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Ayub Shaikh

@theayubs

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Visual & UI Designer | Webflow Developer
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One of the biggest design mistakes isn't making something ugly.

It's solving the wrong person's problem.

As designers, it's very easy to unconsciously design for ourselves.

We ask:

→ Do I like it?

→ Would I click this?

→ Does this feel modern?

But there's a problem.

You're probably not the customer.

You already understand the product.

You know the patterns.

You know what the buttons mean.

You know how the interface works.

Your users might not.

That's why one of the biggest mindset shifts in product design is moving from:

❌ “What should this interface look like?”

to:

✅ “Who is using it, and what are they trying to accomplish?”

Before designing the screen, understand the person.

I am not the user.

#ProductDesign #UXDesign #UIDesign #DesignThinking by @theayubs

5

1

a day ago

"We need a website redesign."

That's a sentence most designers would be happy to hear.

But what happens next?

A lot of designers immediately start discussing:

→ Colors

→ Typography

→ Layouts

→ Animations

→ Sections

→ Visual direction

I'd want to pause before getting into any of that.

💡 I'd ask:

"Can I first understand what problem your business solves, who it's for, and what you want the website to achieve?"

Because a website isn't the business.

It's a tool the business uses to achieve something.

Maybe the goal is:

→ Generate more qualified demos.

→ Explain a complicated product.

→ Build trust with enterprise buyers.

→ Improve conversion.

→ Help users understand the value faster.

Without understanding that, you're mostly designing based on instructions.

Once you understand the business, the design conversation changes.

You're no longer asking:

"What should the homepage look like?"

You're asking:

"What does this homepage need to accomplish?"

🎯 And I think that's a meaningful shift in how a designer works with founders.

You're not just someone waiting for a brief and turning it into screens.

You're someone trying to understand the business problem before designing the solution.

That's the kind of designer I want to become.

#website #problem #solution by @theayubs

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16 days ago

Imagine your founder asks:

"Why did you remove three sections from the homepage?"

You could answer:

"It looked cleaner."

Maybe it does.

But that's not really the reason.

A stronger answer would be:

"Visitors aren't trying to learn every feature in the first 30 seconds. They're trying to understand whether this product solves their problem. We removed information that distracted from that core message."

Notice the difference.

The second answer doesn't start with aesthetics.

It starts with:

→ User understanding

→ Product purpose

→ Business objective

→ Design decision

💡 The visual change is the final output.

The reasoning behind the change is what makes it a design decision.

This is something I'm increasingly trying to think about when looking at my own work.

Instead of:

"I changed this because it looks better."

Ask:

→ What problem was I trying to solve?

→ What user behavior am I trying to influence?

→ What information matters most at this point?

→ Why does this change support the product's goal?

Because stakeholders don't just need to know what you changed.

They need to understand why the change makes sense.

🎯 The better you can connect your design decisions to user understanding and business purpose, the more valuable your design conversations become.

#webdesign #communication by @theayubs

4

0

19 days ago

Founder:

"Let's add an AI feature."

What happens next?

A designer might immediately start thinking:

→ What should the interface look like?

→ Where should we place it?

→ What should the button say?

→ How should the interaction work?

But there's a question that should come first:

💡 "What user problem will this solve?"

And sometimes the answer is:

"Everyone has AI now."

That's not a user problem.

It's not necessarily a customer reason.

It's a trend.

And that's where designers can add real value.

Instead of automatically turning every idea into a feature, ask:

→ Who needs this?

→ What problem does it solve?

→ What happens if we don't build it?

→ Does it create meaningful value for the user?

→ Does it support what the product is trying to accomplish?

Because adding a feature isn't automatically good product design.

Sometimes adding something creates more complexity without creating meaningful value.

🎯 And that's why I think saying "no" can sometimes be a better design decision than creating another beautiful interface.

Not every idea needs to become a feature.

#problemsolving by @theayubs

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23 days ago

People don't usually buy a product because of its feature list.

They buy the outcome they believe the product can create.

Think about Airbnb.

You could describe Airbnb through features:

→ Search accommodation

→ Filter listings

→ View photos

→ Read reviews

→ Book a stay

All true.

But that's not really what the customer is trying to accomplish.

They're trying to answer:

💡 "Can I find a place I'll actually enjoy staying?"

That's a very different way of looking at the product.

Airbnb isn't only communicating functionality.

The photography.

The destinations.

The copy.

The overall experience.

Everything works together to communicate something bigger:

Travel can feel personal, comfortable, and memorable.

That's why I think product designers need to look beyond the feature itself.

Ask:

→ What does this feature help the user accomplish?

→ What outcome are they actually looking for?

→ What should they feel or understand after using it?

Because design isn't only communicating what a product does.

It's communicating why the product matters.

🎯 Features explain the product.

Outcomes explain the value.

#feature #outcome by @theayubs

3

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a month ago

Where does design actually begin?

A lot of designers would probably say:

Figma.

But I think it starts much earlier.

A beginner might think:

Product → Features → Interface

An experienced designer starts with:

Problem → Solution → Product → Features → Interface

That difference is subtle, but important.

Because if you start with the interface, you're already assuming you understand the problem.

You might create a beautiful solution to the wrong problem.

💡 That's why I think the first responsibility of a designer isn't to create screens.

It's to understand.

Understand:

→ What problem exists?

→ Who experiences it?

→ What outcome are they looking for?

→ What is the product trying to accomplish?

→ What role should the interface play in solving that problem?

Only then does the UI become meaningful.

The interface is the visible part of the solution.

But the thinking behind it starts much earlier.

🎯 Good design isn't just about making the final screen better.

It's about making sure you're solving the right problem before you start designing the screen.

#problem #solution by @theayubs

5

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a month ago

I don't think the most interesting thing about AI + web design is that it can build a website.

It’s how much faster it makes the distance between an idea and something real.

Here’s the workflow I tested:

Copy document → Figma exploration → refine the layout → Claude + Figma MCP → Claude + Webflow MCP → working landing page.

The result wasn’t perfect. Far from it.

I still had to fix...
• inconsistent units
• custom properties
• responsiveness
• components that should have been native Webflow elements
• a few places where Claude simply messed up the existing layout

If I had to rate the final output itself, I’d give it a 4.5/10.

But that’s actually not the metric I’m most interested in.

The interesting part is the time compression.

You can have an idea written down in the morning and have something tangible to react to by the evening.

And that changes the workflow.

You don’t have to wait until everything is figured out before you can see something.

You can build → react → refine → keep moving.

Does this mean you shouldn't hire a Webflow designer or developer? Not at all.

But if you don’t know Webflow, have a relatively simple website to build, and need something workable quickly, this kind of workflow can be incredibly useful.

You just have to be okay with the first version being okay-ish, not perfect.

For professional-quality work, human intervention is still very much needed.

And honestly, I’m curious to see where this goes.

MCP workflows like this are still evolving, and I have no idea what this will look like a year from now. Maybe it becomes significantly more capable. Maybe we discover a lot more limitations.

But seeing the workflow work in practice was pretty damn impressive. 👀

For me, the value isn’t replacing the designer.

It’s getting from idea → something real much, much faster.

If you want to see what Claude actually built, here’s the live landing page: avoma.com/unbound-2026

#AI #Webflow #Figma by @theayubs

2

1

a month ago

"I built a note-taking app."

Okay.

But why?

What problem is it actually solving?

Now compare that with:

"Teams waste hours searching through scattered meeting notes, documents, and Slack messages."

💡 Now we're talking about a problem.

The first statement describes a product.

The second describes a customer problem.

And that distinction matters because the product isn't the problem.

It's the solution.

There could be multiple ways to solve the same problem.

A note-taking app is only one possibility.

So when you're working on a product, instead of immediately asking:
→ What feature should we add?
→ What should this screen look like?
→ How should we structure the interface?

Start with:
→ What problem are we trying to eliminate?
→ Who experiences it?
→ How are they solving it today?
→ Why isn't the current solution good enough?

Once you understand the problem, the product decisions become much easier to reason about.

🎯 Good design doesn't begin with deciding what to build.

It begins with understanding why something needs to be built in the first place.

That's a very different starting point. by @theayubs

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2 months ago

Most designers start with the product.

You open Figma, look at the interface, and immediately start thinking:

→ What should we change?
→ What should we add?
→ How can we make this look better?

But there's a question that should come before all of that:

💡 "Why does this company exist?"

That's a very different question.

Think about it.

Before Airbnb, people already had hotels.

Before Uber, people already had taxis.

Before Notion, people already had Word documents.

Before Figma, people already had Photoshop and Sketch.

So these companies didn't exist simply because someone wanted to build another product.

They existed because someone believed:

"There must be a better way."

And that changes how I think about design.

A product isn't the starting point.

The problem is.

The product is one possible solution to that problem.

🎯 So instead of immediately asking:

"What features should we build?"

I think designers should first ask:

→ What problem are we solving?
→ Who is experiencing that problem?
→ Why isn't the existing solution good enough?
→ What outcome are we trying to create?

Once you understand that, the interface starts making much more sense.

Because you're no longer designing a screen just because someone asked you to redesign a screen.

You're designing a solution to a problem.

And I think that's one of the biggest differences between designing interfaces and thinking like a product designer.

The next time someone gives you a redesign brief, try asking one question before opening Figma:

💭 "What problem are we actually trying to solve?"

That question might completely change what you end up designing. by @theayubs

9

1

2 months ago

Imagine you're presenting a homepage redesign.

The founder asks:

💬 "Why do you believe this version will perform better?"

A weak answer would be:

❌ "It looks cleaner and more modern."

That might be true.

But it doesn't explain why the business should care.

A stronger answer sounds very different.

You explain:
• The problem you're trying to solve.
• Why you believe your solution should help.
• How you'll measure whether it actually worked.

Then you say something experienced product teams say all the time.

👉 "This is our hypothesis. We'll validate it through an A/B test."

That sentence completely changed the way I think about design.

It removes ego from the process.

Instead of trying to prove you're right...

You're trying to learn what's actually true.

The goal isn't to win an argument.

The goal is to make better product decisions.

I think that's one of the biggest mindset shifts a designer can make.

💭 Question:

Have you ever changed your mind after seeing real user data? by @theayubs

4

0

2 months ago

When I look at a landing page today...

I don't ask:

💬 "Does it look good?"

I ask something much simpler.

💬 "Would someone understand what this product does within a few seconds?"

That question completely changed the way I evaluate websites.

Take Stripe's homepage.

Before talking about features...

Before asking you to sign up...

Before diving into technical details...

It answers one important question.

👉 "Why should I care?"

That's exactly what a landing page should do.

Many companies try to persuade visitors too early.

They add:
• Testimonials.
• Feature lists.
• Fancy animations.
• Long explanations.

But if visitors don't understand your product...

None of those things matter.

That's why I love this idea.

👉 Great landing pages reduce confusion before they increase persuasion.

Clarity comes first.

Persuasion comes second.

💭 Question:

What's the first thing you notice when you land on a new SaaS website? by @theayubs

8

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2 months ago

For a long time...

I thought designing meant improving screens.

Now I think it starts much earlier.

It starts with understanding the problem.

Many designers ask:

💬 "How can I improve this page?"

Experienced designers ask something different.

💬 "Where are users getting stuck?"

That small shift changes everything.

Maybe users don't understand the value proposition.

Maybe they don't trust the product.

Maybe the pricing is confusing.

Maybe onboarding takes too long.

Maybe the interface isn't the real problem at all.

If you jump straight into Figma...

You're already assuming the solution is visual.

But design is only one possible solution.

Sometimes the answer is:
• Better messaging.
• A simpler flow.
• Removing unnecessary steps.

The more I learn about product design...

The more I realize this.

Great designers aren't just good at creating interfaces.

They're great at identifying problems worth solving.

💭 Question:

Before opening Figma, what's the first question you ask yourself? by @theayubs

7

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2 months ago