#15 5 Critical Skills for UX Designers to Stay Ahead in the Era of AI
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Hello friends and welcome back to the future of UX podcast where we explore the latest trends and what's going on in the tech industry to stay up to date with innovation, user experience design and most importantly the future. My name is Patricia Reines, I am your host and I am innovation UX designer by date podcast host by night. No, just kidding.

I'm actually doing both during the day. Yes.

So thank you so much for tuning in today. This podcast will be or this podcast episode will be a special one because we will talk about one of my favorite topics, AI tools. We will talk about five skills that you as a UX designer need to have to be able to be successful in the future using AI and not be replaced by artificial intelligence.

I would say it's probably even more about the question, will AI replace us as designers? Will it take our jobs? I mean, spoiler alert, no, it won't.

But in this episode, I really want to talk about what are the skills and what is important for the future for us to learn, to know, to understand, to be successful in the future, right? Like this is what is interesting and important for us to know, to understand the situation, how to use AI, how to deal with it and how to really make the most out of this new, I mean, it's not really new, right? About all the new tools that are coming using AI.

By the way, I am in Cape Town at the moment, so I'm not in Berlin like usual. So I hope the quality is great and you don't hear my boyfriend talking in another call or so in the background. If so, then just ignore it and enjoy this amazing episode.

So let's start with the question: Will AI replace us as UX designers, as UI designers? And I can already say no, it definitely won't be. So it's very, very unlikely that AI will completely replace UX designers in the near future. But what is important to know is that AI can assist us with some aspects of UX design, such as generating design options or predicting user behavior.

And it definitely cannot replace creativity, empathy and critical thinking skills that are essential for a successful UX designer or also for a successful UX design. And UX in general is a multidisciplinary field that involves understanding user needs, conducting research, creating personas, designing user interfaces and testing it. I mean, you all know that, right?

And AI can automate certain parts of these routines or these routine tasks that are involved in the UX design process. But it won't replace the human element of understanding human behavior and designing with empathy. And this is really, really important.

What's also really important to understand is that AI can sometimes create biased or flawed designs if the data used to train the AI is biased or incomplete. And this can happen actually pretty easily. And this is also where human UX designers can provide a critical perspective and ensure that the designs are inclusive and effective for a diverse range of users.

right so when you really think about using chat gpt for example this is like such a big term or such an important thing at the moment everyone talks about it everyone uses it and tries it out and you probably would also never just copy and paste something that AI or that chat gpt tells you and use it right away you would just like really go through it and see if it is valid if it's true if it's what you want to come across

So in this podcast, we are going to talk about five future skills that a successful UX designer should have or also should consider developing to stay relevant in the era of AI. So we will talk about these five skills. We will also talk about an example and I will share some resources about like how to learn it best if you think that is something that you want to learn and that you want to develop within yourself.

So let's start with the first topic and that's understanding AI and machine learning. So as AI and machine learning become more relevant in the design process, UX designers should have a basic understanding of these technologies. They should be able to work with data scientists to use AI to generate insights about user behavior and design better interfaces. And I think

In the last years, there was always this super big discussions if designers should learn how to code. I personally think like as a UX designer, you don't need to code. It's not necessary. Of course, it is helpful.

But what is definitely needed is to have a basic understanding of code, right? Because this is like the very next step or this is what is also involved in design process to really understand what is actually doable and what is not doable. And the same with AI. And AI will be probably much more like a future topic than just like coding websites. So you don't need to

in-depth understand AI, be able to code something yourself with AI. But you need to have a basic understanding of how it works, what is actually doable and not think that this is some kind of like a black box where you put something in and then something comes out.

So AI and machine learning. So a successful UX designer should understand how AI and machine learning can be applied to design. For example, they should be able to use machine learning to analyze user data and generate insights that can be used to create more personalized design. So your task would be to really understand, you know, you go through the whole design process, through the whole design flow.

And really think about which tasks can be automated, where does it really make sense to include AI? And to understand that and to know that you need to have tried a lot of tools, you need to make your own experiences.

and also evaluate them and think like okay was that now a really good decision to use AI or not so much to be able to know how to deal with AI in the next design process. So how can you learn that? There are many of course some online courses available also on Coursera or Udemy for example but some

Books that I can recommend and I think they are also really really helpful here are for example Machine Learning for Designers by Patrick Hebron or Artificial Intelligence for Humans by Jeff Heaton. They could be very very helpful. And to stay up to date on the latest developments in AI make sure that you follow industry leaders and publications such as the Google AI blog

MIT Technology Review or AI News on Reddit could be very useful. Okay, so let's come to point number two of the things that a successful UX designer should know or a skill that he should be able to develop in the future to be successful working with AI.

So the second topic is collaboration with data scientists. Working with data scientists and other specialists in the field of AI can really help your ex-designers gain insights and data-driven information to create more effective and personalized design.

And for this collaborations, you of course also need to have the skill number one, which is understanding AI and machine learning. So number two is much more about the collaboration. And we are used to collaborate with developers, with researchers, with designers, with branding experts, but not so much, at least at the moment, with data scientists, because this is still a very different field and this will change in the future.

So a UX designer could collaborate with data scientists to create a more, you know, data-driven design process. So if I would be you, I would see if I know any data scientists, maybe there are some even in the team that you're working with, maybe in the company that you're working with, and just reach out to them, schedule a call and try to understand how they work to get a better understanding when it comes to including them in the design process.

So a great way to learn how to collaborate with a data scientist is also to find a mentor or attend any meetups or events focused on data science and UX design. And some resources for finding data science and UX meetups can also be at meetup.com or Eventbrite.

It's also helpful to learn some of the basic concepts and tools used by data scientists such as Python or Jupyter Notebooks. You can also do that through online courses or through books. Okay, let's come to point number three, which is prototyping and testing with AI.

So prototyping and testing with AI could help UX designers create more effective designs. Designers should know how to use AI tools to rapidly test and validate designs with users. So one example would be a UX designer could use AI tools to create rapid prototypes and conduct user testing. For example, they could use AI generated voice assistant to test and improve voice user interfaces, for example.

Prototyping and testing with AI is also using ChatGPT for example to create copy or to use certain Figma plugins for example, which I'm going to talk about in a second, that just help you to create a quicker result, that help you to provide all the necessary information to be able to test the prototype appropriately. So how do you learn how to prototype and test with AI?

So there are many tools or when you mention Figma or Sketch with AI plugins or voice assistant SDKs such as Dialogflow or Rasa and also online courses or tutorials that teach how to build AI prototypes and conduct user testing. That could be very helpful.

Some of the Figma plugins that you should definitely check out that I find very interesting is for example AI Color Generator. And this plugin generates color palettes for design projects using machine learning algorithms. And it also analyzes the colors of a selected image and creates a color palette based on the image dominant colors. Super interesting. There's also the remove

BG, Remove Background plugin. And this plugin uses AI technology to remove background of an image. And this is useful for creating product images or, you know, any kind of like collages or something without the need for Photoshop or other image editing software. In my design, I need to remove the background a lot. So this is already like pretty helpful. It helps me in my design workflow.

And there's also the plugin called Artboard Studio. And this plugin allows you to create realistic mockups for your design in real time using AI to simulate different materials, lighting, and also shadow effects. So it's pretty cool. Check them out. And let's come to point number four, which is focus on ethics and trust. And this is such an important topic and point.

as AI continues to affect UX design, designers should focus on ethics and trust. And this is already a huge, huge topic in design. They should consider the potential consequences of using AI in design and ensure that their design are ethical and unbiased. And this is definitely a challenge, also a future challenge.

So as a UX designer, you should be able to consider ethical implications of using AI in design. For example, they could ensure that their designs are inclusive and unbiased and they do not perpetrate harmful stereotypes or discriminate against certain groups of users.

So you really need to check that to be able to know if it's ethical correct, if it's not harmful to certain groups.

So how do you learn about ethics and trust in design, which is a super, super, super important topic, especially for the future? So there are many books and courses available about that topic. One is Design for Real Life by Eric Meyer and Sarah Wachabodna or Ethics for Designers by Tim Frick.

It could also be super helpful about learning about accessibility and inclusive design and to follow organizations such as the World Wide Web Consortium, Web Accessibility Initiative or the Design Adjustive Network to just name a few. Okay and let's come to the last point which is

Upskilling with AI design tools. So UX designers should develop skills in using AI tools such as predictive analytics or natural language processing. And these skills will enable them to create more personalized and effective interfaces for users.

Upskilling is an important topic and this has already been changed in the last decade or something like that since digitalization basically where you are able to upskill very easily and sometimes even for free in the areas you are most interested in.

And this will become even more important in the future, right? Because at some point you might want to niche down to a certain topic or area where you're really interested in or really find the area you're most interested in, right?

So one example is upskilling with AI tools such as, I already mentioned predictive analytics on language processes.

So they could use predictive analytics to recommend products or services to users based on their behavior or use natural language processes to improve chatbot or voice assistant interfaces. But this is still very, very niche. So these skills, for example, like not a lot of designers have it, but it will become very important in the future, like many other topics.

So having these skills is super, super helpful. And you can use AI for these upskilling processes, right? So how do you learn now how to use these AI design tools?

So it's helpful to start by understanding the basics of the tools and their capabilities. For example, learning the basics of predictive analytics or natural language processes through online courses or books could be very helpful. It's also helpful to try out some super interesting tools such as Google's AutoML or IBM Watchen to gain hands-on experience.

Additionally, joining online communities such as the AI design group on LinkedIn could be helpful for learning and networking with other professionals. So as you see, going through the five future skills, which is understanding AI and machine learning, collaboration with data scientists,

prototyping and testing with AI, focus on ethics and trust, and upskilling with AI design tools. It's super important, you know, when you really sum that up, is to niche down, understand what is going on at the moment. Don't be scared that they will replace your job. They definitely won't. But they will replace some repetitive tasks. So if you in your work are doing 90% repetitive tasks,

At the moment, you can already start to upskill, really focus on these five areas, five skills that I mentioned and start to develop them today because they will become very important in the near future. And if you already have the skills, that will be super, super beneficial for you.

Yes, so I will be a little helper for us and I hope it was helpful for you sharing these future skills with you. Please let me know what you think. I'm always very, very curious what was your biggest learning, what was maybe a question you had.

Yeah, just reach out to me on Instagram, either ux.patricia, which is my personal Instagram account or future of ux podcast. This is the podcast Instagram account. You can always reach me there, ask questions, connect or just say hi. I just really love to connect with you and hear your thoughts and ideas about these topics. And yeah.

Yes, thank you so much for listening. I think it will be a great future for all of us, especially using AI and removing all the horrible repetitive tasks. So I am super excited about all the new features. Thank you so much for listening and hear you in the future.