In short, turn every “generic” decision into a specific choice.

All AI-generated interfaces look the same because they are all following a generic template. To be fair, what AI can do is far better than what the vast majority of humans can do when it comes to design.

But it’s not better than what the top tier of professionals can do.

The difference is in intentionality and meaning.

On Behance, you’ll see countless examples of amateur designers doing something flashy because it looks cool.

But it seldom has meaning other than the looks.

The best designers start from something that looks cool, and then keep pushing:

• Ask “why” about every major design decision. Can we inject more meaning or significance into this decision?

• Use natural language to talk about the design problem. What is the product called? What does it mean? What are we selling? Is there any way to put that meaning into this design decision?

• How can a seemingly random design element tell a deeper story?

These explorations won’t always work out. But a design that has thought about these questions will always be better than one that is just cool for the sake of cool.