Design for the AI era: Paradigm shift

Four decisions, each rational, each compounding the last, stripped the governing layer from digital design. Time was surrendered when Flash was killed. Typographic craft collapsed when free font libraries became the default library. An engineer's grid — twelve columns because twelve divides cleanly — was adopted as if it were a design system. The template economy made the governing principle optional, then invisible.

AI did not cause this. AI made the absence visible.

This book names the five dimensions of digital experience that must be authored before any build begins — Screen, Context, Content, Time, and Trust — and the governing principle that holds them together. Persona governs or it decorates. The design document is the product. The screens are the consequence.