How AI is Revolutionizing the Job of Product Designer

  • Updated: 16 July 2024
  • 6 minutes
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Artificial Intelligence (AI) is profoundly transforming our discipline and therefore our profession. It redefines creation, collaboration, and innovation while raising ethical dilemmas. What are the challenges and opportunities for Product Designers in the age of AI?

I - The Rise of AI: A Major Shift in the Job of a Product Designer

II - How to Work with AI as a Product Designer?

III - The Limitations and Risks of AI for Design Professionals

IV - The Future of Design in the Age of AI: Perspectives and Transformations


The Rise of AI: A Major Shift in the Job of a Product Designer

Artificial Intelligence? This term has been resonating in all conversations for several months. Yet, it has been with us for decades, quietly influencing fields as diverse as healthcare, finance, and automotive, to name a few. It has helped doctors diagnose diseases, optimize investment portfolios, and even made self-driving cars possible.

But for many, AI had remained an abstract, almost mythical concept until recently. It was at the end of 2022, with the release of Chat GPT, that the general public truly became aware of this technological advancement.

This language model developed by OpenAI has the ability to understand and generate text like a personal assistant... Except that unlike traditional chatbots, Chat GPT is not limited to a predefined decision tree and can handle complex queries, remembering the messages you send it.

Since then, not a day goes by without the release of new AI-based products: image generation, video generation, automatic translations, or document analysis, for example. Today, generative design tools can automatically adapt interfaces based on user preferences. Virtual assistants can also help with design by suggesting improvements based on user data analysis. These innovations show how AI is becoming an essential tool in the job of a Product Designer.

But this rise of AI raises many questions: How does AI affect our perception of work and our ability to innovate? What are the potential risks associated with increased dependence on AI in design and other fields?

How to Work with AI as a Product Designer?

A Product Designer's skills should allow them to intervene at virtually all stages of the product creation process. Many of their daily activities can therefore be positively impacted by AI to varying degrees.

AI in User Research

AI gives us the ability to analyze vast amounts of data, making it easier to retrieve information, quickly identify competitors, and test our approaches, for example. The applications of AI are vast! However, if I had to highlight three use cases where AI - and particularly ChatGPT - brings real added value in terms of time savings, they would be:

  • User needs study by AI: When conceiving a new product, it is essential to have a clear understanding of its market and users. AI can quickly analyze and provide information about the target audience, their expectations, and potential pain points. This is particularly useful for establishing initial proto-personas. 

  • Optimizing interviews with AI: By providing AI with context elements, such as hypotheses to validate and target groups, it can generate a multitude of relevant questions for user interviews. This not only saves time in formulating basic questions but can also suggest innovative questions that we might not have thought of. 

  • In-depth data analysis with AI: Plugins like Scraper leverage the power of AI to analyze vast amounts of web data. Whether it's for quickly conducting competitive studies or examining customer reviews, AI accelerates and enriches the process. 

It should be noted that tools like ProductBoard integrate artificial intelligence to analyze all the insights collected and help with prioritization.

AI in Idea Generation

Facilitation is a cornerstone of Product Design. It represents our ability to guide our team from problem recognition to solution formulation. AI, with its growing capabilities, offers new opportunities to enhance this facilitation. Here are some standout applications:

  • Stimulating Ideation with AI: By providing AI with context and the challenge to be addressed, it can suggest many innovative ideas. Additionally, its connectivity to the Internet facilitates benchmarking, allowing for quick comparison with current trends. 

  • Enhanced Collaboration with AI: Platforms like Miro have integrated AI to optimize collaboration. For example, the automated creation of idea clusters with a single click makes brainstorming sessions smoother and more structured. 

  • Intelligent Synthesis of Ideas: Innovative plugins, such as JamBot for Figjam, use AI to condense ideas from workshops. They generate clear and concise summaries, making them easier to share and implement.

AI at the Heart of Interface Design

Design is (obviously) the essence of the Product Designer's job. With the advent of AI, new dimensions open up to enrich and optimize this practice. Here are some significant AI applications in this field:

  • Optimizing User Journeys with AI: AI can help develop initial "user flows," identifying key steps and highlighting particular cases or "edge cases." 

  • Documentation for Design Systems: AI can facilitate the creation and updating of Design System documentation, suggesting improvements or identifying inconsistencies. 

  • Enhancing UX Writing with AI: Whether it's generating filler content for a prototype, optimizing content for SEO, or ensuring that the tone and style match brand guidelines, AI is a valuable ally for designers. I have conducted several tests that I find quite conclusive. For example, I input UX writing guidelines into ChatGPT and ask it to generate content based on the given problem. The use cases can vary: formulating a value proposition, creating content for an email, ads, or challenging initial writing intentions on mockups.

Generative AI: A Revolution for Designers and Their Creativity

Generative AI is undoubtedly one of the most transformative advancements to date for designers. It offers innovative tools such as Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, and Dall-e, which revolutionize asset creation. Whether it's generating images, illustrations, or even establishing graphic bases, AI accelerates and enriches the creative process.

Forward-thinking companies like Alan have already adopted these AI tools to revamp and enrich their visual identity, demonstrating the profound impact and added value of these technologies in the field of design.

"It's a powerful lever that allows us to do what we couldn't before due to limited resources and time constraints," says Edouard Wautier, former Principal Product Designer at Alan, now at Dust. "It broadens the expression palette for designers and non-designers, leading to more visual communication. This will later enable Product teams to integrate content on a large scale and marketing and sales teams to create personalized visuals to strengthen brands and their proximity to users."

Recruiters using advanced AI tend to become less rigorous, neglecting qualified candidates

The Limitations and Risks of AI for Design Professionals

The Ethical Issues of AI in Design

AI offers unprecedented creative power, but it is not without risks. Beyond enthusiasm, it is crucial to consider the ethical challenges it raises. From intellectual property issues to the depersonalization of creation, to technological dependence, AI poses major dilemmas.

The hasty integration of AI can also introduce biases, errors, or create a disconnect with the real needs of users. Fabrizio Dell'Acqua, a researcher specializing in human-AI interaction, highlights an insidious danger: complacency. In a study, he found that recruiters using advanced AI tend to become less rigorous, neglecting qualified candidates. By blindly relying on AI, they lose discernment. Fabrizio Dell'Acqua compares this dependence to "falling asleep while driving", with humans disengaging, compromising their learning, professional development, and ultimately, their performance.

These implications of AI are not limited to design but extend to broader societal issues. The need for regulatory frameworks has become a priority. This is evidenced by the European Commission's initiative in April 2021, which introduced the EU's first regulatory framework for AI. This framework aims to assess and classify AI systems based on the risks they pose to users and the environment. This approach underscores the urgency of addressing AI with caution and responsibility while fostering innovation.

The Future of Design in the Age of AI: Perspectives and Transformations

Rethinking Design in the Age of AI

The job of a Product Designer is on the verge of a revolution, driven by AI. Two major axes of transformation are emerging: the way we work and the very nature of the products we design.

Noah Levin, VP Design at Figma, sheds light on this transition by highlighting three essential dimensions of our profession in the age of AI:

  • Product Design: If until now the approach was modular and focused on atomic elements, Noah Levin envisions an evolution towards pattern-based design. Repetitive tasks, such as pixel adjustments, layer organization, or grid definition, could be minimized. This would free up time to focus on problem identification, design strategy, and idea generation. While Design Systems have already initiated this transition, AI could amplify it with even more sophisticated tools.

  • Design Actors: The democratization of design tools will make idea materialization and interface creation increasingly accessible. In the face of this evolution, designers may need to set aside their ego to prioritize a collective vision. This will also involve increased specialization of roles within the profession. 

  • The Nature of Designed Products: While design has long been centered on concrete applications, the future could be dominated by language. The incorporation of AI into products will create new challenges and open up new areas of expertise. 

Jakob Nielsen, considered a leading authority in the field of user experience, has shared his thoughts on the intersection of design and AI for the future. According to him, by 2025, the landscape of required skills for designers will have transformed, with a growing need to master and integrate AI into their practices. In the face of sometimes alarmist discourse about the potential obsolescence of UX, Nielsen offers a reassuring perspective. His response to the question "Is UX in decline?" is unequivocal: "This idea, especially compared to an idealized past, is pure invention."

This positive vision suggests not only the sustainability of the profession but also its evolution and enrichment in the age of AI. And that is good news, isn't it?

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