The creative design process looks different depending on who you ask. For Toàn Lê Nguyễn Hữu, it has never been a straight line. It started with graphic design, moved through four years of industry work, and gradually shifted toward something more complex – user experience, systems thinking, and the challenge of creating work that is both visually bold and genuinely meaningful.
In this interview, he shares what success in design looks like now that AI has changed the baseline, why safe design is losing its value, and the one mindset he’d carry back to the beginning.
"A great design should not only work well - it should make people feel something."
From visual expression to experience design – how the path shifted
Toàn came into design through a love of art and visual expression. Choosing graphic design as his university major felt natural. What attracted him most early on was creative freedom – the ability to turn ideas and emotions into something visible. Four years into working in the industry, something shifted.
He found himself drawn not just to aesthetics, but to systems, order, rhythm, and structure. The creative design process started to feel incomplete without logic and purpose behind it.
That pull toward intentionality led him toward UX design – a discipline that combines creativity with analytical thinking, empathy, and strategic decision-making. What started as curiosity became transformation.
What makes a design successful in the age of AI
When Toàn started in UX/UI design, he believed performance was the most important measure of success. If a product worked smoothly and helped people achieve their goals, that was enough. His perspective has evolved. Today, almost anyone can build something functional.
The gap in technical execution is shrinking because technology is making good-enough design more accessible than ever. Because of that, emotional impact and memorable experiences are becoming just as important as functionality. A product can work perfectly – but if it feels ordinary or forgettable, users may never truly connect with it. The feeling a design creates is what captures attention. The functionality is what makes people return.
Why the creative design process never really ends
One of the most honest things Toàn says about his workflow is that difficulty comes from many directions at once. Business goals, user behavior and psychology, technical limitations, development realities, scalability – all at the same time. That complexity has shaped how he thinks about growth.
I may create something today that I genuinely believe is strong, polished, and effective. But I also know that if I continue improving myself, then a few months later I should be able to look back at that same work and clearly identify its weaknesses. Instead of treating design as a final destination, he sees it as an ongoing process of refinement. Every project becomes both an output and a lesson. Growth as a designer means constantly developing the ability to outgrow your previous standards.
Visual appeal as the first invitation
When designing for attention, Toàn prioritizes visual appeal first. In a world where AI is rapidly closing the gap in technical skill, creativity and aesthetic distinction matter more than ever. People make decisions within seconds. Before they understand the product, before they read the copy, before they explore the features – they react to what they see and how it makes them feel.
That first reaction is what gives everything else a chance to matter. He actively searches for boldness, originality, and a sense of identity. The goal is for work to stand apart rather than blend in – while clarity and usability remain the foundation underneath.
Safe design is losing its value – what a year of change taught him
One of the clearest signals in Toàn’s creative design process came from watching client expectations shift dramatically in just twelve months. A year ago, clean and professional was often enough. Today, clients are showing references that are far more ambitious, expressive, and visually striking.
They are asking for innovation, uniqueness, and memorable experiences. The reason is direct: now that clients can use AI tools to generate decent-looking, conventional layouts on their own, traditional safe design no longer stands out. If a machine can produce something acceptable in minutes, designers need to offer something more human – stronger ideas, sharper taste, originality, and creative courage.
"Safe design is losing its value. Designers need to create work that avoids clichés, breaks patterns, and dares to be different."
What AI will actually separate in design
Toàn’s view on AI cuts past the obvious. Yes, someone without formal design training can now build a usable digital product. Poor-quality design will disappear because tools will raise the baseline. Safe and conventional design will become the standard. When that happens, only work that is genuinely creative, emotionally resonant, or conceptually bold will truly stand out.
Designers who rely only on production skills will struggle. But designers with real taste, deep thinking, strategic understanding, and authentic creativity may become even more valuable than before. AI may replace average execution – but it will also increase the value of exceptional vision.
The advice he’d carry back to the start
If Toàn could go back, one thing would stay consistent: never let your creativity grow cold. Never become too satisfied with your current level of work, because comfort can quietly stop growth.
Stay ambitious. Stay curious. Keep questioning your own standards. And never neglect the fundamentals. Trends change, tools change, technology changes – but hierarchy, spacing, proportion, typography, composition, and clarity remain timeless. Let carefulness become a habit, not an occasional effort. The design created today should always be better than the design created yesterday.
About the designer
Toàn Lê Nguyễn Hữu is a graphic and UX/UI designer whose creative design process is built around one consistent idea: work should be both visually strong and genuinely meaningful. After starting in graphic design and spending years in the industry, he shifted toward user experience – drawn by the challenge of combining creativity with structure, empathy, and strategic thinking.
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