Portfolio
These case studies reflect my journey as a lead product designer and innovation strategist —shaped by storytelling, anthropology, and a…
Latest
When Tools Shape Thought: Designing with Awareness in the Age of AI
Summary: Throughout history, tools have not only extended human capacity but fundamentally reshaped how we think, perceive, and design—and today’s…
Sketching with AI
Since 2018 I’ve been creating products with AI. When I was asked to lead design in the new People magazine…
Figma Make vs Builder.IO vs Glide
I’m working on designing and developing Songlines, my GPS enabled sound generation app, and I gave each one of these…
NewsWise
As a student of anthropology interested in linguistics and big fan of the work of George Lakoff, I built this…
What Craft Really Means (and Why It Matters More Than You Think)
When you’re just starting out in design, it’s easy to equate craft with skill. You think it’s about pushing pixels…
Conversation Agent
Using ElevenLabs to create my own conversation agent. Source documents include my resume, various personality tests and portfolio. I thought…
Liquid Reading – Zygmunt Bauman and the Article Reading Experience
Written in collaboration with ChatGPT and Perplexity Listen to this (recorded using my own voice and ElevenLabs) Why this matters…
About
My name is Ziya Danishmend. I’m a New Yorker, born in Japan (maybe not quite a true New Yorker) and…
AGI and the Future of Magazine Publishing
So I asked ChatGPT to tell me about the potential impact of AGI on magazine publishing. With the release of…
The Tokenization of News
As I was working with The Wall Street Journal last year on their redesign I started to question why and…
Asking a better question
It doesn’t get better said than in this conversation between John O’Donohue and his friend John Quinn in their book,…
Sigma Seven
Archaeology now. Back in 1996 I had a design studio with my friend David Oppenheim. This was our digital…
Introducing Sift:lab
After much thinking about what clients and their customers need most I’ve decided to launch Sift:lab. It’s a collaborative group…
Creativity as a path
Cultivating awareness of self and others is central to the path of Buddhism but if applied to the path of…
The Friendly Sniper
My father gave me this bullet. We lived on the top floor of our apartment building in West Beirut during…
Unbiasing the News
For years our highest aspiration in the world of design was to make things “sticky”. The economics of startups made…
Turning the Data Black Box Inside Out
A small retailer wants to open a new store. Who does she turn to? A good real estate agent is…
Changing the World is the Only Fit Work for a Grown Man (or Woman)
A fantastic bio of Howard Luke Gossage, an ad man from the 60s who did many, if not all, of…
Spotify Wrapped – The Best Way to Use Data
Spotify did something absolutely brilliant last week. They released their annual “Wrapped” collection of music which turns the usual expectations…