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- From Designing brainlessly to Becoming an idea machine
From Designing brainlessly to Becoming an idea machine
I used AI to build something amazing... đ
Hello from the beyond! This is Voyager, the only designers-aboard spaceflight navigating you through the AI-UX universe.
We cut the AIxDesign sandwich into triangles, just the way you like it.
Happy Monday yâall! Letâs get right into it, todayâs AIxDesign sandwich is made of â
đ„Ș (sandwich bread)
đ All design-automating-AI-tools are designing brainlessly! (tomatoes that nobody likes)
đ„ AIverse updates (didnât want but tasty pickle)
đ Experiment: Co-creating with AI (double dose of protein patty)
đ„ Meme of the day (the real carbs source)
đ„Ș (sandwich bread)
A weird sandwich, I agree!
Todayâs edition is going to be a little design heavy *FOMO starts sneaking up*, but thatâs what we do, bounce between AI and Design! In case you missed last timeâs, the AI heavy edition, a reader commented âitâs the best sheâd read so farâ
*FOMO intensifies*
I think about Design, AI, and how both can work together in the future almost 24Ă7. Not going to lie, itâs fascinating, and feels like work play, which is why I have a lot of consumed data floating around in my head. Writing is a way for me connect the dots, forming theories.
Those (biased) theories is what I publish to the world to read.
You could say Iâm a transformer seeking attention (real meta huh?). Oh wait, but AI is the one trying to be us, not the other way around. So AI is a content writer seeking attention? Is that what an LLM is?
Oh waitâŠoh waitâŠ*brain fart*
Before I get derailed, one such theory that Iâve had on my mind for some time is
All design-automating-AI-tools are designing brainlessly!
Let me rant elaborate.
If youâve been designing for some years, youâd know designing isnât just creating pixels, irrespective of whether youâre a UI designer or a UX designer. Itâs so much more.
Pressing Option/Alt + Shift + Right arrow key to move rectangles in Figma
Sometimes, itâs just pressing Option/Alt + Shift + Right arrow key to make the rectangles perfectly aligned.
Sometimes, itâs just sitting on the desk, looking outside the window and just marinating on what your user, Sam, said âI donât want to have to click three times to find the information I needâ
Sometimes, itâs just staring into white spaceâŠ
My point being that we, as innovators, we consume, we think, we create, we originate, we test, we repeat.
We donât start with a blurry image of an unoriginal work, we start with the users.
Itâs like going into someone elseâs Figma files..even if theyâve done great work, I donât gain an intuitive understanding of their users.
We connect dots; ideas, user needs, scenarios, to form original designs.
But AI doesnât really do thatâŠ
No empathy; understanding user frustrations
No contextual understanding
No indirect-feedback integration
No inclusive designs; ethical and accessible
The recent tools that have been coming up, for example Galileo, donât seem to take into account the importance of the human factor.
Thereâs no one solution that fits all, but design-automating-AI-tools seem to think one solution does fit all.
A demo of Galileoâs potential not yet launched â source Galileo
Now, Iâm not against the AI tools, in fact I want them to win but I think the marketing of the tools, as is currently, is too ambitious.
Converting text input prompt to a UI design has multiple problems â
Unless the input specifies, AI doesnât know the context
Unless the input specifies, AI doesnât know the scenario
Unless the input specifies, AI doesnât know the user needs
Unless the input specifies, AI doesnât know the pain points
Unless the input specifies, AI doesnât know the constraints
Itâs very input (prompt) dependent, which we know isnât the future.
But one thing AI tools do REALLY well, is generating ideas!
Creativity; combining multiple solutions to come up with more ideas!
Patterns exploration
Different user POVs
Fusing various existing interactions
Because of the vast amount of data it has, they can generate ideas, not novel, by combining multiple things whether it be iterations or features or even give various user perspectives.
a prediction and understanding of AIxDesgin â source AIverse.design
Do you remember the Netflix Design case study from the previous Voyager edition? No worries if not, here were the mind blowing conclusions â
Using AI to automate the existing design tasks is actually limiting the potential of AIxDesign!
AIxDesign will change the design process.
The new practice of design is to delegate detailed design choices to the algorithms.
We can now create specific solutions for individual users, not just personas!
This is the long-term view of design. In order to design with & for AI, we must change the whole design process itself (which is being researched upon). But I believe, we can still use the power of AI in the traditional double-diamond process.
What AI is good at vs What AI tools are trying to automate â source AIverse.design
AI is more creative than humans, but humans have the edge in novelty
*static noise*
Sorry to interrupt, but we just got a word from the HQ...
we have info that there have been minor updates on the AIxDesign platform!
đź Mini AI-UX guide - Speak the language, updated! Becoming an AIxDesigner, learning and upskilling gets easier.
View of the âSpeak the languageâ mini-guide on the AIverse website
Keep checking the website, updates coming in faster than I can click the publish button!
*static noise*
I have a theory I want to test â exclusively with the people aboard the Voyager, you all!
Experiment: Co-creating with AI as a designer or an innovator
Over the past month, Iâve been working on an ideation design tool which can help designers NOT automatically create the designs, but co-create with them, that is, act as an assistant designer.
What is it? What can it do? How does it work?
Letâs say you had an assistant designer, what would they do?
Get me a double espresso shot without milk
Give me a list of all possible patterns we can use. (Assisant: browses through Google Images or Dribbble to find patterns)
Give me a list of all the different types of people using the application.
Give me a list of all personas.
Give me list of all scenarios of the app.
Give me a list of limitations.
Give me a list of all possible design states.
Give me a list of all gamification features for the app.
and so on..
One common thing?
Theyâre all divergent tasks, that is, ways of brainstorming to design an all-rounded solution.
and we know AI is exceptional at divergent tasks!
So I did something amazingâŠ
I went through my own design process,
listed the various points where Iâve needed to brainstorm,
used ChatGPT4 to help me brainstorm,
converted the random chats into perfected prompts + examples,
built an app to remove the effort of prompting,
created individual brainstorming techniques powered by AI,
and voila!
The 7 brainstorming tools for designers and innovators
Ideator.design, a suite of 7 brainstorming techniques for designers powered by GPT4. It can â
Create iterations; variations of an interaction (text, not images yet)
Reimagine patterns; innovative ways of standard UX patterns,
Constructs user flows; interaction flows for specific user tasks,
Evaluate from different POVs,
Combine features with your app to form novel concepts,
Describe real-world user stories for your product,
Impose constraints to think outside the box
A screen recording of the website â source Ideator
Ideator.design isnât meant to replace designers, but itâs an experiment to show how we, the designers, can use AI to brainstorm and come up with solutions faster!
Weâre still doing the work,
Weâre still connecting the dots,
But we can get the dots faster and more varied through AI.
I want you to give it shot and see if it helps you as intended,
to answer the bigger question â does AI actually work? Is it the future?
Hoping we can answer these questions together!
Current limitations of Ideator.design
Contextual ideation
Pending test of AI-UX laws
A little slow on initial load
and my bank balance.. đ
You can reply to this email for any comments or feedback :)
đ€Ł Meme of the day
ummmmâŠbut this is so creepy!
Lmaooo!
*BONUS* Not a meme but this is just cool!
- a designer in the aiverse a.k.a mr. colorful, has more colors in this letter than Londonâs gloomy weather.
Wait wait, time for quick feedback?
What did you think Ideator.design? Reply to this email to let me know â
Was it helpful? What were your use cases? How do you think AI & Design can collaborate?
P.S. As always, donât forget to invite your other designer friends onboard the Voyager - we (still) have a few empty window seats on this spaceship đ
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