#35 Is UX Design still a Future-Proof Career?
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Is your ex still a future-proof career? This is the question that we will have a very close look at in today's episode.

Welcome back to the podcast, the future of UX. It's super great to have you. And I'm back from my social media break and from a super relaxed and recharging summer. Now the podcast is back and we will be focusing on all AI topics, UX, the future of design. Yeah, everything that we need to catch up on, all the things that happened over the summer.

And there honestly have been quite some exciting things happened in the last couple of weeks and we will have a closer look at all of these things. One of the things that I find especially fascinating are all the automation tools and all the text prompt tools. One of the tools

that I had a very close look at one of the tools from Wix. Wix is a website design software website hosting service where you can create your own website. And they recently released a new feature where you can just enter a text prompt and create your whole website.

create a whole website based on that text prompt and a little description of how the website should look like.

If you want to see how that looks, I created a reel about the new feature on my Instagram. I will link it in the description box so you can just check it out and see what's happening there. For me, super, super interesting. But Wix is not the only company who's focusing on these kind of things. There's also Figma. I mean, we've all heard about it.

Figma is focusing on a lot of AI or like also a lot of developers or external people are building AI plugins for Figma besides the AI integration into Figma itself and these plugins help you to create wireframes, whole designs, basically anything with just text prompts.

And there are other design or UX/UI design tools like UISart. I honestly don't really know how to pronounce it. It's U-I and then SART. Probably all heard about that tool and they released also some new features a couple of months ago. Yeah, same features almost like the Figma wireframes.

You can enter a text prompt, describe how the app should look like, for example, like an app for a vegan recipe app. Then you say, yeah, it should be very modern and futuristic, minimal, playful colors. Then it creates the whole flow for you and you can edit the copy, edit the images, edit everything.

So this is a huge game changer and I totally get when people are a little bit frightened or scared about their career because those are things that usually designers did or are still doing and now almost everyone can do these things just by entering a text prompt. So in this episode we will talk a little bit about all the things that you need to know when it comes to the future, how AI is actually

changing the way how we work. We will talk about some misconceptions, how to integrate AI into the UX process, of course, and also about the future and how roles will change. So,

One thing I want to start with, one thing that I find pretty, pretty interesting, because at the moment there's a lot of discussion going on about AI. You hear it everywhere on LinkedIn, on Instagram, even in the design teams everywhere.

As you know, I am doing a lot of workshops for companies, for agencies, where I educate them about how to use AI tools to really boost their workflows. So I know pretty well about those discussions that are going on. And the second thing is also on conferences or any kind of public or internal events, AI is a huge topic.

And one thing that I find pretty interesting is that there's a lot of talking going on. So last month, almost like pretty much before my social media break, I went to a conference that also focused a little bit on AI. And there was actually like a panel going on where the panelists discussed AI.

AI plugins and AI tools and I found it pretty interesting because they talked about the research AI plugins for Figma.

For those who don't know those plugins or who haven't tried it out, those are just like plugins that you can use. I think you can start for free, but then you need to pay for it. And it helps you to create user personas, research questions. And based on like a certain data set, they also create insights from users.

interviews that are actually not real. So they are creating the whole process for you without doing the actual interviews based on a lot of interviews that are in their database that have already taken place. So what I have seen is that all panelists haven't tried out the tools yet.

They haven't had a look at it, they just know what it's generally about. And every one of them said that it's like total bullshit, you shouldn't use it, it's not good, it's not something that you should use at all, you should do your own research and shouldn't really integrate these kind of tools in your design process. And I personally absolutely don't agree with this opinion.

I think before you judge a tool, before you judge a plugin or anything like that, try it out yourself. Because when you hear about it, it might sound a little bit strange, but just like try it out yourself. You can talk a lot about different things, but when you don't try it out yourself, when you test it, when you really try to break the tools where you find things that are working great, things that are not so great, you get your own opinion on it.

And this is super important. And when you test these tools, this is what I actually did with one of the plugins, is I...

went through like a past project and this was about actually like a vegan recipe app we did a lot of research on that and then I asked like the same prompts or the same research questions where I entered them to into the Figma plugin tool and what I realized is that the results from

um, the AI plugin and the, and the, the actual research that took place and the insights, they're very, very similar. And I found this is super, super interesting because what you would say, or what like the panelists said in that conference is that, yeah, it's, it's not that great. It's not that helpful, but I wouldn't say it that way because for some people,

cases or from for some scenarios I mean a vegan recipe app is not something like super special there have been a million interviews already done about these topics so there you know is a lot going on there's also like a lot information about these kind of things in the internet it might be very different if it comes to more niche topics

where not so much information about the internet when you really focus on a very specific user group for example what happens with you know people with certain disabilities or if you want to design an app that is focusing especially on bankers for example who want to integrate vegan recipes

to go in their daily life plan. Like I have a lot of questions about that. I want to know like how their life actually looks, how they can integrate it, what kind of nutrients they're looking for. So there are a lot of questions and I'm pretty sure if the more niche it gets, the more difficult it is.

But saying that, I think it's very important for us when we talk about these tools, when we try it out ourselves, if we really test how good they are and if we really see how we can use them better than just like talking about it and talking about it. Try it out. Less talking, more doing. And the second thing that I noticed that I find a little bit challenging is that

There is a lot of fear and resistance. I already talked about the AI workshops that I'm doing and especially when I'm going to companies that are a little bit more in the suburb areas, a little bit smaller with some, I would say, older generations. Some people are very hesitant to use AI.

Because they are very scared about that AI might take over their job. So they rather don't use it at all to give the CEO or their manager the impression of that they are the only one who's capable of really doing the work and that AI is not useful at all.

Although they might know that it actually is not that bad. But they are very resistant and fearful. And this is, although they think that's very helpful for their future, this is exactly the thing that is holding them back and...

yeah making it even easier to replace them at some point so i think those are the really big challenges that i'm seeing at the moment first is the people who are just like talking talking talking and don't really try things out making their own experiences and um being really curious about the future and the second thing is for sure that there's a lot of fear and resistance

about being replaced but the truth is if you don't try these things yourself you will be replaced at some point for sure so there is just one thing about really going to the future and that really leads us to the second really big thing of this episode which is how do you actually integrate AI in the UX process in the design process and

And when we have a look at the, you know, very basic UX process, although it looks different for every project, I know that. But we will just get started with a very basic project. I always use an example project that is easy.

designing an app that helps you find the perfect snack for your wine. I really like wine, like white wine or red wine, but I think it's always nice if you offer some kind of like treats that are a good pairing with the wine. So we are creating an app for this kind of idea. So the first thing that we would do is to do research.

I have an idea of who the target audience is and what they might want. But to be honest, like I'm not super sure of what their need really is. And also not really sure about what kind of problems they're actually having when it comes to finding the like the food, like the snacks, like, you know, cheese or something like that. And the wine, like how the shopping experience actually looked like.

So I would do research and for the first step I would already integrate AI as a support. I would schedule interviews.

For example, using Otter.ai that can help me record and synthesize the interviews and the videos. Everyone who's done research for a design project knows how much time it actually takes to synthesize all the interviews, to go through all the videos and write down all the insights and then really synthesize it.

Otter.ai is a tool that is super helpful for that. I will also link it in the description box. But soon this will also be integrated in a lot of other tools. Microsoft talked about their co-pilot project. So these kind of things will be integrated in like a lot of the video streaming services.

Also for the questions, for the synthesis, for all these kind of things I am using ChatGPT to help me come up with like not only the questions but for the synthesis, for also coming across or like explaining the research insights with maybe like a stakeholder or another founder or someone who's investing in this idea. That really helps me to frame these kind of things.

And also when I'm thinking about the next step, the ideation, when I'm really thinking about ideas, ChatGPT is absolutely amazing for these kind of things. I mean, I talked a lot about how to use ChatGPT on Instagram or also other podcast episodes, how you can really use that. And for ideation, it's absolutely great. Really thinking, you know, using the problems that you came up with in the research process and then thinking about ideas,

how you can actually create new ideas for the problems that you came up with. So really generate ideas, ask about features, things that you can test, and then really build your first project.

wireframe your first ideas. And for these kind of things, of course, you could integrate different kinds of Figma tools for the first really easy wireframe that you could test with your users. You could use one of the tools that I mentioned in the beginning, UISold, for example. I honestly prefer Figma because I like to have everything in one place. So everything is really organized.

I do some kind of like testings. I use the results to improve it. I create already in the meantime some kind of like a design or a brand. If I don't have a brand design, I do it myself. So I start with a mood board.

Then I'm using Midjourney, the image creation or like image generation tool via Discord where I am adding certain kind of prompts to create like a mood board, a vision how things will look like and then I'm using this mood board to create a good brand. For the design process itself, especially for branding,

I couldn't really find a good tool that helps me to come up with very consistent and beautiful brand. There are some tools, but I wouldn't really recommend them. I think like branding is something really challenging and there you really need good designers to come up with like good branding ideas.

Yes, and then also when I'm done with the testing, when I found like a good version that I want to publish or I want to deploy, then I can send that Figma to my developers. And there are also some really cool features that are helpful. So from my experience, it's really helpful to go through your own workflow and think about certain steps that you could some kind of like support with AI tools and

and just like test it out. To get started ChatGPT, I would say it's a really great way to help you, especially if you're a little bit more like junior and need a lot of support or when you are a freelancer and don't have a colleague you can talk to. Sometimes it's really nice to get feedback on ideas or get a certain, get the, you know, the creative juices flowing by getting some kind of like input from ChatGPT and work from that.

But always, of course, be really cautious with biases, with hallucinations, with things that are not completely right and also with company data if it's aligned with your company or the agency. So if you can actually use these kind of tools. So what does the future really hold for UX designers when we are, you know, going through the third part of this podcast and thinking about how things will actually evolve in the

And there's one thing that I am already seeing because it will get much, much easier to really use these tools. A lot of people are already using these tools, playing around with it. But for my experience, I think designers are transitioning much, much more into consultant designers, into advisors with a very...

like key skill of being able to understand very complex relationships and really also judge the quality of solutions and although this sounds very easy it's very challenging because for that you need to understand what you actually want as an outcome so writing these prompts we are seeing that in chat gpt is the true challenge to frame it in a way that you get an outcome that you want

In the best case, you already need what the outcome should be. So you need to be very precise. You need to know what is possible and you need to understand the surrounding. And for that, you need to really define what the problem is, what the solution is. And you need to think on your own still. And then give a certain task to chat GPT.

to get a certain outcome and then being able to judge and qualify the solutions if they are actually solving the problem, if they're actually good or not so much. And this is still a lot of, you know, brain work that you need to do and that is also going to stay that way.

It will become easier, but you always need to have people, designers who understand the landscape, to understand what's going on and to have some kind of like the superpower of all the tools, of all the single steps that are happening at the moment. So critical thinking in evaluating design skills will be very important. And one thing that is helpful at the moment is to

You know, when you are designing something, really think about like, why am I doing a certain thing? Why am I choosing this color? Why am I placing it this way? What is the reason behind it? What is the problem that we are solving? And really have that in your mind helps you so much to really grow as the designer and to help you to develop that future mindset.

Okay, now let's switch to point number four. And I think this is also very, very interesting when it comes to is UX still a future-proof career? And the truth is, of course, designers are always going to be very important for creating products. But there are also new roles. There are also new roles. So in 10 years, maybe,

there are no UX designers anymore because UX designers will niche down, focus on other topics and the term of the UX is not there anymore. For example, UX designers could focus on the ethical part, really like on AI ethics, which will be a really important thing when it comes to how the data is used, what kind of data is used

being used to create that product, but also how is the data that is like the input data from the users is being used. So there are a lot of interesting challenges to solve, also how to communicate that to the user. So that will be a very important thing. Everything around conversations, talking to the users, AR, VR, when we are thinking about the spatial design and the Vision Pro,

Web3 and Metaverse, this will be a very interesting topic. Also accessibility and inclusion is super super important. I am still seeing a lot of websites that are not really inclusive and

are also not really accessible for people. So there are a lot of interesting niche topics. I also did a podcast episode about what are interesting niches to focus as UX designers. So feel free to check that out. But keep in mind that there are new niches popping up. So in case you want to really focus on a certain topic and narrow down

There are a lot of new niches coming. And when you find that, feel free to go deep on that, research, share content about that, build your own personal brand about that topic and build your own career. I think that's super, super important. So to summarize these things, is UX still a future-proof career choice? I would say yes, but of course, you need to work a little bit on your mindset. Otherwise, you will...

get left behind I would say there are some misconceptions so really make sure that you try things out that although you might be fearful and resistant at some point really get the idea super clear that we need to use AI in an ethical correct and in a good way for our processes.

So when we are thinking about AI integration in UX, think about your own little steps where you can integrate AI in the workflow, try things out, discuss that with your team and really see where this leads you. And when we are thinking about the future of UX, also designers are going to change a little bit from the, you know, from like the pixel perfect, pixel...

in Germany we say like "Pixel Schubser", you know, people who are like pushing the pixels into people who are just more advisors, who are just more consultants, who are taking over the communication also with the machines and with the AI systems. And there the critical thinking and really understanding complex relationships

And judging the quality of solutions is super important. And the last things are, of course, that roles are changing. So your ex-designer might be replaced by different kind of people, by a metaverse designer or spatial designer, by an AI ethics designer, by a sustainable future designer, conversational designer, accessibility inclusion designer. So there are a lot of things really popping up.

that are super interesting for us. So I think as we wrap up today's episode, it's evident that UX really remains a dynamic field with an immersed potential. While there are of course concerns and misconceptions, embracing technologies like AI can enhance our capabilities as designers. And remember, staying open to change and continuous learning is the real key to a future-proof career in UX. So

Thank you so much for tuning in today's episode. If you want to learn more, I am always sending out a newsletter every Friday morning with all the tech news, AI news, UX insights. Feel free to sign up. Then you get that delivered to your mailbox. Don't miss anything.

And I am also working on an AI for Designer course. So in case that's interesting for you, feel free to sign up for the waitlist. I will add that in the description box so you don't miss it because it will only be open for a really short time. So my friends, I would say until next time, stay curious and keep designing for a better future. Hear you in the future.