AI Killed the Design Star... Only Not Really
Or How I Learned to Love the Agent...
Design is dead, long live design! I’m bored with the catastrophizing of AI, so I thought I’d post some anecdotes from the front lines of the brave new world we’re facing. I’m working with my current company to integrate AI into our FinTech apps, a tricky prospect to be sure. Customers are reticent, with cause, to give AI full read/write access to their data and processes. That said, they are very interested in where AI can uncover insights and efficiencies. If the app (via AI) becomes more of a smart co-worker, rather than an autonomous grind machine, we see much more interest. Users with complex workflows don’t want AI to simply take over, they want to know where they can be made smarter and faster with their work. Sure, AI can do the rote, repetitive tasks, but it can’t quite construct outcomes yet. However, when presented with a desired outcome the users want, AI is pretty good at recommending efficient paths to getting there. In short, if we design AI as a helpful coworker rather than a scary job-killing technology, we see a much better adoption. Go figure.
For designers, AI can act as a pretty good coworker as well. I sometimes forget to consider WCAG rules when I’m iterating on designs. AI is very good at ingesting things like the entirety of WCAG 2.2 AA and AAA guidelines. If I give it some ideas around what I want to do, point it at my component library and design system to fence it in a bit, and then make sure it stays within WCAG compliance, it’ll produce lots of iterations and compositions for me to play with. Some of which, I have to admit, I probably wouldn’t have thought of right off the bat, and yes, some that are throw-away. As the designer, I may still need to double check the WCAG compliance when it seems iffy, but it’s still really powerful knowing that, in most cases, AI does well to keep those rules in mind. It’s like working through a “no bad ideas” whiteboard session with a coworker. I can construct interaction design ideas that would have taken me a few hours (each) to pursue, and it can do it in minutes. Did that take away from my humanity or my design experience? No, I still have to evaluate these against my design goals and UX principles, but it did lots of the grind work and let me iterate in minutes rather than hours or days. It’s FAR from perfect, but getting better fast. I have yet to see it create things that make me feel threatened as a designer. What I do see is a really powerful toolset that I can work with as if I’m employing a wicked fast junior designer, who can take a brief and fire off 3-5 options in just a few minutes. So does that threaten junior designers? I don’t believe so.
On my side gig, I teach Product and UX design at one of our local colleges here in the Bay Area. I am currently working with the head of the department, going through and revamping the entire design curriculum to add modules on AI usage and tools. I do feel that when using AI tools in the classroom, there is a big risk that the students will over rely on the tools to do the thinking. To mitigate this, I plan to do more “show/defend your work” assignments. Forcing the use of pen and paper, or other more analog methods of idea generation, or stand and deliver your design decisions in class. It is easy for someone to skip the foundational understandings of design and jump straight to AI slop. Those folks won’t go far. The first time they are called in to justify design decisions or iterate with their colleagues in real time, they’ll be left hanging. For the students that learn both the fundamentals and the AI tools, they will come out of school as more efficient designers than their predecessors. The junior designer role won’t be eliminated, but the expectations of what that designer can do will be elevated.
Yes, AI is going to change loads of people’s work. So did the internet in the 90s and 2000s. So did industrialization in the 1800s. I don’t see any means to put the genie back in the bottle. But then again, where would we as designers be without tools like Figma, or for those who remember, the entire MacroMedia suite? Just as before, we will learn and use these new tools. As designers, we are still the spark and idea people that use these tools to push towards an outcome that we choose. Bad designers will rely on AI slop and pay the price. I doubt it will take long to figure out the difference between those who know what they’re doing and those trying to skate. Personally, this feels to me like my early days in the late 90s when the Internet was starting to take off. Loads of promise, loads of outsized expectations and half baked delivery, to be sure. There’s also a bit of wonder here. Maybe this time the naysayers and catastrophists will be right, I don’t know. I do know that fortune will favor the prepared. Ready or not, here we go.