John winced as another notification popped up on his screen. Another user complaint about BudgetByte, his innovative finance app. “Confusing layout,” “unintuitive steps,” “gave up halfway” — the words swam before his eyes. John envisioned a future where BudgetByte seamlessly integrated with users’ lives, not created roadblocks. But how? The design world was abuzz with talk of AI revolutionizing UI design. Could artificial intelligence be the key to crafting an experience so effortless, so frictionless it felt invisible? John wasn’t sure if AI meant a robot overlord stealing design jobs, or a powerful tool to unlock the future of user experience.
Now the story of John displays how designers think of AI these days as a replacement for human innovative UX Design, but is the future of UI/UX Designers really endangered by the “EVIL” AI?
To answer this important question, I’ve researched and tried out different AI tools that claim to do the exact work a product designer does.
Firstly, the current level of UI AI tools aren’t THAT advanced that they could solve complex UX problems, for example, create a certain feature in some app with the exact details wanted.
Secondly, UI/UX design requires empathy and a human touch. We see in any job post the requirement for “Human-Centered UX Skills,” something we learn as designers, and many new designers miss it (they go straight into learning UI tools and rules and forget the most important parts of it).
To conclude, John read my article and knew that AI wasn’t the solution for his problem. He knew the best solution was to hire a product designer to redesign and find the problems in his current designs. John did so, and many clients thanked him for fixing the flow. Months after this, John talked with his product designer and found out that he used some UI tools to boost his productivity and deliver better results. He understood that AI is far away from taking UI jobs and is more of a booster for UX Designers!
First published on Medium, on 4 May 2024.
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