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Chris Freitag

@creativefriday.bsky.social
143 followers 266 following 73 posts

Information architecture nerd, designer of whiz bangs, wisher of better experiences. Big time Apple geek. creativefriday.com

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Chris Freitag @creativefriday.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
I read that letter going around today from the AI safety researcher who left Anthropic. And so I decided to ask Claude about it. www.creativefriday.com/blog/who-wil...
creativefriday.com
Who Will Lead When the Juniors Are Gone? | AI's Threat to the Talent Pipeline | Creative Friday Design
AI is replacing junior designer and developer roles, but those positions are how future leaders learn. A conversation with Claude about the real cost of cutting entry-level jobs and why short-term thi...
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Chris Freitag @creativefriday.bsky.social · 31/12/2025
In this new year, I'm making a bold statement. If you or anyone you know is looking for some help to take your AI-Generated go-to-market design and turn it into something people want to use, contact me. That's the general message. www.creativefriday.com
Home page design that reads: "You don't need a better design. You need a better strategy. I work with teams who are shipping features but not making progress."
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Chris Freitag @creativefriday.bsky.social · 16/12/2025
I didn't want to get ahead of myself and say anything before people signed the paperwork but I got two new contracts last week for my design business! I have no idea how I'm doing any of this.
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Chris Freitag @creativefriday.bsky.social · 03/09/2025
I've updated my #ux and #productdesign site. I'm not sure having this does me any good these days, I don't know if people still search and go through web sites as a lead anymore. www.creativefriday.com
creativefriday.com
Creative Friday Design | Product Design and UX Strategy
Creative Friday offers expert UX strategy, user research, and design services that turn ambiguity into clarity for startups and enterprises alike.
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Chris Freitag @creativefriday.bsky.social · 18/08/2025
Here's a quick look at how I'm using AI.
creativefriday.com
How I’m Using AI | Creative Friday
A practical look at how I use AI tools like ChatGPT, UX Pilot, and V0 in my design consulting work. Plus, a warning about what gets lost when teams treat AI as a shortcut instead of a collaborator.
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Chris Freitag @creativefriday.bsky.social · 09/07/2025
This is exactly what I see happening with all the creative jobs that people want to replace with AI. For a moment, we will feel the pain. But our skills will be desirable, and we will adapt. #UX #design #writing youtu.be/1gOX7a1kUNQ?...
youtu.be
Moneyball Was Supposed to Kill the Human Eye - The Opposite is Happening
YouTube video by Michael MacKelvie
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Chris Freitag @creativefriday.bsky.social · 09/07/2025
New blog post 🎯 Design isn’t just a department, it’s a way of thinking. And when it is integrated and not treated as a separate phase, you build better products. Read it here: www.creativefriday.com/blog/design-...
creativefriday.com
Design Isn’t Just a Department. It’s a Mindset. | Creative Friday
This post explores how design thinking should be integrated into the entire structure of an organization. When design is treated as a shared responsibility across teams, not just a separate phase, the...
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Chris Freitag @creativefriday.bsky.social · 11/06/2025
Something that's bothered me for years in the #ux design space… How👏 can👏 a👏 professional👏 designer👏 tear👏 down👏 another👏 designer's👏 work👏 without👏 context??? Amplified this week by Apple's new system design decisions. #apple #design
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Chris Freitag @creativefriday.bsky.social · 10/06/2025
Closing out my 3-part series on perceived performance over real outcomes, my latest post looks at how leadership decisions shape (and sometimes distort) the value of work. #ux #design #product www.creativefriday.com/blog/leaders…
creativefriday.com
Leadership, Loyalty, and the Disappearing Workforce — Creative Friday
Rethinking leadership in the age of AI: why true progress comes from trust, understanding, and empowering creative work—not replacing it.
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Chris Freitag @creativefriday.bsky.social · 10/06/2025
Your #YouTube thumbnail matters, people. #design #apple
A screenshot of Apple's YouTube video thumbnail where the play button is sitting over the G and the L of the word Glass. So it looks like Liquid ass.
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Chris Freitag @creativefriday.bsky.social · 10/06/2025
Here’s an opportunity for me to remind people that regardless of how you feel about Apple’s new #UI layer, you’ll use it. And whether you love it or hate it, it will begin to fade as you use it everyday. But #UX problems that bother you in Apple’s systems will continue to persist. #Design
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Chris Freitag @creativefriday.bsky.social · 05/06/2025
My professional consulting site is live, but in an early state. I am working on the Case Studies page and then will take down my old portfolio link. I'm also moving my blog from Medium to my site. www.creativefriday.com
creativefriday.com
Creative Friday | Transform Your Product With Improved UX
Creative Friday offers expert UX strategy, user research, and design services that turn ambiguity into clarity for startups and enterprises alike.
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Chris Freitag @creativefriday.bsky.social · 27/05/2025
The word "productivity" abounds throughout LinkedIn and social media. The new holy grail, with AI as the driving force. But this idea that speed is inherently better? That faster output = better outcomes? It's born from…nowhere. medium.com/creative-friday/the-illu…
medium.com
The Illusion of Progress
Some animals must keep moving to survive. Sharks are like that. If they stop swimming, they stop breathing. This is an essential but brutal…
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Chris Freitag @creativefriday.bsky.social · 06/05/2025
Critiques used to feel brutal. Over time (and with great mentors), I learned how to explain why a design works. Now with AI, a lot of people are experiencing the pain for the first time. But skipping critique doesn’t help. It holds us back from making great products. medium.com/creative-fri...
medium.com
What Critique Taught Me (And Why AI-Driven Design Needs It Now More Than Ever)
When I was starting out as a designer, the toughest part of the job wasn’t the deadlines or the tools, it was the critique.
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Chris Freitag @creativefriday.bsky.social · 23/04/2025
Went to file my state periodic report for my business today and was instructed to file with the federal FinCEN database (financial crimes enforcement). I go fill out pages of forms and submit my information, and I get this alert message… *AFTER* I went through the whole process. #ux
A long-winded message to inform me that domestic companies are exempt from needing to fill out the form I just filled out.
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Chris Freitag @creativefriday.bsky.social · 08/04/2025
In a world obsessed with speed, screens, and stakeholder sign-offs, it's easy to lose sight of the slower, more meaningful parts of the process: discovery, intuition, empathy. Would love to hear your thoughts. 👇 medium.com/creative-friday/fast-che…
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Chris Freitag @creativefriday.bsky.social · 07/04/2025
What's left unsaid when tech leadership says that we need to reskill the workforce, is that is that I like what I do. I chose it for a reason. And I do not want to use AI to do my job for me, because doing my job is what I love about what I do. #uxdesign #ux #design
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Chris Freitag @creativefriday.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
It's my desire to try to pivot and try to get my own #ux consulting business off the ground, maybe even sell some of my photography and photography services. And some days I'm all gung-ho about it, and other days, like today, I can't get moving. I can't afford "off" days now.
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Chris Freitag @creativefriday.bsky.social · 26/03/2025
Is it overstepping my bounds to message the hiring manager if we are already connected on LinkedIn somehow? I don't know how we are connected, but we are. #ux #uxdesign #jobsearch
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Chris Freitag @creativefriday.bsky.social · 26/03/2025
I feel like I have a new problem brewing in that I don't know how to keep track of and organize all of these AI chats and all this new-found productivity. I have so many open windows these days. #ux
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Chris Freitag @creativefriday.bsky.social · 26/03/2025
I know my resume isn't even getting through the front line because neither my LinkedIn page nor my analytics show any new visitors in the last 14 days, even though I've applied to plenty of places and have received a couple of canned rejection letters. 🧵 1 of 2
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Chris Freitag @creativefriday.bsky.social · 25/03/2025
This work by @arie.ls is inspiring.
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Chris Freitag @creativefriday.bsky.social · 24/03/2025
It's great watching the advancement of AI take the jobs and roles of #ux and #ui and #graphicdesign and #userresearch and start pumping out the modern-day equivalent of Yahoo Web Templates from 20 years ago.
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Chris Freitag @creativefriday.bsky.social · 24/03/2025
Based on what I see and what I'm experiencing, I may never get a #UX job again. What people are hiring for right now are #UI designers and they want designers who pump out designs as fast as possible. Which leads me to also think that I've seen this play out before. "Full stack designer" is back.
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Chris Freitag @creativefriday.bsky.social · 18/03/2025
I'm going in a whole new direction with my portfolio site. May need to move to a platform like Squarespace because my free Adobe Portfolio space is too restrictive. Any platform recommendations for hosting a portfolio and getting leads for consulting?
creativefriday.com
Chris Freitag
user experience and product design portfolio of Chris Freitag, a designer out of Denver, Colorado, USA, specializing in designing for software as a service and large data platforms. A unique experience blend of graphic design, information architecture, web design, front-end code and user experience design.
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Chris Freitag @creativefriday.bsky.social · 27/01/2025
I swear, the recruiting conundrum of every applicant submitting carbon copies of AI generated CVs submitted to AI generated job postings is going to be the first AI domino to fall. It will become clear that AI talking to itself is a problem.
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Chris Freitag @creativefriday.bsky.social · 25/01/2025
In my latest Creative Friday Design #YouTube video, I talk about my frustration with the UX/UI job title and why I see it as a misunderstanding of the #design function. I think it all comes down to the terrible label of #uxdesign youtu.be/2LvXnGKRw2I
youtu.be
The Trouble With UX/UI or UI/UX Job Titles
YouTube video by Creative Friday
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Chris Freitag @creativefriday.bsky.social · 24/01/2025
It is disturbing that a resume is no longer a qualifier for #designers, that instead the industry has shifted to lining up design portfolios and selecting from that pile. Like the designer has become the design and the client is choosing which one they like best. It has removed our achievements.
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Chris Freitag @creativefriday.bsky.social · 22/01/2025
I am starting a new #YouTube channel around my #UX Design career. I'll cover a wide range of topics from #Design tutorials to the state of #AI and its affect on Design. Hopefully it goes somewhere! Creative Friday Design Trailer
youtube.com
YouTube
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Chris Freitag @creativefriday.bsky.social · 14/01/2025
I can't stress this enough, keep a network of people you've worked with or have met. You're an introvert? So am I! I think it contributes to being a good #UXDesigner, but you've got to build that network. My network saved me from a grueling job search after being laid off on Friday.
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Chris Freitag @creativefriday.bsky.social · 13/01/2025
I just secured a contract Product Designer position and I start next Monday! I was so fortunate with timing, laid off on Friday, reached out to someone I worked with before, they were looking.
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Chris Freitag @creativefriday.bsky.social · 10/01/2025
At 9am today I was laid off. I never had a chance. When new leadership came in, they had their own #ux agency they liked working with. They swore up and down I wasn't knowledge transferring to my replacement. They lied, and I should have known better.
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Chris Freitag @creativefriday.bsky.social · 24/12/2024
So far I'm using #AppleIntelligence approximately never in my day-to-day use on my phone. While I will take time out to go use AI features for some tasks, I do not use any AI from any company as an integrated part of my day. Not a single AI feature released so far is must-have for me.
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Chris Freitag @creativefriday.bsky.social · 12/12/2024
My email inbox is getting full of service after service notifying me of my monthly price increases beginning in 2025. You know what's not increasing? My salary.
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Chris Freitag @creativefriday.bsky.social · 09/12/2024
Why do I ever open up LinkedIn? I think I started doing it more when I was trying to convince myself that I'm fortunate to even have a job right now in tech. But that place paints a more and more depressing picture each day. #uxdesign
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Chris Freitag @creativefriday.bsky.social · 06/12/2024
We don't yet have the data on the long-term damage caused by having an app on your phone tied to your credit card where you can legally, simply, and effortlessly gamble on sports. But I guarantee we are just waiting to read the data we already know. #ux #darkpatterns
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Chris Freitag @creativefriday.bsky.social · 06/12/2024
GET 👏 IT 👏 OUT 👏 OF 👏 YOUR 👏 HEAD #design #ux #uxdesign
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Chris Freitag @creativefriday.bsky.social · 05/12/2024
Hey, "agentic" design is a new buzzword that I hate already. I blame LinkedIn. #design
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Chris Freitag @creativefriday.bsky.social · 04/12/2024
Around 2010, I started noticing that coworkers would use gender pronouns when writing and that this would agitate people in meetings. Not wanting to get into the middle of that, I started using they/them when I wrote #ux documentation. I even started naming personas using non-binary names. (1/3 🧵)
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Chris Freitag @creativefriday.bsky.social · 03/12/2024
Nothing in your design job is worth losing your cool over. Everything you’re designing in software will be altered/abandoned/killed after you’ve moved on. #ux #uxdesign
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Chris Freitag @creativefriday.bsky.social · 27/11/2024
Agile's promise is lost, replaced by a Kanban board for micromanagement. Waterfall release cycles have returned, hindering quick testing and learning with any changes going in the backlog. This regression prioritizes output volume and leads to job losses based on activity reports. #ux #uxdesign
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Chris Freitag @creativefriday.bsky.social · 14/11/2024
Started as a Graphic Designer. Taught myself to code and became a Web Designer. Learned about usability and became an Information Architect. The industry changed the label to UX Designer, now Product Designer. All the while it was just me, a Designer, learning and growing over the years.
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Chris Freitag @creativefriday.bsky.social · 07/11/2024
I'm wondering if people use #ai tools as a way to perform their job job, their task, consistently. I have this feeling that people use it, and they are even delighted, but have a fall off in engagement over time because of status quo bias. #ux
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Chris Freitag @creativefriday.bsky.social · 07/11/2024
What am I doing today? I'm separating my worlds. I have my professional world, where I talk about #UX, #product, #design, and #technology. Then I have my photography world. All across Threads, Mastodon, and Bluesky. I'm not putting all my eggs in one basket.
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Chris Freitag @creativefriday.bsky.social · 07/11/2024
👋 Hello! Quick intro: I’m a UX Designer (or whatever it is we call ourselves these days) primarily designing SaaS products. I like to talk about user experience, the state of design, and how the tech industry has gone off the rails. If that’s your cup of ☕️, please follow along.
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