Figma | Great design still depends on taste and care
Figma has published a new design essay focused on a topic that feels especially relevant in the age of AI: taste. Published on June 8, 2026, the article by Loredana Crisan, Chief Design Officer at Figma, argues that tools can expand what designers make, but they cannot replace the point of view, care, discernment, and creative judgment behind strong work.
Figma reflects on why design taste still matters in the AI era
Figma’s article is not a product update, but it is still important for web designers and creative teams. As AI tools become more common in interface design, prototyping, branding, and content workflows, the question is no longer only what a tool can generate. The deeper question is whether the designer can recognize what is worth keeping.
Loredana Crisan frames taste as something that comes from practice, critique, empathy, creative energy, and care for the final result. In other words, taste is not just personal preference. It is the ability to make intentional choices, understand trade-offs, and shape an experience so it feels clear, useful, and considered.
Taste is more than visual preference
The article describes taste as a form of care. A designer with taste does not only make something attractive; they make decisions with intention. They consider how an interface feels, how people move through it, what should be emphasized, what should be removed, and where the details need extra attention.
This idea is especially useful for web design because modern interfaces are full of trade-offs. A landing page must balance conversion and clarity. A dashboard must balance density and readability. A template must balance flexibility and structure. A design system must balance consistency and creative expression.
In that context, taste becomes visible through the choices a designer refuses to ignore: spacing, hierarchy, typography, empty states, interaction timing, content rhythm, accessibility, and how the page behaves across screens.
Why critique and practice still matter
Figma’s essay also highlights the importance of repetition, feedback, and collaboration. Design taste is not built by using a tool once. It develops through practice, critique, mentorship, experiments, revisions, and the habit of noticing when something feels slightly off.
For web creators, this is a strong reminder that templates and interfaces improve through iteration. A first draft can define the direction, but the final quality often comes from smaller decisions: adjusting a card grid, refining a button state, improving a mobile section, rewriting a headline, or simplifying a form flow.
This is where human review becomes valuable. AI can generate options quickly, but critique helps decide which option actually supports the user, the brand, and the goal of the page.
AI can expand exploration, but not replace judgment
The article directly addresses the role of AI in creative work. Crisan’s point is not that AI is useless, but that accepting the first output as final is not how strong craft works. AI can help designers explore more directions, but the designer still needs a point of view.
This matters for AI-assisted web design tools, website builders, template generators, and app prototyping workflows. A generated interface may look complete, but that does not mean the hierarchy is right, the content is clear, the layout scales, or the interaction pattern makes sense for real users.
The more AI accelerates production, the more important taste becomes. Designers need to evaluate, edit, reject, combine, and refine outputs instead of treating generation as the final step.
What web teams can learn from the article
For animetemplates, the most useful takeaway is that design quality still depends on intentional decision-making. Whether a team is building a Blogger theme, a Webflow site, a WordPress layout, a Figma prototype, or a product dashboard, the final experience needs more than fast production.
Strong templates need structure, hierarchy, usability, responsive behavior, accessibility, and a clear visual point of view. AI can support that process, but it cannot automatically define what the project should feel like, what should be simplified, or where the details need more care.
Daisuki's Take: What This Means for Web Designers
We see Figma’s essay as a timely reminder that tools are becoming faster, but design quality still depends on taste. The real value is the focus on discernment: knowing what works, what feels weak, what supports the user, and what should be refined before an idea becomes a final interface.
For web designers and creative teams, this applies directly to templates, landing pages, dashboards, portfolios, UI kits, and AI-generated layouts. Faster tools can help us explore more directions, but the final result still needs careful decisions around spacing, typography, hierarchy, accessibility, content structure, and interaction flow.
The limitation is that taste cannot be automated as a simple setting. We still need critique, practice, user empathy, brand understanding, and human review to decide whether a design feels intentional and useful. AI can expand the creative process, but human judgment remains the difference between a generated layout and a polished web experience.
Sources and Recommended Links
- You never stop cultivating taste | Figma Blog (Official)
- Figma Blog | Figma (Official)
- Figma Design | Figma (Official)
