience.
A chat space is still important when user wants to spin off ideas multiple ways. Now, the old chat space is integrated with live cursor to provide flexible entry points to initiate brainstorming.
Connects with users' existing workflow and brings AI agent into context through subtle nudges
Upload UI kits
Pin favourite design
The outcome
Project outcome
Pivoted product under construction with features shipped
The company has pivoted since the kickoff of the project and heavily invested in the new pipeline as it enhanced the foundation it initially started with. There had been clients
#1 - Interested founder, solid next steps
The founder was highly supportive of the proposed direction and prioritized fleshing out the pipeline as the company transitions to its next stage. Early stage of slack integration and infinite canvas are released.
#2 - New interaction patterns with AI agents
The team challenged the norm of vibe coding tools' interfaces and designed new interaction patterns (cursor, chat, image) to address users' key concerns of lacking enough context when working with AI.
#3 - Forecasting market direction for the next power feature in creative tools