As winter’s chill lingers, at least here in Helsinki, each brighter morning reminds us that spring is on its way. Lately, I’ve been reflecting on where our profession is headed now that the initial AI hype has settled. In the spirit of transition, I’ve gathered some AI design inspiration to pair with your morning coffee, along with a few thought-provoking reads to spark deeper reflection.
Meet our curator of the month
Essi is a designer with a background in information design and storytelling. In recent years she has worked on a broad range of AI-related design topics. What she loves about working as a designer and consultant is that the work allows her to peek “behind the scenes” of different clients, work cultures, and industries. Currently, she is curious about how design practice will evolve as a part of the generative AI paradigm. You can connect with Essi here.
In this insightful article for the UX Collective, Ryan Tang takes a deep look into the emerging usage and visual patterns for designing generative AI systems and experiences. When faced with the task of incorporating AI into product design, this blog post is the perfect place to start.
Had quite enough of the AI hype? Written by the CEO of Anthropic (the company behind Claude), this article provides a dose of measured optimism. It discusses the best-case scenario for our future with AI and outlines potential positive developments that anyone working with AI in any role should really fight for. As an added bonus, I found that reading this article made me more resistant toward the fluffier end of AI hype spectrum.
Please bear with me here, this one is perhaps a bit more than most of us want with our morning coffee. Shanahan’s paper raises awareness about our tendency to associate human features with large language models and why this may be harmful. I think it’s an interesting and important read for us designers who shape human interactions with AI. (Also, don’t let the academic looks fool you - it’s a relatively easy read!)
Lastly, I couldn’t skip recommending this book even though it’s unfortunately not available as full text online. Written by the former artistic director of the Japanese design brand Muji, “White” is my all-time favorite piece of design writing. Regardless of constant changes in the world, technology and the designer’s role, I believe Hara’s writing captures some timeless principles for the practice of design, which essentially is the practice of bringing something into existence that didn’t exist before.
Tell us about one project you’ve worked on that you found particularly interesting or challenging.
I recently designed a user experience for an LLM-based chat solution for researchers. From a UI perspective, this was quite uncomplicated, as it was enough to design a clean interface with consistent interaction patterns. The really exciting (and challenging) part was finding ways to affect dialogue that the users were able to have with the system.
I helped our data science team find patterns to encourage follow-up questions and better prompting by the users. I also designed workshops for gathering data samples and user evaluations to make sure the system gave answers that are as accurate as possible. Having researchers as the main user group for a topic like this was amazing – they were so systematic in their approach and able to grasp complex topics with enviable speed. I learned so much from them as well as the data scientists I worked with!
What emerging technologies or trends are you excited about?
As a designer who has always been interested in reading and writing, I think one of the most intriguing aspects of the large language model breakthrough is that it allows us to use language as a user interface. There is something poetic about users getting to interact with a system via free-form language, our inherent mode of communication. I am excited to see how this development will affect our work as designers.
What hobbies or interests are you passionate about?
In my free time, I work on immersive, interactive art together with a collective we started with a multidisciplinary group of colleagues and friends. Working in the art domain lets us freely explore the possibilities of AI as well as interaction technologies, sound, and visuals. I often apply things I have learned through this creative teamwork in my job as a designer.
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Service/UX/UI Designer
Curious about where design is headed? This role at Futurice blends research, facilitation, and hands-on design to create meaningful digital experiences. If crafting user-centric solutions and co-creating with clients excites you, take a look.
This role is all about shaping meaningful digital products through research, facilitation, and collaboration. If you’re driven by strategy and hands-on design, this role will interest you.
