Reinvent designwith AI

Across ten modules, you’ll learn to use AI to research, design, prototype and build a working proof of concept, with my guidance and feedback.

Register interest
Buckle up Dorothy, ’cause Kansas is going bye-bye

For designers who want to build

Develop your ideas

Move from concepts to interactive prototypes and working proofs of concept.

Move stalled work forward

Explore and test ideas that would otherwise stay in Figma or wait for development time.

Build confidence with AI

Start from your current level, whether you’re new to AI or want better results.

01 WAYPOINT Questionnaire + 30‑minute call

Start with your diagnostic

Before your first module, you’ll fill in a short diagnostic questionnaire about your experience, goals and use of AI.

I review your answers, then we spend 30 minutes on a call identifying where you need support and planning your route through the course.

Register interest
02 WAYPOINT The course project: Young Savers

Learn by building a real product

Across ten modules, you’ll learn to use AI by taking a project from research and early concepts to an interactive prototype and a working proof of concept.

You’ll practise each approach on Young Savers, our course project: a savings app for teenagers and their parents. Everyone builds the same product, so you can focus on the methods, compare approaches and then bring them to your own work.

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Young Savers: from research to working code. The course project every learner builds.

03 WAYPOINT 10 modules · 4 stages · 5 or 10 weeks

Ten modules across four stages

Understand how AI works, then apply it throughout the design process. Each module combines learning with practical work on your project.

Stage 1

Foundations

Understand AI and learn to brief it. two modules
1
AI technology foundations

Understand how AI works, what it can do and where it needs guidance.

You’ll explore:
  • How context shapes the results.
  • Why AI produces inconsistent or inaccurate answers.
  • The roles of models, apps and connectors.
  • Where AI can help in your design work.
2
Research with AI

Learn to direct research and assess whether the findings are useful.

You’ll practise:
  • Turning a research question into a clear brief.
  • Defining context, scope and expectations.
  • Refining prompts to improve the response.
  • Checking evidence before using it in design decisions.
Stage 2

Design

Turn research into an interactive prototype. four modules
3
Design workflows with AI

Use AI across the tools and tasks in your design process.

You’ll practise:
  • Identifying opportunities in your workflow.
  • Connecting AI to your design tools.
  • Organising research and developing insights.
  • Turning findings into presentations.
4
Concept design with AI

Take research through concept development to a prototype.

You’ll practise:
  • Mapping user journeys and identifying opportunities.
  • Exploring different solutions.
  • Developing concepts into screen flows.
  • Prototyping and testing your ideas.
5
Designing interactively

Create realistic prototypes with interaction, motion and visual design.

You’ll practise:
  • Using references to guide the design.
  • Exploring and refining interactions.
  • Directing motion and transitions.
  • Developing the visual design.
  • Testing the experience on a device.
6
Designing with a design system

Use AI to design with established components, styles and rules.

You’ll practise:
  • Bringing design system sources into AI tools.
  • Designing from a brief.
  • Guiding results with usage rules and brand standards.
  • Assessing consistency and improving the system.
Stage 3

Specialise

Make AI work with your methods. two modules
7
Building AI assistants

Build an assistant around work you do regularly.

You’ll practise:
  • Choosing a useful role for an assistant.
  • Defining its responsibilities and boundaries.
  • Providing instructions and reference material.
  • Testing and improving its behaviour.
8
Building AI skills

Make your methods reusable across tasks.

You’ll practise:
  • Identifying work suited to a skill.
  • Turning a method into clear instructions.
  • Using examples and checks to guide the output.
  • Building, testing and updating skills.
Stage 4

Build

Turn your design into working code. two modules
9
Creating a specification for Claude Code

Give AI a clear description of what to build and how it should work.

You’ll practise:
  • Bringing designs, flows and requirements together.
  • Defining the scope and behaviour.
  • Explaining data, components and motion.
  • Preparing instructions for the build.
10
Creating a proof of concept in Claude Code

Build, test and improve a working version of your design.

You’ll practise:
  • Preparing a project and reviewing the build plan.
  • Directing the build from your specification.
  • Testing the experience and resolving problems.
  • Extending the product with new designs.
You finish with a working proof of concept and experience of directing, reviewing and improving AI-generated work. Register interest

The skills you’ll leave with

Nine skills, each practised hands-on with a real product, that you take straight back to work.

Brief AI so it gets it right

Set the scene, scope and output format, get AI to ask you clarifying questions, and spot when a confident answer is wrong.

Run research you can trust

Turn a research question into a brief, get findings with sources, and check the evidence before it shapes a design decision.

Connect AI to your tools

Use connectors so Claude reads from and works in your whiteboard, turning research into a discovery board and a stakeholder deck.

Go from insight to tested prototype

Story map a journey, run Crazy 8s with AI, storyboard the screens and build a clickable prototype that someone else can test.

Direct interaction and motion

Specify interactions as trigger and response, tune motion with a playground of your own, and test a high-fidelity prototype on your phone.

Make AI use your design system

Set up a design system in Claude Design from your sources, design from a plain brief, and fix the system rather than the screen.

Build your own assistant and skills

Write a five-part brief for an assistant, turn a method you repeat into a tested skill, and keep improving both.

Write a spec Claude Code can build

Pull designs into personas, flows, scope, a data model and Given, When, Then behaviour, plus the CLAUDE.md that Claude Code reads first.

Build a working proof of concept

Agree the plan in Plan mode, direct the build, test and fix it, run it on your phone and add a new screen of your own design.

Darren, aka ProtoPilot

Who is ProtoPilot?

I’m Darren, aka ProtoPilot. I’ve been a designer for 35 years, and for the last 10 I’ve taught design, tools and process.

  1. Late ’90sFlash games and advergames: ten years of interaction and motion
  2. 2016ProtoPilot launches on YouTube, teaching advanced prototyping
  3. ProtoPioneerProtoPie’s first official evangelist
  4. TeamsTeaching prototyping at Microsoft, Meta, Channel 4 and more
  5. NowDesigning with AI

I’ve led teams on products including Windows 11, Lloyds and NatWest banking, Channel 4’s streaming app and Amazon’s smart home devices. For the last three years I’ve used AI on commercial projects to research, design, prototype and build. Now I teach the methods I use, review your work myself, and answer questions on Slack between sessions.

Taught teams at
MicrosoftMetaChannel 4NectarSquarespacePipedrive
Designed for
Windows 11LloydsNatWestNectarChannel 4AmazonEA

Two ways to take the course

Fly solo or join a crew. Choose how you’d prefer to learn.

One-to-one

Fly solo

£4,950+ VAT

Start when it suits you, and choose a 5-week course (twice a week) or a 10-week course (once a week). We fix your regular slots at the start and keep to them.

  • All ten modules
  • Workbooks for every module, to keep and refer back to
  • Every session one-to-one
  • Personal reviews of your work
  • Slack support between sessions
Register interest

Starts as soon as we agree your slot.

Small group

Part of a crew

£1,950+ VAT

A small group of five or six. The group kicks off once five places are filled, then meets once a week for 10 weeks. Live workshops and mini hackathons, building alongside each other.

  • All ten modules
  • Workbooks for every module, to keep and refer back to
  • Live group sessions
  • Reviews of your work, in the group and from me
  • Slack support between sessions
Register interest

Register your interest and I'll confirm the start date as soon as the group fills.

Prices exclude VAT. Full price paid upfront when you enrol.

Find out how to enrol

NEXT GROUP FORMING

Register your interest and I’ll get in touch personally with the next dates, the price and how to enrol. No commitment until you decide to join.

Places are limited because I work with each learner directly.