Discernment for builders

What you'll learn

Estimated time: 45 minutes

By the end of this lesson you'll be able to:

  • Apply hierarchy, user flows, accessibility, and feedback patterns when specifying what AI should build
  • Critique AI-generated designs using feedback specific enough to act on
  • Make intentional tradeoff decisions between speed, polish, and user needs

Discernment for user experience

(2 minutes)

As AI speeds up implementation, design becomes the differentiator. This lesson covers the UX principles that matter most when working with AI, why “make it look good” produces nothing useful, and how to close the gap between a critique you’d give a colleague and a description AI can execute.

UX Lab: Apply the four principles
Each tab shows a food delivery screen with common UX problems AI generates by default. Hover over any element to discover what’s wrong — then click Show Fix to see how it should be built.
Principle 1 of 4
Clarity
Every element should instantly communicate its purpose. Users shouldn’t have to guess what a button does or what a field means.
←No destination label — users can’t tell where “back” goes AppGeneric title — what screen is this? ⋮Unexplained icon — what does this open?
Burger12.00No currency symbol — is this dollars?
Fries4.50
Total16.50
← Back to menu Order review Help
Burger$12.00
Fries$4.50
Order total$16.50
Principle 2 of 4
Hierarchy
Visual weight should match information priority. The most important thing should look the most important.
Order total: $16.50Most critical info buried in a flat list — nothing stands out
Arriving by 1:10 PMSame size as the order number — hard to find fast
Order #1284
123 Main St, Apt 4B
Subtotal $14.00 + Delivery $2.50
$16.50
Arriving by 1:10 PM
Order #1284 · 123 Main St, Apt 4B
Subtotal $14.00 + Delivery $2.50
Principle 3 of 4
Accessibility
About 1 in 5 people has a disability — visual, cognitive, or neurological. AI generates for the median user. Small text, color-only signals, and jargon quietly exclude everyone else.
Order #1284 Color only — no text label. Colorblind users cannot tell if this means confirmed or failed.
Item9px header text — unreadable for low vision users without screen magnification. qty“qty” is an abbreviation — creates friction for users with cognitive disabilities or limited literacy. Price
Burger1$12.00
Fries1$4.50
Total$16.50
ETA: 35 min · Cancellation per T&C9px text. “ETA” and “T&C” are jargon — neurodivergent users often need plain language to process confidently.
Order #1284 ✓ Order confirmed
Item QuantityPrice
Burger1$12.00
Fries1$4.50
Order total$16.50
Arrives in approximately 35 minutes · Free cancellation — see details
Principle 4 of 4
Feedback
When something breaks, users need to know what happened, what to do next, and how to get help. A raw error code answers none of those questions.
← Order Review ⋮
⚠
No explanation — users don’t know if their order went through, failed, or is still pending.
Error 503“503 Service Unavailable” is a server code. It means nothing to a user trying to order lunch.
← Back Order Review Help
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Key takeaways

  • When implementation is fast, experience is the differentiator. Design literacy is a core builder skill.
  • “Make it look good” is a wish, not a spec. Describe experience with the same precision as a function.
  • AI does not get accessibility right by default. Specify it, then audit what you get back.
  • A good critique and an actionable AI description are different artifacts. Learn to translate between them.

Exercise

The Clinic Wait Time Project, Part 3

Write a design spec for your clinic app — user flows, information hierarchy, interaction patterns — then rebuild it with AI against that spec. Critique the result: where did AI nail it, and where is it technically correct but experientially flat? Run a quick accessibility audit and document what AI missed.

  • Clarity & Mental Model — Does the output use language and patterns a clinic admin would recognize?
  • Information Hierarchy — Is the most important information the first thing users see?
  • Accessibility — Does it pass color contrast, screen reader, and keyboard navigation checks?
  • Feedback & Error Handling — Does the interface acknowledge user actions and explain what to do when something goes wrong?

Lesson reflection

  • How much of your design spec describes what the interface does versus how it should feel to use?
  • After running the accessibility check, did you build with accessibility in mind from the start, or add it at the end?

What's next

You’ve looked at your Clinic Wait Time Checker through both a code lens and a UX lens. In the next lesson, you’ll tackle the hardest question: what does it mean to actually stand behind what you build?

Feedback

As you progress through the course, we'd love to hear from you about how you are using concepts from the course in your work, plus any feedback you may have. Share your feedback here.

Acknowledgments and license

Copyright 2026 Anthropic. This course was developed in partnership with CodePath, building on the AI Fluency Framework developed by Prof. Rick Dakan (Ringling College of Art and Design) and Prof. Joseph Feller (University College Cork). Released under the CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.
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