Flag

We stand with Ukraine and our team members from Ukraine. Here are ways you can help

Home ›› Artificial Intelligence ›› AI UX Design: A New Way Of Designing

AI UX Design: A New Way Of Designing

by Adam Fard
7 min read
Share this post on
Tweet
Share
Post
Share
Email
Print

Save

What AI-infused UX is and how to design AI-powered products

From healthcare to marketing to AI UX design, artificial intelligence is everywhere. Gartner forecast that AI software will hit $62 billion in 2022. That’s a 21.3% increase from 2021. So what’s the impact on the UX design and development process?

When the term artificial intelligence (AI) was coined in 1956, the public was optimistic. People believed that robots and AI would be doing humans’ jobs by the mid-seventies. While we haven’t been replaced by robots just yet, AI has integrated into almost every area of human life. UX design included. 

AI is changing how we design products and systems. And while some people remain skeptical, UX designers and developers are reaping the benefits. Namely, AI helps to identify users’ needs and behaviors. The results? A vastly improved user experience.  

This article breaks down what AI-infused UX is and how to design AI-powered products. 

On AI-Infused UX

We want to start by clearing up a common misconception: the future of AI isn’t dependent on a select few AI-powered projects. Instead, this technology is set to become a supporting layer for all apps. As such, we’re exploring the potential impact of this type of supporting layer.

Personalization and customization

Personalization is king in UX. It ensures proper retention and adoption, especially if you cater to multiple types of users. 

A word of caution, though: personalizing is easier said than done. 

For example, it usually requires you to segment users carefully and then showcase the functions that are valuable to that specific group. However, with the help of AI, this is changing.

Designers can use AI to analyze client data faster than ever before. As a result, UX teams can gain a deeper understanding of clients’ needs and tailor their products to meet them. The result is a highly personalized user experience. 

Moreover, AI can take it a step further with advanced customization options. In doing so, algorithms can access huge amounts of customer data from different channels. This leads to advanced customer experiences where the design system can anticipate precisely what workflow a user will use and adjust accordingly. 

In short, AI UX design enables highly personalized user experiences. This enhances the value of your product to a wider audience of users.

Automation and productivity

At its core, UX aims to create a frictionless user experience by removing obstacles. We believe that AI plays an integral role in this. Here’s how.

AI enables everyday tasks to be automated. By reducing the time wasted on routine tasks, users are more productive. More importantly, they have more time for the tasks that matter. Take resizing or color-correcting images. These mundane tasks usually take up considerable time but don’t require human brain power.

That’s where AI comes in. 

AI developers have built various solutions to automate these tasks without a human. For instance, industry giant Adobe has developed a time-saving stitch feature to stitch images together. 

Let’s recap. UX design involves a plethora of repetitive tasks. AI-infused design automates many of these tasks, speeding up projects and freeing time for more innovative, big-picture tasks.

Data collection & interpreting

Gathering information on user behavior is by no means a new concept. Designers, marketers, and product managers have been collecting data on virtually anything for quite some time. But that’s the easy part. Deciphering the insights within the data is where it gets tricky. Indeed, analyzing the reams of collected data isn’t just challenging, it’s incredibly time-consuming too.

So, how can AI step in?

Training AI and Machine Learning for pattern recognition could save days, even weeks in gathering, analyzing, and interpreting user data. For instance, user-facing applications, like Google Analytics, provide reports with detailed insights (rather than numbers).

AI UX Design: A New Way Of Designing
Source

Put another way, AI can analyze huge quantities of data to find patterns. This provides valuable UX research insights in a much quicker time frame. 

Here’s an example of AI in action. 

AI is used to build data collection questionnaires for users. It can then analyze the data using specific software, such as an OCR application. Furthermore, AI can even learn how to respond to users to conduct qualitative data analysis

In summary, AI empowers businesses to optimize how they collect and interpret data, resulting in deeper insights and more thoughtful actions. 

On Designing AI-Powered Products

While it’s one thing to have AI as a supporting layer, it’s another thing entirely to use this technology as the core value proposition

At Adam Fard, we’ve handled projects where the value boils down to using AI to forecast changes in supply and demand and adjust prices accordingly. From our experience designing AI-powered products, we have established a few best practices. Here’s a closer look.

Trust

When dealing with this type of project, building trust is key. In many cases, AI sounds too good to be true. As a result, this can breed skepticism and distrust. Therefore, it’s the UX designer’s job to foster trust with users.

This is harder than it sounds. That said, we have found a few ways to gain users’ trust. The first is education. Showing users how AI works behind the scenes is a highly effective trust-building exercise. This can be done through a demo during the onboarding process.

Now, let’s delve into the idea of trust-building a bit more.

Mikael Eriksson Björling and Ahmed H. Ali, senior designers at Ericsson, deconstruct trust down to 4 pillars:

  1. Competence 
  2. Benevolence and openness
  3. Integrity
  4. Charisma
AI UX Design: A New Way Of Designing
Source

With these 4 pillars in mind, an AI-based product should successfully:

  • Communicate and demonstrate its capabilities
  • Resonate with the users in its communication
  • Show a degree of flexibility
  • Demonstrate its ethical integrity

Before moving on, we want to touch on the idea of ethical integrity. 

AI has given designers the tools to build much more potent products. Having said that, just because something can be built doesn’t mean it should. As such, UX designers need to be more ethically aware than ever. As the saying goes, knowledge is power. Therefore, they have an ethical responsibility to consider the consequences of the products they are building.

Summing up, trust is an integral factor in designing AI products. This trust can be built through proper user education, clear communication, flexibility, and integrity. 

Usability Testing

Usability testing sessions are fundamental in ensuring you end up with a usable product. 

However, with AI-based projects, the AI engine is often not complete when it comes to testing your design solutions. Fortunately, there are ways to address this issue. 

AI UX Design: A New Way Of Designing
An example of a remote usability tesitng.

For example, you could have someone manually provide the system answers. Alternatively, you could talk to the user beforehand to have the answers ready. Naturally, such an approach doesn’t account for mistakes an implemented AI might make. However, a slightly flawed usability testing session is definitely better than none at all.

Explain what’s AI and what’s not

Users want to feel part of the products and systems they use. This means they want to know exactly what is AI and what isn’t. As such, when the system presents AI-generated information, we recommend making sure that users understand this. 

AI UX Design: A New Way Of Designing
Source

In doing so, you eliminate the potential for confusion. For instance, if the system provides forecasts, users could be perplexed about where this information comes from. Simply put, clearly highlighting what AI is and isn’t will make users feel more comfortable with your product.  

On Design Process and AI

It’s reflection time. Let’s look back at how AI can benefit the UX design process.

Right now, we see 2 major ways AI can help designers do their jobs better:

1. Automating routine tasks

As we discussed earlier, AI can automate many mundane tasks, freeing time for more important ones. Let’s look at an example. 

After conducting UX research, UX designers typically create user journeys and information architectures. The next step is to mock up a wireframe or sketch. This is time-consuming. Plus, since the design process must be complete before development can begin, everything grinds to a halt until it is ready.

To address this issue, AI developers are building solutions to streamline the usability-testing process. This, in turn, will allow for quicker feedback cycles. More significantly, AI-powered UX design means designers and developers can build a high-quality user interface much faster. As a result, every part of the UX research and design process can be sped up and optimized. 

For example, AI can now transform flowcharts into wireframes with very little data. So once AI grasps the context and flow, it can create complete wireframes for an app. This means UX designers only have to tailor the wireframes to the specific product.

2. Gathering and interpreting usage data

Aggregating data is invaluable, particularly when it comes to post-launch iterations. The ability to interpret real user data makes it much easier to make product decisions. Additionally, AI algorithms make it that much easier to analyze user interviews and usability testing sessions. 

Oftentimes, these have to be transcribed which is time-consuming. Luckily, AI-powered speech algorithms are now sophisticated enough to do the job right. Put simply, AI empowers UX researchers to analyze user interviews faster by automatically pinpointing interesting parts.

Outro

AI and UX design are a powerful combination with a lot of promise for the future. AI is already improving UX design by offering ways to identify and satisfy specific user needs. As a result, AI-infused products are more efficient and client-centric. And this is just the beginning.

In the future, AI-powered products will continue to evolve and offer deeper insights into human behavior. However, with great power comes great responsibility. As the scope of what’s possible expands, designers must find the right balance between UX and ethics. 

Originally published on adamfard

post authorAdam Fard

Adam Fard, Adam is a senior lead UX/UI designer with more than 8 years of experience. Adam's passion for design steadily grew into his own agency, that he's currently leading.

Tweet
Share
Post
Share
Email
Print
Ideas In Brief
  • This article breaks down what AI-infused UX is and how to design AI-powered products.
  • The author unpacks the following points in AI-infused UX:
    • Personalization and customization
    • Automation and productivity
    • Data collection
  • Things to bear in mimd when designing AI-powered products:
    • Trust
    • Usability Testing
  • At the moment there are 2 major ways AI can help designers do their jobs better: automating routine tasks and gathering and interpreting usage data.

Related Articles

Discover the future of user interfaces with aiOS, an AI-powered operating system that promises seamless, intuitive experiences by integrating dynamic interfaces, interoperable apps, and context-aware functionality. Could this be the next big thing in tech?

Article by Kshitij Agrawal
The Next Big AI-UX Trend—It’s not Conversational UI
  • The article explores the concept of an AI-powered operating system (aiOS), emphasizing dynamic interfaces, interoperable apps, context-aware functionality, and the idea that all interactions can serve as inputs and outputs.
  • It envisions a future where AI simplifies user experiences by seamlessly integrating apps and data, making interactions more intuitive and efficient.
  • The article suggests that aiOS could revolutionize how we interact with technology, bringing a more cohesive and intelligent user experience.
Share:The Next Big AI-UX Trend—It’s not Conversational UI
5 min read

Curious about the next frontier in AI design? Discover how AI can go beyond chatbots to create seamless, context-aware interactions that anticipate user needs. Dive into the future of AI in UX design with this insightful article!

Article by Maximillian Piras
When Words Cannot Describe: Designing For AI Beyond Conversational Interfaces
  • The article explores the future of AI design, moving beyond simple chatbots to more sophisticated, integrated systems.
  • It argues that while conversational interfaces have been the focus, the potential for AI lies in creating seamless, contextual interactions across different platforms and devices.
  • The piece highlights the importance of understanding user intent and context, advocating for AI systems that can anticipate needs and provide personalized experiences.
Share:When Words Cannot Describe: Designing For AI Beyond Conversational Interfaces
21 min read

Uncover the dynamic landscape of UX design as artificial intelligence continues to reshape the field. With automated tools revolutionizing our roles, what does the future hold for designers?

Article by Michal Malewicz
The End of Design?
  • The article explores the impact of AI on UX design, questioning the future role of designers as automated tools become more prevalent.
  • It highlights the historical evolution of UX design and the commodification of design roles, emphasizing the shift from creative problem-solving to efficiency-driven practices.
  • It emphasizes the need for future designers to be generalists with strong decision-making skills, capable of leading projects and maintaining creativity in an AI-driven landscape.
Share:The End of Design?
9 min read

Tell us about you. Enroll in the course.

    This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. Check our privacy policy and