🦆 Interaction Nerds by UXA | F23.04
Future of Design: Shifting to Bee-Centered Design, How will AI Affect UI/UX Design, and Future of Design in Start-ups
👋 Announcements — UXA Families!
Happy (almost) fall! Classes are in full swing (and stress levels might be rising…) so it’s extra important now to make time for friends & social support networks.
Come to our first UXA Families event for a speed dating session this Wednesday 9/20 from 5-6 at Tepper 2612!! Get a chance to connect with other UXA members to later be matched into a family! If you are unable to make it but still interested in being in a family, look out for a Google form this week.
🍎 Campus Compass — Introduction to DeXign Futures
Written & edited by: Ahana Banerjee 🧸
🤔 What is Introduction to DeXign Futures (51-387)?
This 9-unit course helps students become design leaders, strategists, change-makers, and even activists who can tackle complex real-world challenges. And the best part? You can do this in various disciplines including business, government, nonprofits, and philanthropy! Introduction to DeXign Futures (51-387) prepares you with the necessary skills to become a force behind future change. Plus, you'll learn how to align your creations with the direction these changes are headed!
🤷 Who Should Take It?
Are you the kind of designer who loves diving into the unknown, navigating through uncertainty, and embracing change as a chance for creativity? If so, this course is for you! There are no prerequisites, so get ready for an exciting journey of growth, learning, and making a real impact! You'll join a community of like-minded individuals passionate about UX and design and be encouraged to network and collaborate. Whether you're just starting or have experience, this course is your gateway to an impactful and rewarding career.
🧐 What Will I Learn?
Introduction to DeXign Futures will teach you how to creatively solve problems, put users first, conduct research, prototype ideas, and design with flair. You'll also practice information architecture, interaction design, usability testing, and effective communication. The course will offer you the opportunity to refine your visual design expertise and learn to communicate your decisions effectively. With strong project management skills and adaptability, you'll be well-prepared for a successful career in the field.
🍀 Editor’s Pick — Shifting to ‘Bee-centered design’?
Written & edited by: 🕺 Arin Pantja
Critical thinking is paramount in Human-Centered Design (HCD) and standard design processes – through gathering user needs, understanding them, and designing solutions for various challenges. But how often do we critically think about our approach to design and our work methodologies?
Jesse Weave, a digital product designer, proposes the concept of "bee-centered design" as an alternative perspective that looks into the way we engage in design thinking.
🎯 Resource — How will AI Affect UI/UX Design?
Written & edited by: 🥸 Kaitlyn Ng
“AI” — Artificial Intelligence — is a hot topic within the UX community, and its role in design has been heavily discussed and debated.
⚙️ Is AI ultimately a beneficial tool 🔨 that assists designers or an unethical hinderance 🧗♂️ that will replace designers?
🧐 What is AI in UX?
AI, in broad terms, is simulated human thinking by machines. A few UX tasks AI can perform include:
✏️ generating wireframes/code from sketches
🖼️ creating text, images, and videos
👥 searching for user-centric solutions
❇️ Pros of AI
AI offers multiple ways of effectively speeding up and improving the UX process:
🤹♂️ Personalization: in terms of physical product (eg. unique Nutella packaging labels) or language translation (eg. Netflix banners)
🚗 Automation: testing site/product usability
🖌️ Content Generation: unique and original text, code, logos, etc.
⛔ Cons of AI
Although AI may provide ways of improving the design field, it also comes with many faults:
🔐 Privacy and security: considering that AI isn’t human, how do we know that sensitive user data will not be stolen or misused?
🧑⚖️ Ethics: biased or prejudiced data could generate a discriminatory AI resulting in discriminatory user experiences.
⚖️ Moderation: how should the designer role be balanced between AI and human?
🚀 Model-as-a-Service: instead of focusing on design itself, there may be a shift to focus on AI improvement as AI becomes more accessible and powerful.
🧑🎨 Conclusion: Will Designers be Replaced by AI?
Short answer: No.
A key component of UX design is human empathy. Good UX creates meaningful experiences for its users, and empathy allows human UX designers to understand human users. AI may provide tools to assist designers, but processes like ideation/brainstorming and problems such as plagiarism illustrate that we still need human intervention. No matter how powerful or complex AI may get in the future, no machine will ever get a feeling like empathy just right. 🫂
🙈 Fun - Data Doodles
🤔 Who’s behind the scenes?
Thanks for reading this week’s Interaction Nerds by CMU UXA! The editors behind this week’s issue are 😊 Eunice Lee, 🥸 Kaitlyn Ng, 😈 Sophie McGrady, 🧸 Ahana Banerjee, 🕺 Arin Pantja, 🐳 Alana Wu, and 🦝 Caleb Sun.
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