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The impact of Artificial Intelligence is rapidly expanding, reshaping industries and redefining how we approach creativity. For designers, this evolution presents both exciting opportunities and complex challenges.
As AI-driven tools become integral to the design process, designers face new challenges in their work.
From design tools to ethical concerns, our design team was posed the following questions:
Question 1
What’s the first thing that comes to mind when talking about AI?
Name: Véronique Janosy
Title: Lead Product Designer
Answer: Frankly, I’m suffering from AI fatigue. It seems everyone is talking about where they can use AI, without really addressing whether we should be using it. I liken it to getting a new hammer and looking around desperately for nails to hammer but ignoring the fact that we might not actually need to hammer anything in at all.
A hammer is innocent enough, though, and with AI we do have to contend with ethical questions that arise around its use, which relatively few people seem to be addressing.
My fear is that once the novelty wears off (and I believe that much of its popularity right now is due to its novelty), we will have to grapple with the fallout of not having been cautious enough in the first place.
Name: Adriano Renzi
Title: UX Researcher
Answer: AI and Machine Learning have been well adopted in recommendation systems since Amazon started to use hybrid recommendation system, reaching great achievements on the e-commerce industry, becoming the sparkle for experimentation with music categorization and patterns association (Pandora), leading to a complex new era of music (entertainment in general) recommendation.
I would say that the state of the art in recommendation systems today has evolved to behavioral prediction systems, which certainly can be used (and has been used) to influence society on political decisions and makes us uneasy about the future.
On the generative side, the natural programmed machine learning through patterns, have been appropriating graphic and textual material from real people to generate new products, which unfortunately is affecting the market and rising a new educational paradigm in a bad way – in the name of saving expenses.
In many areas of expertise, it has shown to be a tool for the mediocre professional to improve their results.
Name: Ram Kumar
Title: UX Researcher
Answer: Prompts.
Love or hate it, AI is not a fad, and it is here to stay in some form. It is better to befriend it to empower us than to detest it as a force of evil.
That said, prompts are how we communicate with AI tools. It would be good to grasp AI prompting techniques and try them out with tools to see what works and what does not.
It is also an excellent way to learn how we and the AI models reason and respond. Think, ‘Her!’ I find these tips on effective prompting quite useful.
Name: Carlos Salguero
Title: Senior Product Designer
Answer: Since ChatGPT went mainstream at the beginning of 2023, we have witnessed how rapidly “AI” has become a household term.
When Artificial Intelligence is mentioned, I immediately think, “This is the new reality,” and I feel the urgency to embrace it to fully harness its benefits.
Like any tool at our disposal, AI can be used for both good and bad purposes. I am also reminded of Hollywood movies like “Her” and “Ex-Machina,” which show that our fascination with AI is not new but a topic we have been contemplating for decades.
Name: Osama Nadeem
Title: Senior Product Designer
Answer: The first thing that comes to mind and how I’ve used AI, is that of an Assistant.
I’ve found AI to be helpful in solving even some design scenarios and edge cases, and it’s very interesting to see that AI is being ingested everywhere – from apps to operating systems and hardware systems.
Question 2
Have you explored or experimented with any AI tools?
Name: Véronique Janosy
Title: Lead Product Designer
Answer: I have only played for a few minutes with the GenAI built into Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, to satisfy my own curiosity.
In my professional work, however, the client I work for is very restrictive about the tools we use, so I have not used it there.
Name: Carlos Salguero
Title: Senior Product Designer
Answer: Yes, I’ve experimented with several AI tools. Midjourney and DALL-E have been particularly fascinating for generating unique visual content and concept art, which can be a huge asset during the initial stages of design ideation or to complement a blog post. I’ve also explored Microsoft’s Copilot and Anthropic’s Claude for coding assistance.
Furthermore, I’ve created a few GPTs for OpenAI’s ChatGPT store, tailored for specific design and productivity needs.
I’m also looking forward to the release of Figma AI, anticipating its potential to further streamline and enhance the design process for UX, UI and Product designers.
Name: Ram Kumar
Title: UX Researcher
Answer: Yes, I have been using Grammarly extensively to ensure my writing is on point and have experimented with Grammarly AI tools to change my tone and improve the impact of my writing.
I got a ChatGPT subscription a couple of months ago and signed up for an AI boot camp to learn about building products using a combination of No-code tools and ChatGPT. It has been fascinating so far.
However, it can be a bit of a rabbit hole, and it would be helpful to time-box your efforts if you plan to dip your toes in trying AI tools.
Name: Adriano Renzi
Title: UX researcher
Answer: Yes, I experimented with Mdjourney, Dall-E, ChatGPT and Grammarly on different occasions, mostly in an exploratory learning sense. But I haven’t pursued them on a regular basis usage.
Name: Osama Nadeem
Title: Senior Product Designer
Answer: I’ve explored many tools – Midjourney, DALL-E, ChatGPT and other AI based plugins for Figma. I’m really looking forward to Figma AI though, I believe it would be very interesting to play around with AI meant for UX/UI design, in a tool that we love.
It would eliminate all the third party plugins that are marketed as AI but they’re hardly there.
Question 3
If you have worked with or experimented with any AI tools, what have you found useful?
Name: Véronique Janosy
Title: Lead Product Designer
Answer: Honestly, I haven’t found anything to be useful. In my personal exploration with GenAI, I’ve found the results to be so poor that I would never use it for anything. Both in Illustrator for icon creation, and in Photoshop for generative fill (to complete a cropped image, for instance), results were strange, unnatural, and would have taken massive amounts of tweaking to achieve anything resembling what I’d need.
With that much work, I would much rather browse the internet for inspiration and then use traditional Illustrator and Photoshop methods to achieve the results.
The only use I can find for AI in my work might be for doing repetitive tasks, calculations, batch renaming etc., but scripts exist, so I would question why we would want to use AI instead.
Name: Carlos Salguero
Title: Senior Product Designer
Answer: AI tools have really surprised me with what they can do. Midjourney and DALL-E, for example, can create incredible visuals from just a text prompt that can be used for quick ideation or as inspiration. ChatGPT has been great for bouncing ideas around and getting new perspectives, almost like having a brainstorming buddy available 24/7.
I have also learned to appreciate how AI can help in the early stages of research and can help me come up with solutions or ideas that I might not have thought of on my own.
As of late, using Adobe’s Firefly within Photoshop and Illustrator has proven quite helpful when modifying images that just need small but specific visual changes.
Name: Ram Kumar
Title: UX Researcher
Answer: AI tools can be a good starting point to brainstorm ideas or learn about topics or tools one wants to become familiar with. AI responses can be wordy, so it is helpful to break down the questions into parts or even ask the AI tools to list the response it provides in steps and ask for explanations about each step.
I found the step-by-step instructions provided by ChatGPT helpful in learning how to use no-code tools for a basic application or a landing page.
Name: Adriano Renzi
Title: UX researcher
Answer: The only AI tool I found useful for my needs was Grammarly to check errors on my papers, but with a very attentive review of making sure the meanings would not be distorted (which happened a few times).
Nevertheless, I do see non-visual professionals using generative AI to create design and visual posts, instead of hiring a visual artist, corroborating my answer for #1: “it has shown to be a tool for the mediocre professional to improve their results”
Name: Osama Nadeem
Title: Senior Product Designer
Answer: If I think about tools, it’s just ChatGPT which I’ve found usable. Other tools right now, especially the ones for images and illustrations are mostly useless for the purpose of UX/UI design.
For art however, Midjourney and DALL-E are pretty fascinating.
Question 4
Has AI impacted your work?
Name: Véronique Janosy
Title: Lead Product Designer
Answer: Only insofar as I cannot escape talk of it, or announcements from apps including AI in their latest updates. AI will affect the industry in the near future, however, as designers will be required to learn certain AI wrangling skills or risk being passed up for employment opportunities.
I also fear that as companies start using AI for a variety of tasks, designers’ roles will change to include “fixing” aberrations or mistakes made by AI.
Name: Carlos Salguero
Title: Senior Product Designer
Answer: AI has definitely made my work faster and more efficient. Tasks that used to take days or weeks can now be done in a fraction of the time. This means I can take on more projects and push creative boundaries further than before.
Tech advancements are also keeping everyone in the industry on their toes, constantly learning and adapting to new tools and methods. I have had to pick up new skills, like prompt engineering and using AI-driven insights for user research, which has been both challenging and rewarding.
AI isn’t about replacing jobs; it is about enhancing what we can do. People who know how to use AI effectively are the ones who will really stand out in the job market.
Overall, AI has been a huge growth opportunity for me, pushing me to innovate and stay ahead in a fast-paced field.
Name: Ram Kumar
Title: UX Researcher
Answer: Not yet, at least not directly. However, this is likely to change in the coming months.
There are valid concerns about the type of data AI tools can store and utilize.
As a researcher, it’s crucial to consider these tools for tasks like extracting a quote from a specific participant in a usability test. It’s essential that we engage in discussions and implement safeguards to ensure the data and the individuals involved are treated with the utmost respect and privacy.
Name: Adriano Renzi
Title: UX Researcher
Answer: As a researcher, no. The pattern mapping done by AI is very simple and high level. Similar results from a PO running a survey and presenting percentage results – it can be very misleading. But I think it can be useful to find specific parts of a transcript if needed, and obviously save a lot of time.
As an artist, yes. Customers are looking more and more for the human-made real thing and interested in personal views of the world.
Nevertheless, illustrators that work with realism painting are getting impacted negatively by AI, as industry sees AI to save money
Name: Osama Nadeem
Title: Senior Product Designer
Answer: AI has an impact but not a lot right now. I frequently visit ChatGPT for general assistance, brainstorm ideas or improve my writing/content.
I’ve never used AI to create illustrations or icons because that seems like a lot of work, especially when you must tailor those assets – which cannot be accurately achieved by changing your prompt.
