The Uncodable Art of Design

AI can generate beautiful interfaces, but it cannot understand what makes them truly great.

In the age of AI-generated design, we're witnessing an interesting paradox: machines can create interfaces that are technically perfect, yet somehow lack that certain something that makes design resonate. This "something" is taste—and it's perhaps the most mysterious and uncodable aspect of design.

What is Design Taste?

Taste is that elusive quality that separates good design from great design. It's not about following rules or applying best practices—it's about knowing when to break them.

At its core, taste involves intuitive hierarchy—knowing which elements deserve attention without being told. It includes proportionate harmony, the ability to perceive balance in arrangements that no mathematical formula can capture. Taste encompasses cultural timing, understanding the current moment and when to follow or defy conventions. And it involves personal voice, infusing designs with unique character and expression.

Unlike technical skills that can be learned and documented, taste develops through years of exposure, critical analysis, and the courage to make subjective judgments.

Why AI Cannot Have Taste

AI design tools work through pattern recognition—they identify successful designs in their training data and replicate those patterns. This approach has fundamental limitations:

The Echo Chamber Effect

Training on existing designs creates a self-reinforcing cycle. AI learns to replicate what's already popular, but cannot imagine what's truly new or different.

Context Blindness

AI doesn't understand cultural context or historical timing. It cannot know when a design trend has become cliché, or when breaking conventions would be innovative rather than just wrong.

The Innovation Barrier

True design breakthroughs often require violating established patterns. AI, bound by its training data, struggles to make these leaps.

Cultivating Taste

The good news is that taste can be developed through deliberate practice and exposure.^[1]

To immerse yourself in the world of design, study design history across cultures and time periods. Analyze both successful and failed designs with equal attention, and look beyond digital interfaces to find inspiration in art, architecture, and nature.

Practice critical analysis by asking "why" not just "what" when evaluating designs. Consider the cultural and historical context of design decisions and develop your own design philosophy through consistent reflection.

Seek diverse perspectives by working with people from different backgrounds and cultures. Study how the same design principles manifest differently across contexts and learn to recognize your own cultural biases and assumptions.

Finally, trust your judgment by practicing subjective design decisions. Learn to articulate why you prefer one approach over another, and accept that taste involves personal conviction, not universal rules.

Taste as a Competitive Advantage

In an AI-dominated design landscape, taste becomes the ultimate differentiator. While AI can handle the technical execution, human designers with refined taste provide strategic direction—knowing what problems to solve and why they matter. They create cultural resonance, building designs that feel authentic to their context. They foster emotional connection by creating experiences that resonate on a human level, and they offer innovation leadership by pushing boundaries in meaningful ways.

The Future of Design

As AI tools become more sophisticated, the temptation to automate everything grows. But we must remember that design is both a science and an art. AI can master the science—the rules, patterns, and optimization. The art—the taste, judgment, and cultural wisdom—remains uniquely human.

The designers who will thrive are those who combine technical proficiency with refined taste. They understand that great design isn't about following rules or optimizing metrics. It's about understanding people, respecting culture, and creating experiences that resonate on a human level.

And that, perhaps, is the most uncodable art of all.