Beyond the algo: Why human intuition still matters
There's a deeper, refined intelligence which provides important value
If you’re reading this as a designer today in 2025, you’ve probably felt that familiar knot in your stomach when another AI tool launches promising to “revolutionize design workflows!” 🙄 Ugh. You’ve likely wondered if all those carefully honed instincts about what makes good design are becoming obsolete in our metrics-obsessed, component-systematized world.
The homogenization anxiety is real.
Back in 2009, I wrote about this tension between data & soul in design, for ACM Interactions. Rereading that essay now feels like staring at a time capsule — except the problems I was worried about then have exploded into our current reality. Today, with AI generating everything from logos to site layouts in seconds, this conversation feels more urgent than ever.
As we watch design systems become increasingly commoditized, templated, and metrics-driven, we're likely losing something essential: the human spark that makes experiences memorable, meaningful, and transformative. We’re drowning in optimization culture while starving for meaningful human connection.
What counts as "data" in the age of AI?
The question I posed 15 years ago — “What is meant by data?” — has become incredibly complicated. Today’s design teams are swimming in:
Real-time analytics that update every millisecond
AI-generated user personas based on “behavioral patterns”
Automated A/B tests running constantly in the background
Heatmaps and session recordings processed by algorithms
Content recommendations optimized by machine learning
But here's what we're missing: The richest data often can't be quantified. 🤨
The experienced designer who intuitively knows when something feels "off." The researcher who catches the hesitation in a user's voice during an interview. The creative director who senses that a perfectly optimized design lacks soul. This isn't anti-data sentiment — it's a bonafide recognition that human judgment, refined through years of lived professional experience, is itself a form of intelligence that no algorithm can replicate, no matter how sophisticated.
The soul question: What makes a design feel alive?
When ChatGPT can produce 15 design variations in 5 minutes, when Figma's AI can systematically auto-layout your components, when every brand uses the same trending aesthetics — what makes your work distinctly human? 🤔
It's not the pixels. It's not the conversion rates. It's something called equipoise — a delicate balance between rational functionality + imaginative spark that makes people stop scrolling…and actually feel something that resonates. 🔥 Such experiences transcend optimization. They connect with our deepest human desires for beauty, meaning, and connection. I know a little about this — I researched and wrote about this for my master’s thesis on…beauty. 🙃 When feeling true deep beauty, per Santayana & John Dewey, there’s a surrender to a rarified quality.
That’s what AI can’t generate: the ineffable quality that makes design resonate with dreams and desires.
The designer's dilemma: Efficiency vs. humanity
Today's design teams face daunting, compounding pressures:
Ship faster with AI-assisted workflows
Optimize everything for measurable outcomes
Scale through design systems and component libraries
Justify every creative decision with data 🙄
The result is basically a homogenized digital landscape where every app feels familiar, every website follows the same patterns, every experience optimizes for engagement over enrichment. But the most memorable experiences — the ones that build lasting relationships between brands and humans — emerge from that messy, unmeasurable intersection of exploration, intuition, and care. 🙌🏽
You gotta have the courage of conviction.
Here’s what’s often missing from our data-driven design discussions — conviction is what separates truly innovative design from incremental improvement. When you’ve spent years honing your expertise, working across diverse challenges, you develop something invaluable: the experience to make change. ⚡️ That’s your real power.
But please note: this isn’t about ego or stubbornness. It’s about having the wisdom to know when the data is pointing in the wrong direction, when stakeholder feedback misses the bigger picture, when the “safe” choice will ultimately fail users. I remember an enlightened enterprise B2B SaaS CEO once telling a room of designers: “You should have an opinion at the table and stand up for it. Defend it. Coach us on how to design properly.”
That wasn’t permission to be difficult — it was recognition that design leadership requires courage to champion what’s right over what’s convenient. That’s what builds respect and commands attention in middle-managed contexts where everyone’s used to polite nodding. 😊
Coming back to the original topic, the future isn’t about choosing between algorithmically informed AI and human intuition. We’re all figuring this out together, and that’s exactly the point. There are moments of integration…and negotiation.
Let AI handle the heavy lifting: Generate variations, automate repetitive tasks, surface insights from massive datasets.
Reserve human judgment for what matters most: Strategic direction, emotional resonance, cultural sensitivity, ethical implications, and that mysterious alchemy that turns functional into meaningful.
The designers who thrive will be those who resist the temptation to optimize away their humanity. They’ll integrate AI thoughtfully while holding strong to their core design values…that messy, unmeasurable intersection of intention, intuition, and passion. 🔥
A call for Humanistic Design
As AI proliferates access to design capabilities, our value as practitioners shifts from execution to interpretation — from making things work to making things meaningful. 🤔 It’s the conscious shaping of conditions that allow humanistic design to thrive that matters now. It’s not enough to advocate for better user experiences; we need to architect the organizational cultures, processes, and mindsets that make such experiences inevitable.
The organizations that thrive will be those that resist the temptation to optimize away their humanity.
They'll invest in designers who can navigate ambiguity, synthesize contradictory insights, and define experiences that feel effortless…and alive! While also looking ahead to the overall system, services, and strategy of expansion, sustenance, transitions, etc. It’s a full, coherent lifecycle perspective that’s needed now. 💯
Humanistic design entails the following traits:
Reflection in action: While you’re designing, ask “what kind of world are we creating?” Not just “will this work?” but “what behaviors are we encouraging? What futures are we making more likely?”
Strategic forethought: Connect the dots across your organization. How does your design work ripple through engineering, business, marketing, support? Think beyond your immediate team and short-term metrics.
Informed humanism: Borrow insights from other fields to understand the full human context. Psychology, anthropology, behavioral economics—whatever helps you see that wider field of view of what you’re building. Think panorama, not just microscope.
Creative provocation: Ask the uncomfortable questions everyone else is avoiding. Suggest radical possibilities that spark difficult but necessary conversations. Trust me, you’ll regret missing your moment to make your mark with just one question that wakes everyone from their foggy state…
In a world of infinite possibilities, the scarcest resource isn't computational power — it's wisdom, from lived experience. That’s what you bring. You own that. The kind that comes from years of delivering value, learning from failures, and developing that sixth sense about what actually works in messy reality.
So start trusting your judgment again! Question metrics that may not align with cultivated instincts. Challenge when data-driven decisions feel mechanical or soulless. But also start designing the conditions that make such courage possible for others, your peers and partners.
We’re not passive folks along this AI journey—we’re the stewards. The future of design is being defined now, and we have the power to shape it toward something more humanistic, not less. 🙌🏽
What's your experience balancing data-driven insights with creative intuition? How do you maintain the human spark in an increasingly automated design process?