---
title: "Thinking Outside The Box: Digital Design In The AI Era — Smashing Magazine"
url: https://daily.dev/posts/thinking-outside-the-box-digital-design-in-the-ai-era-smashing-magazine-js5ydrcju
source_url: https://smashingmagazine.com/2026/07/digital-design-ai-era
type: article
source: "Smashing Magazine"
published: 2026-07-28T12:23:18.178Z
updated: 2026-07-28T14:18:06.619Z
tags: ["ai-agents", "ux", "game-design"]
reading_time: 6
upvotes: 1
comments: 0
language: en
---

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# Thinking Outside The Box: Digital Design In The AI Era — Smashing Magazine

**[Smashing Magazine](https://daily.dev/sources/smashing)** · 6 min read · 1 upvotes · 0 comments

## Summary

MacPaw's design team shares their philosophy and process behind Eney, a character-based AI assistant designed to feel personal and approachable rather than transactional. The piece explores why they chose a circular pink figure with expressive eyes over the typical chatbox format, how human designers controlled every creative decision despite AI tooling support, and argues that human artistry, empathy, and taste remain irreplaceable in the AI era. Designers are encouraged to use AI as a tool within their workflow rather than viewing it as a replacement.

## Full article

daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: <https://smashingmagazine.com/2026/07/digital-design-ai-era>

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---

Tags: [#ai-agents](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-agents), [#ux](https://daily.dev/tags/ux), [#game-design](https://daily.dev/tags/game-design)

[View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/thinking-outside-the-box-digital-design-in-the-ai-era-smashing-magazine-js5ydrcju)