Design with intention: Building products that last
How I moved from designing screens to designing systems that scale.
4 MIN
AUGUST 07, 2025
Designers often get trapped in the aesthetics loop.
Beautiful colors. Smooth shadows. Polished pixels.
But here’s the uncomfortable truth: no one hires us for pretty screens.
They hire us for outcomes. For clarity.
For growth. I used to obsess over UI details way too early. But the more projects I worked on, the more I realized:
Great design isn’t about what’s on the screen. It’s about what happens because of it.
Here’s how I shifted my process from screen-making to system-thinking — and how you can too.
1. Start with problems, not pages
Before you open Figma, ask yourself:
What’s broken today?
What does “better” look like?
How will users’ lives actually change if we nail this?
When I was working on a fintech project, the client first asked for “a clean dashboard.”
Instead, I reframed the brief: “Your users don’t want a dashboard. They want peace of mind about their money.”
That shift turned a UI task into a product design mission.
Tip for designers:
👉🏽 Never accept “we need a new website” as a brief. Dig until you understand the human pain behind it.
2. Design flows, not screens
Screens are static. Flows are alive.
And users don’t interact with one screen — they move through a journey.
When designing, I now map:
Entry points → how they get here
Key actions → what they want to do
Friction points → where they might drop
Exits → what “success” means
I use Notion for flow diagrams before I touch Figma. Because if the path doesn’t make sense, no layout can save it.
Remember: A single confusing step in a flow can kill the most beautiful design.
3. Systems over aesthetics
Consistency beats creativity when it comes to usability.
Instead of designing each screen like a snowflake, I build systems:
Grids & spacing rules
Typography scale
Component library
Interaction patterns
This does two things:
Makes the product predictable for users.
Makes you 10x faster as a designer.
My rule: If I use something more than twice, I turn it into a component.
4. Design for the developer too
Your design doesn’t live in Figma. It lives in code.
If devs can’t build it, users will never see it.
So I ask myself while designing:
Can this be implemented with existing tech?
Does this interaction add real value, or is it just “Dribbble candy”?
Am I making dev life easier, or harder?
Collaboration hack: Sit with developers before polishing. They’ll tell you if that 0.2s micro-interaction is realistic — or a nightmare.
5. Test like your job depends on it (because it does)
Designers often skip testing because it feels like “extra work.”
But honestly, testing is design.
A quick 5-user test will reveal more insights than 2 weeks of pixel pushing.
I once watched a user ignore a big shiny CTA and instead tap a small text link below it. That single test saved the project from a 30% drop-off.
Lesson: What you think is “obvious” is rarely obvious.
Final thought: Design beyond the screen
The best compliment a designer can get isn’t “this looks amazing.”
It’s:
“This was easy.”
“This saved me time.”
“I didn’t even notice it — it just worked.”
That’s what happens when you design with intention, not just with inspiration.
So next time you open Figma, don’t ask:
👉🏽 “What should this screen look like?”
Ask:
👉🏽 “What should this experience make possible?”
Because great designers don’t just shape pixels.
They shape behavior.
👉🏽 Curious how I apply this process to real projects?
Check out my work or start your project with me.
Amal
Inside The Loop ✦
