The End of the Designer–Engineer Divide

In this episode of Design Review, Ryo Lu, Head of Design at Cursor, discusses his journey into design, starting with building websites as a child and eventually leading design at Notion, Stripe, and Asana. Ryo shares his mission to empower designers to code using AI tools like Cursor, emphasizing a shift from pixel-perfect design to a more iterative, building-focused approach. He details his design process at Cursor, which involves simplifying UI and unifying features, and introduces "BabyCursor," a personal playground for experimenting with new features. Ryo also touches on the future of design, highlighting the importance of system thinking, deep craft knowledge, and adaptive UIs that cater to individual user preferences, and offers advice to designers starting companies, emphasizing the need to identify core, unchanging concepts.