#12 Top 8 Ways ChatGPT Can Support UX Designers in Their Workflow
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Hello everyone and welcome back to the future of UX podcast where we explore the latest trends and tools in user experience design. My name is Patricia Reiners and I'm a UX and Innovation Designer from Berlin.

So today we are talking about ways in which ChatGPT, a powerful language modeling tool developed by OpenAI, can support UX designers in their workflow. So for me, when I'm hearing about new tools, new trends, new tech, I'm always curious what this actually means for us as UX designers. And I tried it out. I used it for different parts of the UX process.

And to be honest, wow, I'm honestly really impressed. So in this podcast episode, I want to talk with you about eight ways how you can use ChatGPT in your UX workflow. But before we are coming to that, let's clarify real quick what ChatGPT actually is. So

ChatGPT is a language model developed by OpenAI and it is based on GPT generative pre-trained transformer architecture which is some kind of like a machine learning model that is trained on a very very large data set on text to generate natural language text so this is the output

So OpenAI trained ChatGPT on a massive dataset of conversational text and fine-tuned it to understand and respond to natural language inputs. And the goal of ChatGPT is to allow users to interact with a machine in a more natural and human-like way.

And it is a product of a lot of research, of course, and development efforts of the OpenAI team with the goal of creating advanced AI models that can assist users in various ways and various tasks. And we're going to talk about that, what that actually means for us as UX designers.

And I think it's really difficult to believe what is going on right now, right? Because ChatGPT reached a million of users in just five days. And to put that in perspective, it took Facebook 10 months and Netflix three years to reach the same milestone.

And that's a testament to how valuable these AI tools actually are to us. And soon it will be hard to imagine designing without them. So not only will they improve our process, but they will also enhance user experience of text interfaces everywhere. Not talking about chatbots, but also very small details in an app with really great copy.

So if you want to stay ahead of the game and what's coming on, it's crucial to learn how these tools work and then really take advantage of all the innovation opportunities they are offering. So trust me, using ChatGPT is like having your own personal AI assistant. And yeah, I've been using it for a few weeks now, but it's already on

It's definitely my personal assistant at the moment, so I'm using it for a lot of things. I would say let's get started with the first of the eight things how you can include ChatGPT in your UX workflow. The point number one is content generation or writing.

And one of the key areas where ChatGPT can help your X-Designers is in content creation. Whether it's writing product descriptions, it's creating user scenarios or generating microcopy, ChatGPT can save designers hours of time and effort by automatically generating high quality content.

And as many of you already know, JET GPT is a language model that is incredibly skilled at writing. So it can proofread like Grammarly, for example, it can generate creative responses when prompted. And, you know, imagine being able to say, yeah, write, for example, a post about a certain topic and having it instantly generated.

yeah without any need to do further more but you can just post it or even telling it to for example to write a blog post like zero optimized for a certain topic or for a certain product for a company that you're working with and then really seeing how it can instantly shift perspective and motivation and this is super interesting to see

And I am going to give you some examples of prompts that you can use when writing with chat GPT, such as, for example, writing an introduction for a user interview, for example,

writing certain alternatives for CTA buttons, for example, writing a product description page, for example. If you have a certain product and you need a description, you can prompt ChatGPT and they're writing the description for you. Creating survey questions, for example, or basically anything you can think of. Just really try it out.

or um yeah this is i think like super impressive and a perfect way to just get started so point number one already like content creation aka writing perfect to just get started with chat gpt and try it out

Point number two is research. And there I would kind of like differentiate a little bit between two different kinds of research. First is the basic desk research, right where you just Google things and you are looking online. And the second thing is the user research. I want to get started with like the main desk research. So before I chat GPT, finding information about a topic often required.

kind of like really going through multiple websites, googling a lot. But now this tool can actually take that for you. So really gathering all the knowledge on the subject just by asking simple questions.

For example, when you ask about what are different kinds to interact with clients, for example, will result in a really well articulated answer that really summarizes the best ways to approach a specific context or a specific topic.

And that could also be something like: "Just send me some examples about vegan recipe apps." It's also an example that I tried out just for a personal project.

or please name me some best practices from development tools or what are the best AI-based software tools at the moment, for example, or basically anything that you would just find out through Googling or if you're looking for any kind of competitors or any kind of software or basically anything that you need to research on. So ChatGPT can do that for you.

And then we have point number three, which is the user research. I already mentioned that. It's also a pretty valuable tool for user research because it can help your ex-designers or your ex-researchers in that process as well. For example, by analyzing large amounts of data, you can help really identify patterns and insights that would be difficult or

really time consuming for a human or UX researcher to uncover. It's also a very, I would say, like useful tool for

Kind of like conducting research, especially when it comes to understanding common knowledge of a subject. For example, if you ask: "What's a good user experience buying groceries?" It will result in a very detailed description of the user experience for a perfect grocery shopping experience.

So chat GPT is a really great starting point and can also serve as a conclusion to a research project. So if you're starting and you just want some basic information, you can just like ask some prompts and then see what's coming back.

Some example prompts that you can try out also right now if you're curious is for example "tell me a good user experience ordering a taxi" for example and then you will get like a very detailed descriptions of all the steps that are needed that are important from all the research that is already out there on the internet. Also understanding the underlying needs of young moms who need to do grocery shopping with their newborns

really interesting. Of course you could do research right away, but this is a great starting point to already get a sense of what's going on. Then let's go to point number four, which is the ideation and inspiration. And this is, I think, also a really cool thing when it comes to like starting a new project, coming up with new ideas, for example, or just like, yeah, wanting some ideas.

Let's say you're working on a UX project at the moment and you are just really unsure which methods to choose. So you could ask chat GPD. So I did that. I was asking, I'm working on a project for a vegan recipe app and don't know who my users might be.

So what is the best method to find it out? And then I got very detailed descriptions of like you can do surveys, you can do interviews, you can do user testing, you can do personas and analytics. Pretty cool. They also said, yeah, it's recommended to use a combination of these methods to gather a comprehensive understanding of your users and their needs. Pretty helpful and interesting. Just like to spark some ideas, to get some things in your head, especially if you are

don't know what to do or you're not that advanced. Point number five is prototyping. So another area where chat GPT can be incredibly useful is prototyping. By using natural language inputs, designer can really quickly generate interactive prototypes

of their designs without needing to write any code. So that's already possible. And although ChatGPT is primarily like a text-based language model,

it's still incredibly versatile and can generate like a wide range of outputs. For example, with the right prompts and context, you can use it to generate wireframes, SVGs and HTML code. And additionally, you can even have ChatGPT generate text prompts for other AI tools like DALI or ImageJourney, for example.

showcasing the ability of AI models to communicate with one another. And I think this is really mind blowing. So the possibilities are endless with ChatGPT's creative capabilities. Super cool. Another really interesting thing is

Of course, number six, and this is wireframing. Like I said, ChatGPT cannot create visuals yet, but it is already working. You know, if you ask for wireframes or flows in a written form by using natural language inputs, designers can quickly create

detailed like via frames in a written form, which really is time saving and effort. Although I wouldn't say at that point, like I tried it out for my fake vegan recipe app. I am not working on a vegan recipe app. I just tried that out for this little test and it was pretty interesting. So I asked, for example, how would the flow of a vegan recipe app look like?

yeah um generate user flow ideas for a vegan recipe app and then he said like yeah an ongoing flow with little description a recipe search and filtering meal planning in-app purchases social sharing personalized recommendation neutral information video tutorials and community features and everything was also written out and just and already described

So this was only in the text form but pretty helpful to get started and to get your creative juices flowing. And then point number seven is of course summarizing. So if you have any kind of data, really like a large amount of data, it can help identify patterns and insights that would be difficult or time consuming for user researcher to uncover.

For example, if you have like a super long white paper or any kind of like industry blog posts or user interviews, basically everything that has a lot of information, the tool can really help you and provide with very concise summaries of long text blocks, allowing you to quickly understand the main points, right?

So you can just simply ask what are the main points of this paper for example and they will or chatGPD will just like describe everything in a text. And then if it's like a very complicated topic and you don't really know what this all means

you can ask how would you describe that to a child? How would you describe that to your grandma? And then you get like a very different summary or different descriptions and then it's very helpful to use this kind of summary to understand certain topics.

especially as your ex-designer you work with so many different topics and focus on so many different things that of course you don't know everything but you need to understand new topics very quickly and I think this is especially helpful. And then the last point is accessibility testing and I think this is also pretty interesting when it comes to language, right?

Not only talking about different kind of languages, so when you need to translate certain parts and test it out, so the testing and the prototyping becomes faster. But the other really important thing is also to write copy that is accessible and that people really understand to ensure that the design is compliant with accessibility guidelines.

It can analyze the language used in the design and identify areas where the design may be difficult for users with disabilities to understand or use. And I think this is pretty, pretty important and super interesting, right? Because language is such a powerful tool and just like using the right words in the right order that people just understand what is happening.

Unbelievable. I'm just going to summarize the points again. So the first thing is really content generation and writing. But number two is the basic desk research. So if you just want to understand the topic, do some research about something, then number three is the user research. So how you can use a chat GPT in your user research process. Number four is the ideation and inspiration. If you just need to spark some ideas.

The prototyping is number five. Number six is via framing. Number seven is summarizing and number eight is accessibility and languages. Super cool. And although this all sounds too good to be true, we need to be aware of

data privacy issues. So at the moment, it's a little bit unclear. So for my recommendation, I wouldn't really use it for any sensitive data, also not for client projects. This is what I'm doing right now. So I'm using that for my own projects, for any kind of test projects, but I wouldn't really use it for a big company project when you're working on them. Usually they have some kind of like

their privacy issues so you're not allowed to use them. You're also not allowed to use Google Drive, for example, or Dropbox. They have their own system. So be really aware of that. You don't really know how they're going to use the data, how the whole thing is going to be used. So be really cautious about how to use it. I would recommend it to just like try it out, test it with your personal project, and then we'll see how far you can go. But yeah, just be really cautious with client projects here.

So, little summary: ChatGPT is a very powerful tool that can help UX designers in a variety of ways, from content generation and prototyping to user research and wireframing.

And whether you're a very experienced pro or just starting out, this tool is a valuable companion that can help you save time, effort and improve your workflow. And don't forget, we are just in the beginning. So this is like early stages of this tool, right? So don't forget it. Okay, for this episode, don't forget to rate it on Spotify or Apple Music or wherever you are listening to that.

episode or share it with a friend if you think it was helpful you learned some things you had some aha moments feel free to share it and if you want to hear more and learn more about the future of your ex don't forget to subscribe to my free newsletter where i'm sending out goodies um courses um a lot of free content for you to just really dive deeper into the topic

and be ahead of what's going on in the tech and in the design world okay so thank you so much for listening and be sure to tune in next time on our next episode about the future of experience design thank you so much for listening and hear you in the future