The Truth About AI + Design (with Miro’s Head of Design for AI – Matt Jones)
What does it actually look like to weave AI into products people already love—without slapping on “sparkle buttons”? In this episode of Blueprint of a Designer, I sit down with Matt Jones — a design leader at Miro working on AI (previously Google, Lunar Energy, and BERG) — to unpack designing with intelligence as a material, not a gimmick.Chapters0:00 Cold open — AI, flows & vibe coding1:27 Intro & guest greeting1:40 Light-painting photo & the garage2:16 Why light painting? Perception & trails3:02 Visualizing radio fields (RFID/Oyster)4:54 Light-painting the invisible field5:50 Team fun: centaur model of AI6:51 What Matt calls himself (interaction design)10:27 From architecture school to the early web12:15 What most misunderstand about AI in design13:47 On-device “mini intelligences”15:14 Designing with mature, cheap tech19:33 Material thinking: subjectivity + objectivity32:36 Clarifying Matt’s role at Miro (AI group)33:02 Weaving AI into Miro (multiplayer, multimodal)39:29 The “explain it over the phone” test41:24 Screens live in our heads: designing for cognition44:57 The thought-bubble storyboard trick50:29 Vibe coding / vibe designing52:36 Future-proofing designers (sort of)57:02 Curiosity over rounded rectangles1:00:45 Pushing systems beyond the mean1:12:17 Google: Creative Lab → Research1:14:09 Why Lunar Energy; Project Sunroof; home solar1:16:42 Zero→One at a climate startup (hardware + software)1:17:58 Dogfooding at Miro; slides + boards1:18:49 Tools shape us; whiteboards & flow1:21:05 Pace at Miro: EPD trios & hackathons1:23:50 What’s in the garage (3D printers, etc.)1:25:24 Remote hardware prototyping from the workshop1:28:16 Data-center murals & wrap-upWe dig into:On-device “mini intelligences” vs giant LLMs — why small, energy-light models may reshape everyday tools more than headline models.Weaving AI into workflows — keeping AI multiplayer, visual, and native to the fabric of Miro.Designing for cognition — the “thought-bubble” storyboard trick and explaining an interface over the phone.Vibe coding / vibe designing — prompting as creative direction, and pushing systems beyond the mean.Future-proofing (kind of) — curiosity, user research, and team intuition outlasting tool churn.From BERG → Google → Lunar Energy → Miro — hardware/energy/research lessons (light-painting RFID fields, rapid hardware prototyping, and more).GuestMatt Jones — Design leader at Miro (AI group). Previously Google (Creative Lab & Research), Lunar Energy, and BERG.Why watch/listenIf you’re a designer wondering where to place your bets in an AI-heavy decade, this is a candid, practical field guide: ship faster, stay curious, and design for the mental model, not just the mockup.► Subscribe for more episodes: / @theblueprintofadesignerFollow us on:📸 Instagram: @theblueprintofadesigner🎵 TikTok: @theblueprintofadesigner🙏 Huge thanks to Matt for bringing such clarity and candor!🔗 Connect with Matt: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmatthewjones/#BlueprintOfADesigner #AIDesign #ProductDesign #UXDesign #InteractionDesign #GenerativeAI #OnDeviceAI #MultimodalAI #PromptEngineering #DesignLeadership #FutureOfDesign #Prototyping #Miro #LunarEnergy #BERG
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