Irene is UK-based product designer.
Emailryna.rudenko@gmail.comExperiments.2025
Interlayers
Concept based on Nothing 2025;I make these to spark conversations!
DM if you agree, disagree, or have a spin on it.
Simply, it is a context-aware overlayer on top of one application that brings core functions from another. The main thing is to improve the flow state (endless cognitive load of switching, searching, copying, pasting, returning, learning new UIs for the same things), and “trash” byproducts of flows. Like screenshot-to-note Essential space did to the decluttering of the Gallery app, which inspired the concept.
Highly malleable, and getting personalised with a time, imagined to take just a few use cases, iron them out to get the feedback.
When shopping on SSENSE, Doji connectors can help you try on things without screenshotting or pasting outfits first, as well as searching for lowest price with the Phia connector. ** Phia now to be replaced with native AP2
Overlay over Gmail to suggest relevant Loom recording and meeting times based on underlaying context.
Routing
Three months ago you had a comparison for Airbnb locations, but your searches this week are all Kindred. That could be conflicting signals from stale conversations, but forgetting things is also the part of intelligence. I thought of interlayers to create those memory blocks that only capture what is current right now. They auto-update as you use them. When you need something bigger, you are not weaving old conversations or figuring out preferences from scratch but building a temporal context, that gets forgotten the moment the current session is done.
One place to “see” your day, manage and create dynamic widgets (dynamic means responding to the current environment and context), recaps and patterns.
Recap created by Bloomberg and Robinhood connectors. Like Nearby Share, but for saving ideas, choose to send recap to Space on your phone or a nearby device.
Precision is easier to achieve if working in a limited scope (like single email thread you are drafting reply to); if limited in time (only what you are dealing with right now/today/this week). It opens up to locally run, potentially federated OS models as an option, which lessens dependancy on vendors/privacy concern.
It could take in natural language, so LAM is a base for the user intent and router, however the connectors and UI elements are stable, pre-built by app developers themselves, grounded in the design language.
There's a disconnect between Gboard and Essential, and the overall stock experience could be more seamless. Add inline AI suggestions, search across Essential and the web, and sign documents with a single tap.
AI marketplaces
Most are bringing app connectors to chat, but chat UI is still yet another flow distraction and forces you to bring the context there (let alone the text is the "slowest" output to process). It works for open-ended tasks (generation, from scratch, multiple sources), but within limited known context it's just another place you have to go. I suppose a lot of things are still being text-centric, as it's the only output that always "looks good" predictably, but I think we can do much more.
Apps we intentionally may split into three types: joyful to use, too risky to delegate (banking), or essential (mail, browser). The rest are increasingly backups—places to hold control. I guess there could be a new type of marketplace that provides access to scaffolds built on essential core app actions, (let's say we use 20% of them daily), all under a single subscription and account, rather than paying for and managing multiple subscriptions to entire apps. Let's assume locally run models handle the compute cost, but anything viable depends on micropayment systems that let you bundle third-party integrations and those don't exist yet.
Experiments.2025
Timeline Notes, Inline linking, Reflectors
We think nonlinearly, and our tools should reflect that. Inline linking lets you connect text to relevant notes, much like annotating a page with a pencil. Timeline Notes help consolidate scattered notes (thoughts) into a coherent story, could be useful for journalling or research. But, more, our Photos has timeline, why notes can't.
People also won't just stop referring to AI for quick answers, that habit is out there. Most consumer generic AI tries to give you the bestOh, the best answer could be under the question you have no idea you can ask. answer. It draws from billions of examples, finds the pattern, and delivers the“global average.” [1] That may be useful until it's not, until the “global average” is wrong for your specific problem and very unique life context.
True intelligence is also social. You need to share your stuff with others, share often, get out of your head, and actually be receptive to being criticized and called out.
Reflectors are grounded on curated knowledge you connect to it: studies, localisation, own notes, or picking up someone's brain. They're also biased towards questioning rather than answering alone, like using first principles. It's not much about to catch contradictions or assumptions within own thinking, but show the process on how you landed on certain idea, or simply — teaching to learn.
When designing for AI, I started thinking that friction isn't always the enemy, in fact, certain kinds offriction become essential.Effort I’d love to have:
1. Home-cooked meals
2. Seeing friends irl, even if it requires long travel.
3. Replace Telegram group chats with dinner.
4. Worthwhile work.
5. Hard skill that requires years.
6. Sending letters and parcels.
7. Tailoring clothes.
Effort that exhausts me:
1. Remembering where the exact thing is, when I need it the most.
2. Signing and sending contracts while on phone.
3. Trying to herd information that scattered through notes, screenshots, browser, ai tabs. Sometimes you need deliberately to create the resistance, where a user has to stop, to be explicit about what they're asking for, to maintain their agency and curiosity rather than abdicate it to convenience.
Experiments.2025
After Ukrainian artist Heorhii Narbut, featuring his iconic triangle, currently in Tate Britain.
Using Mondrian's color blocks, I tried to show time in the context of daily activities. The more color blocks you see, the busier your day is. A digital graphic from Cosmos.
x Études Studio
Collection of AI glasses and watches in collab with Études studio. Inspired after British, French and Ukrainian artists.
Don't be a stranger:
ryna.rudenko@gmail.comI was lucky to work with wonderful humans:
Ukrainian designer based in London, and sometimes I go by Ira.
I'm interested in early stage, domain-specific, messy complex workflows; new type of interactions, cultural effect and explainability in AI. In past I have worked with life sciences, cleantech and ecom.
If you think we can work together, feel free to reach out. Sometimes I collab with artists and open source ML projects pro bono.