Design research made 70% faster and more traceable, for you and your AI.
Forma, a case study by David Pukha.
Forma is a research board for designers, and your AI's visual memory of the project. You and your AI build it together, with every reference, meeting, sketch and prototype connected, so you can trace how each decision came about. Because your AI sees all of it, its help fits what you're making. It all stays in files on your Mac. I designed and built it, from the first commit to a working app in two days.
- Team
- Me
- Timeline
- Nov 2026
- Scope
- Product design, Design engineering
The brief
How might we give designers and their AI one place to think through a project, and trace how every decision came about?
A design is only as good as the thinking behind it, and today that thinking is spread across apps, chats and heads. I need to see all of it clearly, especially on a big project. My AI needs the same context to work well. I wanted one board per project that holds all of it, that I shape and my AI adds to, so neither of us loses the thread.
From a call to a board.
The problem
Lots of places to save research, and none to think it through.
For every project my research ended up everywhere: GatherOS, Clipo, Cosmos, Figma, my X saves, my notes and folders. Every part of it turned messy, and I couldn't see what connected to what. Working on several projects at once, there was no way to keep it all connected in my head.
One answer is to hand it all to my AI, like pasting in my Granola notes after every call. But then I can't see it, and an AI's context runs out, so on a big project, or several at once, it starts to forget.
Competitor analysis
Ten tools, and none of them solves it.
I looked at the tools designers recommend most for research and inspiration. They save pictures and links, and that's where they stop. Everything ends up loose and hard to scan, nothing says why it's there, and most of it is out of reach for my AI.
Where each tool falls short, on a Forma board.
Then I compared Forma with the closest boards. Once they fill up they're hard to scan, and with most of them your AI can't get in without an account.
My ratings, based on user reviews and feedback from people I showed Forma to.
Solution
Your whole project on one board you can read at a glance.
Every project gets its own board, with the project in the middle. Your images, videos, notes and meetings sit around it in stacks, like shelves, so your meeting notes stay in one pile and the brand inspiration in another. Click a stack and it opens; close it and the board is calm again.
Lines connect each stack to the project, with a short note saying why it's there. Zoom out, and you can see how the whole project fits together.
My own board, for Forma itself.
A line, and the reason on it.
Your AI works on the same board.
A board is a plain folder, so the AI I already use reads it straight away. I dictate what I found or send a screenshot, and it puts it on the board with its note.
A skill tells my AI how to work. The board tells it about this project, pictures and videos included, so it already knows what I'm going for. What it adds keeps a blue dot until I've looked.
A blue dot until I've looked.
Product decisions
Stacks deal out and gather back.
When a stack opens, you should still know where every picture lives. So it deals them out, airy like Cosmos, and gathers them back when you close it.
A stack opening and closing.
Forma has no colour of its own.
The images and videos you save should be the only colour on the board, so the interface stays black, white and grey. The one exception is the blue dot on what your AI added.
A picture and its palette.
Prototypes sit next to their references.
An idea shouldn't drift away from what inspired it. So a coded prototype sits beside its references, with dials to tune it right there.
A coded prototype and its dials.
Research
All the research for Forma lives in Forma.
I did the research for Forma on a Forma board: the problem, the tools I compared, the design rules, and the references behind every decision in this study. It's all there, connected to the project in the middle.
See it for yourself. Open the board, move around it, open its stacks and follow the lines.