Codex made design come alive for me.
I’m enjoying how much of my design work I can now do directly in the live project. I can change something, use it & keep adjusting it while the idea is still fresh.
GitHub is now my source of truth. It’s where I return to the current version of the project & continue working. That has also changed the role of the design file in my process. Earlier, much of my work happened in static Figma layouts. I spent time on structure, typography & spacing, working towards screens that looked right. A lot of the behaviour still had to be imagined or explained. A layout could look finished while the interaction itself was still an idea. Now I can work on those things together.
This is especially useful for movement. Looking at an open menu tells me very little about how it feels to open it. I want to try it, close it, open it again & see whether the timing feels right. The same goes for a transition between pages or the response after clicking a button. Some things only become obvious when I use them. An animation might feel good the first time but become irritating after a few clicks. A transition might need to be quicker. Sometimes the whole thing works better with less movement.
I love being able to adjust interactions myself, directly in the project.
My main tools at the moment are Codex & Claude Design. I also use Codex / ChatGPT for brainstorming. They help me explore ideas, but I get the most out of the process once I have something I can actually use. It’s easier for me to respond to a working version than to describe every detail upfront. I can point to something specific: the menu opens too slowly, the next step is unclear, the content shifts when it shouldn’t. Then I can work on that detail & try it again. I still need a clear idea of what I’m trying to solve. Who is using this? What are they trying to do? What needs to stay in place? But I don’t expect the brief to answer everything before I start. Working on the project helps me find the questions I missed.
Having GitHub as the source of truth keeps me coming back to the version that runs. I can judge a change alongside the real content & the rest of the interface, then keep working from there. I still care about the spacing, the type & how a page looks. I just get to spend more of the design process on how it behaves, too. Being able to adjust a small interaction, try it immediately & feel that it works better is something I really enjoy.
