Together with

Hey and welcome back to another week! 👋

Last call for my workshop on how to properly position yourself as a designer running with Uxcel on June 10. Spots are running low so be fast!

Make sure to save your spot today to learn how to properly position yourself in an interactive way. Use the code UXCEL15 to save 15% on your ticket.

In this issue:

• AI Literacy Is Your Game Changer: While senior designers are arguing and bickering about AI you can build literacy in it and stand out.

• My Favorite Design Resource: Fountn is the absolute best place for me to look for any design resource that matters.

• Omar’s Portfolio: Curious what a high visual standard looks like in a junior portfolio? Omar got it!

🤝 TODAY’S PARTNER

Find the right design resources — fast.

Fountn is a curated platform built by senior designers to help you skip the noise and get straight to what you need.

Smart search, filters, and clear categories make it easy to find:

✢ Learning materials

✢ Design tools & UI kits

✢ Job prep & portfolio resources

You can also save your favorite resources to revisit anytime, and it's completely free.

Everything is tagged, organized, and updated daily so you can focus on growing, not digging.

The One Edge Juniors Have in 2025:
AI Literacy ✨

There are lots of AI tools flooding the market right now and so much buzz around it—and let’s be honest, it’s overwhelming. It feels like there’s a new tool every week, a new prompt strategy, a new hack. But here’s the good news: many of them don’t matter.

A handful of tools have started to emerge as genuinely useful for designers—especially if you want to move faster, prototype better, and make your work stand out. I’ll how to integrate them into your workflow and your portfolio.

Not hypothetically but practically.

Why This Matters

If you’re aiming for design roles right now, you might already have seen listings that say things like:

• “Familiarity with AI tools for prototyping and research analysis”

• “Experience building functional prototypes using tools like Lovable or V0”

• “Bonus: AI literacy and experimentation mindset”

This is not a fad. These skills aren’t even sometimes “nice to have” anymore. They’re fast becoming expected. The last months were full of stories of CEOs talking about how AI skills are now mandatory or a simple basic expectation. The good news? Most of the tools are easy to approach. You just need to be curious—and willing to experiment.

We’ll look at three high-impact ways to start.

1. Use AI to Speed Up and Enhance Research

You’re not replacing proper research. Let’s get that clear. But there are two key areas where AI can genuinely save you time and improve the quality of your insights:

Capture

Use an AI notetaker like Granola or Jamie to transcribe your interviews or test sessions. This frees you up to ask better follow-ups in real time, instead of juggling conversation and note-taking. A small but immensely powerful improvement to your workflow really.

Synthesize

Drop your transcripts into ChatGPT or Claude with a structured prompt. Ask it to cluster common themes, identify pain points, or summarize feedback. You still need to review the results—but it’s a huge time-saver and gives you a faster entry point into real analysis. This used to take me hours on end—and those hours really matter on the job.

Research

No, you are not replacing user research or anything here. But you can also use these tools for competitor research. ChatGPT’s Deep Research or Perplexity’s summaries can quickly reveal how competing tools are positioned, what users love, and where they struggle. You can find out how a real or fictional product you are working on is positioned against its competitors on a deep level in the matter of a couple of minutes and then go and validate that yourself and find angles that you can attack with your design.

2. Use AI Prototyping Tools to Build Real, Functional Prototypes (or MVPs)

Figma prototypes are fine for many flows—but they fall apart when you need interactivity beyond basic screen linking. Think: sign-up flows, forms, dynamic UI states.

Vibe coding tools like Lovable, v0, and Bolt change that. You can:

• Prompt a fully working web app based on a product idea

• Use Figma files or screenshots as input for real interface generation

• Skip weeks of dev handoff pain and get something functional within minutes

These tools aren’t perfect. They won’t perfectly replicate your Figma file. But for flows that matter—conversion paths, onboarding, e-comm checkout—they work well enough to test with real users much better and quicker than any noodle-heavy Figma prototype ever could.

I will go deeper on vibe coding soon in the newsletter and might even do a workshop around it specifically tailored for juniors who might not bring any technical skills whatsoever. Watch this space.

3. Improve Your UX Copy with Guardrailed AI Prompts

If you don’t have a content designer on your team (and most juniors don’t), you’re writing the microcopy. That means labels, helper text, empty states, confirmation messages. And yes—this stuff matters.

Instead of winging it or writing generic UI text, use ChatGPT or Claude to assist:

• Set guardrails in your prompt: What’s your tone? What are some example tools that match it?

• Be specific about the surface: “I need copy for an onboarding checklist that encourages task completion”

• Iterate, not generate: Refine until it sounds human and fits your product.

This isn’t about hiding behind AI. It’s about using it to get sharper, faster, and more consistent. I’ve done this for over a year, and it’s made my writing much better—especially as a non-native English speaker.

Make AI Use Visible in Your Applications

If you’re using these tools—but not showing it—hiring managers will miss it. And that’s a loss.

Here’s how to make it visible:

• In your resume, list tools like V0, Lovable, Claude, ChatGPT in your tooling stack.

• In your portfolio, add small labels in your case studies: “Built with V0,” “Synthesized via ChatGPT.”

• In your prototype sections, link to the real, interactive versions.

This doesn’t have to be flashy. But clarity matters. Don’t bury it and be transparent.

Use AI to Retrospectively Improve Case Studies

You don’t need to wait for your next project to start using this. Go back to your old case studies:

• Add an AI-generated prototype with Lovable or Bolt

• Re-run your research synthesis to find deeper insights

• Improve the copy in your product surfaces

You’re not faking anything—you’re enriching your work with better tooling. It’s fast. It’s mostly free. And it makes a big difference in how you’ll be perceived.

Final Thoughts

This is a big opportunity—especially for juniors. You’re not burdened by legacy workflows or fear of change. Use that.

Set a simple goal: Experiment with 1–2 AI tools every month. Add them into your work. Show what you built. Iterate.

You don’t have to master everything. But you do need to start. And the earlier you do, the bigger the edge you’ll build.

🦾 MY FAVORITE AI NEWSLETTER

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👀 Portfolio Showcase

Today: Omar Khalil

Omar Khalil’s portfolio is what happens when someone brings technical experience, visual polish, and a designer’s mindset together in one sharp package.

Based in the Bay Area and currently working as a test engineer at Meta, Omar’s actual background is in design and it’s were he wants to head professionally — and honestly, he’s making a very convincing case. His portfolio is clean, interactive, and shows a strong visual eye. You’d never guess from looking that he’s relatively early in his design journey.

Let’s take a closer look at what makes his portfolio click — and a few small adjustments that could level it up even further.

That’s it for this week—thanks so much for the support! ♥️

If you’d like to support my efforts on Open Doors further you can buy me a coffee. If you ever got any value from my emails consider it so I can keep this newsletter free and available to everyone out there.

Do you want your own portfolio reviewed in-depth with a 30-minute advice-packed video review? Or do you require mentoring to figure out a proper strategy for your job search?

I got you!

• Book an in-depth portfolio or resume review with me

• Book a mentoring session with me

• Book a quick 15 min chat to ask a question and see if we vibe

Keep kicking doors open and see you next week!
- Florian