Dive Club 🤿 – Episode Summary

Episode Title: Dessn - Is this the future of AI prototyping?
Host: Ridd
Guests: Gabriela & Nim (Co-founders of Dessn)
Date: January 14, 2026

Episode Overview

This episode dives into Dessn, a next-generation AI-powered design tool that lets designers prototype directly in their production codebase with minimal setup. Ridd speaks with Dessn's co-founders, Gabriela and Nim, exploring how the tool is redefining the traditional speed-quality tradeoff, making design more collaborative, and envisioning a future where curation, not pixel-pushing, becomes the designer’s key role. The discussion spans technical breakthroughs, shifting workflows, philosophical implications for design, and what’s coming next for both Dessn and the broader design ecosystem.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Instant Prototyping in Production

• Direct Prototyping From Production Code

  • Dessn lets designers render and experiment with live production components without developer intervention or setup overhead. This creates true “what you see is what you ship” prototyping.
  • Nim (00:45): “This is not a recreation of what [Kevin] did. This is literally the one to one code that he wrote. …I just went in Dessn and said, please show me this component. And there it is.”

• Animation Playgrounds and Component Variants

  • Designers can explore animation possibilities by loading and tweaking presets. Dessn instantly reflects changes from production code, minimizing friction and encouraging more experimentation.
  • Nim (01:55): “I asked Dessn to create me an animation playground. …I can look at all these different animations and I can build. …At the end of the day all I have to do is go in the code view and…copy paste the code in cursor and now I can use this animation all across my code base.”

• Designers Working at the Speed of Thought

  • The era of moving between Figma and dev handoff is being replaced by direct interaction with production, amplifying both speed and quality.
  • Gabriela (05:11): “We…give you prod on a plate and you get to actually work and exist in that world, the same world as devs.”

Redefining the Design-Development Interface

• Eliminating the Speed-Quality Tradeoff

  • Designers can now create high-fidelity, interactive prototypes pulled from real code without technical bottlenecks or recreating imperfect replicas in Figma or other tools.
  • Gabriela (07:34): “There is no reason to have to ever leave production anymore. You can just work in that environment.”

• Reducing Friction for Exploration

  • With rapid prototyping so accessible, teams are testing more ideas, elevating the standard and ambition of shipped features.
  • Nim (08:44): “Because it’s becoming so easy to one shot these things…we’re just doing way more prototypes now.”

The Power and Philosophy of AI-Driven Design Workflows

• ‘Aura of Inevitability’ in Code-Based Prototyping

  • When something exists in code (not just a static mock), it becomes tangible, making “should we ship this?” the key decision.
  • Host (09:06): “If something exists in code and it’s already basically there, it’s difficult to say no, we shouldn’t do this. …the only decision is…do you want this in the product? Yes or no?”

• Leveraging Code as the Ultimate Source of Truth

  • Dessn’s strength lies in tapping the full context and history within production code, including “tribal knowledge” and previous design choices, ensuring consistency and quality.
  • Gabriela (12:13): “Every other design tool…further takes you away from production and they further fragment the tool chain. Our goal is to collapse everyone into one source of truth…production.”

• Sandboxed, Infinite, Parallel Exploration

  • Dessn enables infinite sandboxed environments, allowing massive parallel exploration (e.g., AI agents creating thousands of variants), which designers can curate and refine.
  • Nim (13:40): “We’ve invested a lot in our infrastructure where it’s very easy to take a prototype and infinitely clone it. ...you can really go deep in explorations.”

Philosophical Debate: Curation vs. Making

• Rise of Curation as the Designer’s Role

  • The tool’s shift empowers designers to focus on selection and taste rather than repetitive execution.
  • Gabriela (18:29): “Your role is going to become curation and selection, and that’s where taste comes in.”

• Balancing Prompts and Direct Manipulation

  • The future might see a blend of AI and hands-on control, with new UX metaphors replacing pixel pushing.
  • Nim (19:59): “You changing a pixel, right, versus an AI doing [it]…Maybe the future is…you can still feel that feeling…but in a way more efficient way.”

• Horse vs. Car as a Metaphor for Design Tooling Evolution

  • While some will always enjoy “hands-on” design, the efficiency leap of AI-driven workflows is irresistible.
  • Nim (22:16): “People still ride horses today…They drive a car because it’s more efficient, A to B…whatever that looks like for design is still going to be there.”

Impact on Designers, Teams, and the Future of Software

• Moving Designers Up the Value Chain

  • As code becomes commoditized, the designer’s value pivots to deciding what to build, not how.
  • Nim (29:18): “If you know what feature to ship…AI will just do it for you. …what’s difficult is what is that? What should we ship?”

• Soft Skills: The New Differentiator

  • Communication, alignment, and product sense will be more valued than ever. The role of designers shifts towards facilitating and curating the right outcomes.
  • Host (30:54): “The value of certain soft skills feel like they’re about to exponentially increase.”

• Prototyping as the Core Workflow

  • In a world of parallel, AI-created options, prototyping becomes the norm and the decision bottleneck moves to curation and validation.
  • Nim (29:18): “Prototyping is going to be more and more important in the future…you’re prototyping so much more…A lot of that is going to be throwaway code.”

• Strategic Importance of Design

  • Design, and especially UX, is positioned to become the central discipline in shaping products in the AI era.
  • Gabriela (32:30): “I think there’s a more important role than design in the world. Like, UX to me, is everything.”

Notable Quotes & Moments

• On instant prototyping:

  • Nim (00:45): “I didn’t have to go to a dev to understand how to do this. I didn’t have to copy this in Figma and figure out how to do it. I just went in Dessn and said, please show me this component.”

• On workflow transformation:

  • Gabriela (05:11): “Access to that environment used to be blocked by skill barrier. …and we give you prod on a plate and you get to actually work and exist in that world, the same world as devs."

• On design as curation:

  • Gabriela (18:29): “Your role is going to become curation and selection, and that’s where taste comes in.”

• On the inevitability of AI-driven design:

  • Nim (21:17): “Most people are asking for a faster horse…we haven’t actually invented the car yet.”

• On impact of tools:

  • Gabriela (26:40): “I think tools define how you create, how you work and what you create. I think it’s usually a tooling problem. …Pre LLMs, we couldn't build the right ones. And now we can.”

Important Timestamps & Segments

• 00:45 – 03:25:
  Nim demos instant prototyping, animation playground, code sync – eliminating reliance on devs

• 05:11 – 08:44:
  Gabriela and Nim on production as source of truth, the power of in-context design, and how Dessn enables rapid iteration

• 09:06 – 09:49:
  Discussion on the “aura of inevitability” when prototyping directly in code, making product decision-making easier

• 12:13 – 14:30:
  How Dessn leverages code context vs. traditional design tools; infinite sandboxes and parallel exploration

• 18:29 – 22:44:
  Philosophical debate on curation vs. making, spectral workflows (prompting vs. direct manipulation), AI as a platform shift

• 29:18 – 32:30:
  Macro shift in the designer’s value, outcome-driven workflows, future of prototyping, and designers as tastemakers

• 32:57 – 33:08:
  Announcement: Dessn moving from private beta to public beta

What’s Next for Dessn

• Public Beta Launch:

  • Dessn opens onboarding to the public; connect your codebase and get your prototyping environment within a day.
  • Gabriela (32:57): "We are going from private beta to public beta. You will be able to go through the onboarding flow..."

• Future Features:

  • Infinite canvas anchored in code, agent-driven explorations, deeper integrations, and a continued focus on collapsing design and production into a single, creative workflow.

For New Listeners:

This episode offers both a hands-on look at Dessn’s workflow-changing tech and a thoughtful forecast about where design is headed in the AI era. If you care about shipping better UX, bridging the design-dev divide, or understanding how your role as a designer will soon change, this conversation is filled with actionable insights and big ideas.

Find more insights and resources at Dive.club.