Design for the AI Age

One way I visualize this relationship between the form of traditional UI and the function of AI is through the metaphor of a ‘workbench’. Just as a carpenter's workbench is familiar and purpose-built, providing an organized environment for tools and materials, a well-designed interface can create productive context for AI interactions. Rather than ... See more

I believe a better option is to build a functional application with a more traditional UI and then complement it with AI functions.

We’re likely going to have to reinvent our design processes – working forward to understand capabilities, rather than backwards from user needs.

But we face a fundamental tension in that AI sort of breaks our usual way of designing things, working back from function, and shaping the form.

Form acts as a way to set the context – like the way an axe looks and feels in your hand, you get an immediate sense of its purpose.

This shift from deterministic traditional UI to something more unbridled raises a challenge for designers: with no predictable journeys to optimize, how do you create consistent, high-quality experiences?

The role of design is to bring form around the function. Form acts as a way to set the context – like the way an axe looks and feels in your hand, you get an immediate sense of its purpose.