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Design is a language. Understanding levels of linguistic… | by Natalia Talmina, PhD | Jul, 2025 | UX Collective

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Design is rapidly changing. From the ubiquity of AI (and the era of AI hardware) to the shift in modality (Apple prioritising design elements from visionOS), there is a lot of uncertainty. It’s important to remember that design is a language to navigate it. This is, perhaps, rather obvious: the primary function of human language is communication, and that is precisely what we use design for — to communicate information to the user. But that’s not all there is. Natural language is not just a communication tool, it’s also a cognitive tool which we use to structure our thoughts, create nuanced concepts, and augment our imagination and creativity. Just as design is not simply a tool for creating nice-looking buttons — it informs our relationship with technology and, by extension, the world. Understanding the relationship between the properties of language and their design counterparts is not trivial, it is essential for bringing about more thoughtful changes in our relationship with techno

Design UX Writing Product Design Editor Picks Design is a language Understanding levels of linguistic change can help designers in an era of uncertainty Natalia Talmina, PhD 8 min read · Jun 30, 2025 -- 5 Listen Share Press enter or click to view image in full size Language is thought of primarily as a tool for communication, but it also helps structure our thoughts, create nuanced concepts, and augment our imagination and creativity. Image created by the author with GPT-4o Design is rapidly changing. From the ubiquity of AI (and the era of AI hardware ) to the shift in modality (Apple priorit

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