Computer Thinking

8 topics

• Computer Thinking vs Programming
• Why Designers Need It
• Designer Thinking in Screens vs Systems
• The Designer as System Designer Not Artist
• Why Developers Say "That Won't Work"
• The Missing Engineering Language in Design Education
• Computer Thinking as Unfair Advantage in the AI Era
• Bridging the Design-Engineering Gap

8 topics

• True / False Thinking
• If / Then / Else Logic
• And / Or / Not
• Boolean Logic for Designers
• The Difference Between "Should" and "Must"
• Writing the Rules Behind Your Design
• Conditional Logic in Design Tokens
• Documenting Logic, Not Just Visuals

8 topics

• What is a State
• Stateful vs Stateless
• Empty, Loading, Success, Error, Disabled
• The States Designers Forget
• Transitions: The States Between States
• Every Component as a Small State Machine
• State Design as a Standalone Skill
• States as the Source of Truth for Developers

8 topics

• What is a Loop
• Repetition in Design (Cards, Lists, Grids)
• Design as Template vs Instance
• One Card with 100 Use Cases vs 100 Static Cards
• Loop Thinking for Content
• When Patterns Break: Edge Cases
• Dynamic Content vs Static Mockups
• The Scaling Problem in Design Files

8 topics

• Every System: Input → Process → Output
• Identifying Data In and Data Out
• Why Developers Ask About Data Structure
• Designing for Data, Not Just for UI
• Empty Data, Missing Data, Malformed Data
• The Designer Designs the Shape, The Developer Fills It
• Data-First Design Thinking
• The Connection Between Data Models and Visual Hierarchy

8 topics

• Design a sign-up form. List every possible state and error
• Design a notification system. Define the rules: when, who, how often
• Take an existing screen, find 10 edge cases the original designer missed
• Design a search feature: what happens with 0 results, 1 result, 10,000 results, typos
• Map every state of a button: default, hover, focused, pressed, disabled, loading, success, error
• Design a permissions system: admin, editor, viewer, guest. What can each do?
• Define every rule for a comment system: who can edit, delete, reply, when, why
• Build a state diagram for a checkout flow with payment failures

8 topics

• How Stripe Handles Failed Payments (States + Edge Cases)
• How Notion Manages Permissions (Logic)
• How Linear Implements Keyboard Shortcuts (Input Mapping)
• How Figma Handles Multiplayer (State Sync)
• How Apple Calendar Handles Time Zones (Edge Cases)
• How Gmail Manages Drafts and Auto-Save (State Management)
• How Slack Handles Notifications (Rules System)
• How Spotify Manages Offline Mode (State Transitions)

6 topics

• Take a design and write its specs as a developer would read them
• Take a PR description and translate it into design implications
• Take API documentation and turn it into UI states
• Take a user story and turn it into a state diagram
• Take a developer's question and answer it without saying "I don't know"
• Take a Jira ticket and identify the missing design considerations

8 topics

• What is a System
• Components as Atoms
• Composition vs Configuration
• Reusability as Mindset, Not Feature
• Why Design Systems Fail Without System Thinking
• Variants, Props, and Slots
• The Connection to Design Foundations and Design Systems
• Component API Thinking for Designers

8 topics

• Why Happy Path Is Not Enough
• Thinking Like QA
• The User Who Breaks Your Design
• Empty States, Long Names, Slow Networks, Failed Requests
• Why Developers Ask "Weird" Questions
• Edge Case Checklist for Designers
• When AI Gets Edge Cases Wrong
• The Cost of Missing Edge Cases

8 topics

• Constraints as Creative Material
• Performance Constraints
• Technical Constraints
• Browser Constraints
• API Constraints
• Mobile Constraints
• Why Designers Who Understand Limits Ship Faster
• Working With the System, Not Against It

8 topics

• Why Communication Fails Between Designers and Developers
• Developer Vocabulary (State, Props, Schema, Payload, Async)
• Time Estimation Gaps and Why They Happen
• Specs, Handoff, and Annotations
• Design Docs That Cut Back-and-Forth in Half
• Why AI Tools Are Forcing This Language on You Anyway
• Speaking Both Languages as a Career Skill
• The Translation Layer Between Design and Engineering

8 topics

• What is an Algorithm
• Step by Step Thinking
• Decomposition: Breaking Problems Into Parts
• Pattern Recognition
• Abstraction: What Matters vs What's Detail
• Algorithm Design for Design Problems
• Sorting, Filtering, Searching in UX
• The Logic Behind Every Good Flow