I stopped designing screens and started designing states. Everything improved.

A shift that simplified product decisions for me recently:

I stopped designing pages.
I started designing states.

Examples:

• idle

• processing

• waiting

• success

• error

• automated

Each state has:

• a distinct visual mood

• predictable behavior

• clear user expectations

Once this clicked, design debates reduced drastically.
UX felt intentional instead of reactive.

This works especially well for AI and automation products where users need confidence that “something intelligent is happening,” even when no output is immediately visible.

We use state-first thinking at Qwegle when designing AI systems and internal tools, because it reduces confusion and builds trust early:
🌐 https://qwegle.com
🧠 Engineering + system concepts: https://qwegletechie.github.io/qwegle.github.io

Curious if anyone else here designs around states instead of screens.