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Andy Madrick

What Andy Madrick thinks about design

@andy-madrick · 20 positions · 0 changes of mind

Product designer who led the design of Notion's meeting notes as of May 2026, previously at Tome and Mercury.

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Andy Madrick did not write this page.

We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.

17 dated positions, 2026, in their own words. Our reading of what Andy Madrick has said — not written or endorsed by them.

  1. Our readingCoding tools are very good at executing motion design, but you have to be very descriptive about what you want, otherwise you will be fighting them for hours.

    Their wordsI think with a lot of this motion design stuff, coding tools are so good at executing it, but you have to be very, very descriptive about what you want, otherwise you're going to be fighting these things for like hours.

    ↗Andy Madrick - Why AI changed design handoff foreveryoutube.com 1st of 20 in this recording

  3. Our readingFigma is still really helpful for a smaller thing like a modal or visual polish.

    Their wordsBut if it's a smaller thing, like a modal or polish, visual polish, something like that, I find Figma to still be really helpful.

    ↗Andy Madrick - Why AI changed design handoff foreveryoutube.com 2nd of 20 in this recording

  5. Our readingThe artifact users actually see is what to obsess over, and Figma and mocks are just reference tools at the end of the day.

    Their wordsyou just have to be cool with you know, looking at the thing that users are going to actually see and obsessing over that artifact and making sure whatever form of like iteration on that takes, like make sure that is going to be 100% right? And then like Figma and these mocks, they're just reference tools at the end of the day.

    ↗Andy Madrick - Why AI changed design handoff foreveryoutube.com 4th of 20 in this recording

  7. Our readingLLMs are not very good at the last mile of design, and that last mile needs to remain designers' superpower.

    LLMs

    Their wordsThese LLMs are not very good at the last mile of design. And that's still like our superpower and needs to be our superpower.

    ↗Andy Madrick - Why AI changed design handoff foreveryoutube.com 5th of 20 in this recording

  9. Our readingDesigners have no excuse anymore to not be responsible for the changes they want to see.

    Their wordsIf it's not going to get done, then someone else someone has to do it, right? And I think we have no excuse anymore to not be responsible for those changes that we want to see.

    ↗Andy Madrick - Why AI changed design handoff foreveryoutube.com 6th of 20 in this recording

  11. Our readingAn app used every day should be built by a thoughtful team of engineers rather than one-shotted with Claude.

    Anthropic

    Their wordsI don't think I'd want anyone to build the app I use every day just one shotting it with Claude, right? I would want a very thoughtful team of engineers to like do what they do and go to town on it.

    ↗Andy Madrick - Why AI changed design handoff foreveryoutube.com 7th of 20 in this recording

  13. Our readingAsking an agent to keep an engineer's functionality and apply a designer's styling can get much closer than intuition says it would.

    Their wordsCan you keep all the functionality of the engineer's version and give it all the styling that I have here. And I think that can get you so much closer than I think like our intuition says it would.

    ↗Andy Madrick - Why AI changed design handoff foreveryoutube.com 8th of 20 in this recording

  15. Our readingA designer's PRs should be very small and manageable if the designer is not comfortable reviewing or writing the code themselves.

    Their wordsyour PRs as a designer and not a an engineer who's got all the training of an engineer, your PR should be very very small and manageable. If you're not comfortable reviewing the code yourself or writing the code yourself.

    ↗Andy Madrick - Why AI changed design handoff foreveryoutube.com 10th of 20 in this recording

  17. Our readingWork should be broken into manageable chunks, and a designer should not send an engineer a 500-line PR they did not even review themselves.

    Their wordsWe have to break the work into like manageable chunks. Like five lines is not very realistic, but a hundred-line PR, that's my general advice of like don't five-code a bunch of stuff and send an engineer a 500-line PR that you didn't even review yourself.

    ↗Andy Madrick - Why AI changed design handoff foreveryoutube.com 11th of 20 in this recording

  19. Our readingAI-generated UI can come out with a million gradients and tags, looking like a jelly bean factory.

    Their wordsAnd it'll create something with like a million gradients and like a million tags. And it looks like a jelly bean factory, right?

    ↗Andy Madrick - Why AI changed design handoff foreveryoutube.com 12th of 20 in this recording

  21. Our readingThere is no shortcut to having taste or developing a high-craft, high-velocity practice; AI shortcuts the creating of a lot of things, but it comes back to learning the language of visual design.

    taste

    Their wordsThere is no shortcut to having taste or developing like a high craft high velocity practice. I think that with AI, we have shortcuts to creating a lot of things. But at the end of the day, it comes back to discovering and learning the language of visual design.

    ↗Andy Madrick - Why AI changed design handoff foreveryoutube.com 13th of 20 in this recording

  23. Our readingWith limitless UI out there, a designer's job is to take it and make a restrained version where form follows function and decoration for decoration's sake is avoided.

    Their wordsWe as designers, our job now with limitless UI out there, is how do we take it and make a restrained version of this where form follows function and we're avoiding decoration for decoration's sake.

    ↗Andy Madrick - Why AI changed design handoff foreveryoutube.com 14th of 20 in this recording

  25. Our readingCopying a UI is still a worthwhile exercise, less for a pixel-perfect static frame than for its logic, such as how a sidebar behaves.

    Their wordsI still tell people that's a worthwhile exercise. It's less so about, you know, doing a static frame pixel for pixel, but like the linear sidebar logic is really interesting because if you minimize the window past a certain point, it'll automatically hide itself.

    ↗Andy Madrick - Why AI changed design handoff foreveryoutube.com 15th of 20 in this recording

  27. Our readingThe best way to stand out in a portfolio is to show your best work and let it speak for itself, because no one wants decoration for decoration's sake.

    Their wordsthe best way to stand out is to show your best work. And to show your best work, like let it speak for itself. The decoration for decoration's sake, no one wants that, right?

    ↗Andy Madrick - Why AI changed design handoff foreveryoutube.com 16th of 20 in this recording

  29. Our readingA good default is to look at a thing with no decoration, the same size typeface and no animations, then ask where a flourish of delight would help the user rather than detract from what they are trying to do.

    Their wordsthe default is like, what does this thing look like with no decoration? With the same size typeface, with no animations. Take that and say, okay, where can I add a little flourish of delight here? And how does that help the user instead of detract away from what they're trying to do with this thing?

    ↗Andy Madrick - Why AI changed design handoff foreveryoutube.com 17th of 20 in this recording

  31. Our readingDesigners benefit most from working as a jazz band: sharing work, letting people take it a certain way, and developing the thick skin to take the best idea and run with it, wherever it comes from.

    Their wordsas designers, one of the things that we can do that's going to benefit us the most is working as a jazz band, right? Sharing our work with people, let people take it a certain way, and developing that thick skin so that we can just take the best idea and run with it, no matter where it comes from.

    ↗Andy Madrick - Why AI changed design handoff foreveryoutube.com 18th of 20 in this recording

  33. Our readingThe really great designers just do less.

    Their wordsI think it's like the the midwit chart of like the really great designers just do less, right?

    ↗Andy Madrick - Why AI changed design handoff foreveryoutube.com 19th of 20 in this recording