I used to be a front-end engineer. Sublime Text. Hundreds of lines of SCSS. Fiercely resistant to non-semantic markups.
Then I spent a decade away from code—focused on interaction design, usability, UX strategy, Enterprise UX leadership ++.
But recently, there has been an incredible addition to my daily workflow - The TERMINAL!.
Minutes before posting this, I transcribed a voice note using Whisper through Terminal. Navigated Fabric patterns via Claude Code CLI. Refined my content workflow with Claude agents uncovering gems of learning daily.
Now I’m in Terminal every single day. Building things I couldn’t build before!
Terminal was developer territory. Not anymore.
For years, Terminal was the developer’s domain. You opened it to code, to deploy, to debug. Designers? We stayed in Figma, Sketch, Adobe XD. We designed interfaces. We handed off specs.
That line is gone.
Claude Code, Fabric, MCP Servers—these CLI-based agentic platforms brought Terminal back into the spotlight. And this time, designers are invited.
The trick here is understanding that you don’t need to be a senior developer to use these tools. You need foundational knowledge (CSS, basic JavaScript) and an AI agent by your side. That combination unlocks building capability that was impossible before.
Designers aren’t designing anymore. We’re building.
In the current world, Designers no more DESIGN! We BUILD!
And developers? They’re not just coding anymore either. They’re BUILDING too, with coding handled by AI!
Both of us are doing the same thing now: building.
The question isn’t “What’s a designer?” or “What’s a developer?” anymore. The question is: Can you build?
This is the inflection point. The line between designer and developer is blurring so fast that role distinctions are becoming meaningless. What matters is whether you can take an idea from concept to functional product.
And it’s never been easier to build than it is right now.
“Should designers code?” is the wrong question.
I never went deep into JavaScript, but had solid foundations, and never would have thought I could stage a comeback to the world of terminal like this. Today with Claude Code in my CLI, I’m building things I would’ve needed a developer for just a year ago. Terminal has become my new interface, but Cursor, Figma and other tools are still a part of my workflow, but they all have a specific role to play now!
The path doesn’t matter. The capability does.
The quality = your understanding
We all are growing out of the world where mastery of tools defined quality. Its now your understanding about a problem that directly defines the output, provided you use the right tools and workflows.
AI handles the execution complexity. You handle the strategic and creative control.
Understanding beats execution mastery now. But you still need to understand.
Still trying to figure your way in ?
If you would like to explore what it means to be a AI-Enabled Designer, trust me and do the following:
Start with the basics. Learn how Terminal works. Understand what’s happening behind the scenes. You don’t need to become a command-line expert, but you need enough foundation to navigate confidently.
Install Claude Code. Start small, figure out the libration that comes with stepping a bit closer to the machine readable world
Learn to write markdown files Learning to write .md files are a great way to directly communicate with those LLM models. Plus it ll save u a lots of tokens (believe me!)
Think like a builder, not a designer. Stop asking “How do I design this?” Start asking “How do I build this?” The shift in mindset changes everything.
And most importantly: Focus on understanding, not mastery. You don’t need to be a JavaScript expert. You need to understand why things work the way they do. That understanding lets you direct AI agents to build high-quality products.
Future belongs to ‘Builders’ not ‘Designers’!
The designers who thrive in the next five years won’t be the ones who can code the best. They won’t be the ones with the most polished portfolios.
They’ll be the ones who can build. Who can take an idea and make it real. Who understand systems thinking. Who can work with AI agents to handle execution while maintaining strategic control.
Good luck 👋🏼