#41 Personalization for AI Interfaces
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AI for your ex design means personalization, but what does personalization actually means? This is the topic of today's podcast episode. Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Future of Your Ex podcast. I am your host Patricia Reiners and today we are diving into a topic that's super interesting. It's a topic about AI and personalization of our interfaces.

So hello friends, I am so happy that you are back because today's episode is super interesting. It will be a little bit shorter topic, but one that is packed with insights. So being a UX designer at the moment is definitely a super interesting and important topic.

Being a UX designer at the moment means that you are facing all kind of changes from collaborating with clients in the same design file to a lot of new plugins in Figma, a lot of new tools like ChatGPT that you need to integrate in your workflow mid-journey for images, a lot of video calls, metaverse topics. So there's a lot going on at the moment.

But I feel AI is at the moment the hottest topic and the reason for it is that AI has a lot of potential. And with potential I mean immediate potential, right?

Because AI changes a lot, not only our workflows and that it can help us with certain tasks like summarizing user research, getting insights out of it or coming up with survey questions, helping us come up with names with the good, you know, Figma plugins, for example, but also about how we can actually design our interfaces when we have AI driven products. So

When I am talking about AI products or how AI is changing the user experience of different kind of interfaces, there's a, I would say, really big transformation happening and this is personalization. Because with AI in the next couple of years we will see a lot of really personalized experiences. And how does that look like in action?

I would say some of the changes are that we are going from general experiences to more personalized experiences. So at the moment when you have a look at your Spotify or at Netflix, you still see a very generalized experience, although some things are already personalized and this is because of AI.

So on Netflix for example, all of the preview images, I mean I already talked about it a lot of times, the preview images that you see for the movies or for the series that you are watching looks personalized to your watching history. So if you are someone who watches a lot of romantic comedy for example, then your preview images look very different to someone who looks more like drama, horror movies.

So it adjusts based on your watch history. And there's of course an AI in the background. Same with Spotify. There are certain AI generated playlists already for you or your weekly personalized plays. They also are personalized to you.

But this will go even further thinking about interfaces that will look different for a different kind of user based on their skills, based on what they need, what they look and not only about the content itself. Okay.

So I will talk about four different ways how AI is changing our interfaces. And those are the things that we as designers also need to be aware of and need to understand. And I think this is super interesting. And then I will talk about a lot of examples. So hopefully this gives you some inspiration for your work as well.

I already dived into the first topic which is generalized experiences will be replaced by personalized experiences. So AI is gathering all kind of data and is able to synthesize the data points pretty quickly and will move the general experiences more to personalized experiences.

And from a UX point of view, this also means that we need to think about adaptable interfaces, interfaces that are changing based on different learning styles, on different needs, on different problems that users might have. This still sounds very futuristic and almost impossible, but this is something that's definitely coming.

So the second thing that I find very interesting is that you think about search at the moment. So you are searching with Google, for example, but it will be a little bit different in the future because not you search, but you ask something and then you get suggestions. And this is very, very different, right? Because at the moment when you search for something, it needs to be very specific about what you actually want.

And in the future, you already see that with a little bit like chat GPT, I mean, there's still some room for improvement, right? But you ask something and then you get certain suggestions like what could be interesting to you, what could be something that you want, you know, want to be using. And point number three is you or I mean, for us, most of the time, it's not a problem. I mean, we are very familiar with the very basic usability patterns and

But when I think about my parents or grandparents, for them or most of them, they really need to learn certain apps, like how to use them. And maybe I'm just thinking about, you know, when you learn Photoshop, for example, or design tool like Figma, you learn the tool, right? You learn like how to do certain things. Whereas the artboard, right?

button for example that you you know where you can create new artboards or all these kind of things so you really learn the app the software and in the future apps will learn you so will be based more on your workflows and will be more like i already mentioned it's a little bit similar to the first point it's it will be a little bit more in the direction that the app learns you

your behavior, your needs, your structures and then adapt these kind of input methods to the output that the user actually needs. And this comes to point number four which is data driven will lead to AI driven. AI will be everywhere, it is already everywhere but AI also

brings in a new wave of AI-created products because AI is not only helpful for our workflows but also for creating new products and this is a really big trend. And I would say here's a little peek into some examples. Some are already in play while others are

steadily emerging I would say. So envision a day where every app you open greets you by a name in a very warm familiar way. They seem to know you, understand your likes and dislikes and even your maybe preferences. And this isn't very far off dreams it's the reality that AI is definitely nurturing.

So a reality where our apps learn about us, making every digital interaction feel more like a conversation rather than a command. And this is already what is happening this year with all the text prompts.

Or we have a look at another example, which is a music app. So the future holds a promise where it tunes into your mute, creating playlists that echo your emotions, whether you're feeling the blues or really riding the waves of joy. It's really about crafting a digital rearm that resonates with your individual rhythm. And we're seeing some changes

I would say some things already in Spotify for example, one of my favorite music apps

But there's definitely more coming. Same with workouts. When we have our own pace and the digital fitness coaches of tomorrow will honor that. Picture a fitness app that really sings with your routine, nudging you with workout suggestions when you're most energized and transforming the dread of workouts into an engaging personal experience.

there are already products who are going in the direction. i will link this one that i am referring to in the description box so you can check it out. and of course also shopping. you know imagine an online boutique that remembers your style, your size, making the hunt for the perfect outfit a little bit more fun and helps you to find items a bit more quickly. same with personalization. that won't stop at

entertainment, fitness and shopping, it's also going into any kind of documents. Imagine typing a report or your document editor throws in real time suggestions, making your writing a bit sharp and crisp. And it's about rendering the digital realm more interactive and less static. This is also what's going to happen with the Microsoft Copilot that is probably coming in the next couple of months.

And behind this magic is also our data. You know, our digital mirror that when threatened with respect and transparency, really crafts different experiences that make every user feel seen and valued.

And this is also the area where I am seeing so much potential for UX designers, because at the moment we are just thinking about these one flows that we are creating for its service or for an app. Maybe we are thinking about different kind of edge cases, but in the future there will be many more of these

scenarios for different kind of users for different kind of motivations so you create completely different flows for different motivations or different users so the whole app will look different and you know even thinking about that opens up how opens up a lot of opportunities to create and to

to definitely create better experiences. And that will be definitely interesting for UX designers and a lot of need for good people who understand these flows and have a good overview of everything that is going on there.

Okay, friends, I hope this was helpful to you. This was just like a really quick episode about the topic of personalization for AI interfaces. I hope this was helpful and you got some insights. Besides that, I also want to mention that I am sharing some more insights in my newsletter. So if you haven't subscribed, feel free to do that. I am sharing some more resources and insights there. And of course, you can always say hello on Instagram.

at ux.patricia where I am sharing some updates, insights, news. Yeah, basically everything that's hopefully helpful for you to stay up to date with the tech industry. Thank you so much, my friends, for tuning in and listening to this podcast episode. I hope this was helpful and hear you in the next episode.