What Kind of AI-Augmented Designer Are You?
Find your place on John Maeda's E-P-I-A-S × SAE Framework from the Design in Tech Report 2026.
Self-Assessment
Answer 11 questions to discover your SAE automation level (L0–L5) and your E-P-I-A-S maturity stage (Explorer to Steward).
- 6 questions to find your SAE level
- 5 questions to find your maturity stage
- Interactive matrix visualization
- Personalized growth path
Chat with the Framework
Ask questions about the framework. Get personalized advice on your growth path, powered by RAG and your choice of LLM.
- Semantic search over framework content
- Multi-provider LLM support
- Source citations from the report
- Conversation history
Requires API Key
Run locally with your own API key to enable.
Learn about the framework
About the E-P-I-A-S × SAE Framework
From John Maeda's Design in Tech Report 2026: From UX to AX, presented at SXSW 2026. This framework maps AI adoption for product designers along two axes:
SAE Levels (Automation)
| L0 | Manual — no AI |
| L1 | AI-Assisted — AI suggests, you decide |
| L2 | Partially Automated — AI builds chunks |
| L3 | Guided Automation — IDE-centric workflows |
| L4 | Mostly Automated — harness-centric |
| L5 | Full Automation — aspirational |
E-P-I-A-S (Maturity)
| E | Explorer — trying things, learning basics |
| P | Practitioner — consistent habits |
| I | Integrator — part of workflow |
| A | Architect — systems others use |
| S | Steward — setting standards |
“An S-Steward at SAE L1 is more mature and more valuable than an E-Explorer at SAE L4. Depth of judgment beats breadth of tooling every time.” — John Maeda, DIT 2026
This framework is a living document. The source content may have been updated since this app was built. Check the GitHub repository for the latest version.