This final post continues my blog posts based on the conclusions of my trip to Belgium. This one is about how AI changes the game for designers.
I was in a lot of conversations in the past weeks. One overarching theme was the change to design as a job. The big shift that is happening in software due to AI is also causing a big change in the perception towards UI and UX design.
At the risk of oversimplifying; after the internalization of UX, many people landed in software teams with an overindexed focus on design systems.
It’s always been a bit wrong to “follow the sprint” but many designers are in that kind of job. They are creating and modifying screen designs without being in the strategy seat. They have to fight for any access to users and often don’t even talk to a real person using their design work for weeks or months on end.
Design never got it’s seat at the management table: that seat went to product managers who decided what to do next.
Now that the “design system” is a solved problem in some companies — or something that can be solved by a templatized solution in others — many are wondering what’s left to do for designers.
My answer has always been to focus on the actual design problem at hand. What are we solving, why and how? Invest in research, make a drawing, validate with stakeholders and then make it as real as possible to present it to the user.
I believe now that it’s possible to do prototyping and validation work that used to take a few weeks in a few days, many smart teams will likely scale down how much design they need on a permanent basis.
Within the work itself, I think many types of in-between work for UI designers will just simply disappear. Especially for business software based on standard patterns.
Some work that used to take a lot of time will likely be done by less people, sometimes not even designers. Smart front-end developers or product managers will fill gaps where they used to need a designer. This will lead to “mediocre” designers essentially being pushed out of their job.
This then leads me to conclude that the overall level you need as a designer to stand out will be much higher. It’s one of the reasons I’ve decided to narrow my hiring search to freelancers only.
As for how someone can stand out, I keep going back to UX/UI designers with an initial training in either graphic design or front-end development. IGood work is going to come down to being great at your craft, and being dynamic at switching roles in a project. The same work will be done by less people.
As a designer you will need to be able to switch between project roles more fluidly, while at the same time being able to fall back on your initial training and specific UX’er knowledge (research techniques and user-centered design activities).
As a designer, I don’t see the flood of new AI tools as a danger to my job. In fact, I am excited to see how they can help me do a better job.