The Feed & The Thread - January 13, 2026
S01:E02

The Feed & The Thread - January 13, 2026

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Episode description

In This Episode

  • Exploration of how AI is revolutionizing software development by enabling on-demand feature generation based on user needs through tools like Reve’s Effects.
  • How digitalization has transformed reading habits and led to shorter attention spans and a preference for skimming over deep reading.
  • The introduction of slideVars, a new CodePen tool that automatically detects CSS variables and builds an interactive UI panel to adjust these values on the fly.

Articles Mentioned

Community Discussions

Announcement

Chicago Camps UX Camp Winter 2026, January 1, 2026 - https://chicagocamps.org

About Tent Talks

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway–If it’s a cool idea, we’d love to hear about it and share it!

What is a Tent Talk? That’s a great question, we’d love to tell you.

Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format–we like to think of them as “S’mores-sized content” because that’s pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything–we don’t want to limit ourselves, or you.

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don’t have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let’s have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!

About The Feed & The Thread

The Feed & The Thread is a daily summary of UX articles found in the industry and some light-touch updates from the UX Community found in online forums. It’s brief, and meant as a light-touch overview of what’s happening across UX.

About The Feed & The Thread

The Feed & The Thread is a daily summary of UX articles found in the industry and some light-touch updates from the UX Community found in online forums. It’s brief, and meant as a light-touch overview of what’s happening across UX.

Download transcript (.srt)
0:00

Today we're covering how AI is revolutionizing software development by enabling on-demand feature generation, with Reve Image AI Generator's Effects tool leading the charge. And we'll hear what the community is saying about closing the gap between high-fidelity prototypes and live sites. Is this shift making designers rethink their workflows?

0:21

Welcome to The Feed & The Thread, brought to you by Chicago Camps. Our next UX Camp event is coming up in February. Don’t miss this great opportunity for low-cost, high-value continuing education.

0:45

Some notable articles have been crossing our desk recently, so let’s dive in.

0:48

In a new piece titled "AI Enables As-Needed Software Features," Luke Wroblewski discusses how AI is transforming traditional software development by enabling on-demand feature generation based on user needs. He highlights Reve Image AI Generator's Effects tool, which allows users to describe desired image or video effects in plain language and instantly generates the necessary code. This approach makes applications more flexible and responsive, turning them into platforms that can create their own abilities based on real-time user requests.

1:13

Writing for CSS-Tricks, Geoff Graham’s latest article "Playing With CodePen slideVars" explores the new tool called slideVars, which automatically detects CSS variables and builds an interactive UI panel to adjust these values. The article points out that slideVars requires minimal setup: just import and call it in JavaScript. It auto-detects root CSS variables but can also be manually configured for specific use cases like setting input types or default values.

1:34

Marcus Fleckner over at UX Design.cc discusses how digitalization has transformed reading habits, leading to shorter attention spans and a preference for skimming over deep reading, in his article "How reading patterns have changed." He argues that these shifts necessitate changes in UX/UI design to accommodate new user behaviors. Key points include the importance of clear, concise content and using visual elements like images and videos to engage users quickly.

2:09

Time to see what folks are talking about around the community. So, over in the web_design subreddit, there's a lot of chatter about how designers are finally ditching placeholders and seeing their high-fidelity prototypes come to life on live sites. It’s like they’re closing that gap between idea and reality - pretty exciting stuff for those in the field.

2:25

And here’s an interesting one from the UXDesign subreddit: someone asked about dealing with floating buttons that keep blocking content. It's a common pain point, right? One designer chimed in saying, "I mean, it's all about balance - you want them visible but not intrusive." Hey… that’s fair.

2:38

Meanwhile, over in the Design subreddit, a designer of ten years is finally taking their freelance career seriously for the first time. It’s inspiring to see someone dive into something they’ve been passionate about for so long and really commit to it.

2:50

And lastly, there's a bit of a debate brewing between UX Research and Data Science over at the UXResearch subreddit. Folks are trying to figure out which path to take - that decision-making process can be tough but also really rewarding when you find what’s right for you.

3:02

So those were some highlights from around the community. Stay tuned for more updates!

3:19

Chicago Camps is hosting UX Camp Winter on Saturday, February 21st. The entire event is online, so you can join from anywhere in the world. It will be a great day of presentations coming from people delivering UX work - out in the field - where it matters most.

3:32

Tickets are only thirteen dollars and fifty cents. They also have Pay-What-You-Can tickets, and free passes available to anyone with a need.

3:39

Get tickets now at Chicago Camps dot org. And there's still room for additional speakers - submit your idea today!

3:58

So, as we talked about how AI is changing the game with on-demand software features, it's clear that tools like Reve Image AI Generator’s Effects are just the beginning of a big shift in user expectations. It makes you wonder what other areas could be revolutionized by this kind of personalization. Thanks for tuning in - we'll see you next time.

4:29

That's The Feed and The Thread for today. Keep designing with intention!