#93 From Content Generation to Dynamic Interfaces - AI’s Role in the Future of UX
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Hello and welcome back to the future of UX where we talk about everything happening in design and technology that will shape our future experiences. Hi, my name is Patricia Reiners and I'm excited to explore today's topic because we will be diving into how AI is changing the way we design. Especially we are going to talk about two big trends: AI powered content generation and AI driven interface structure.

Now, AI might seem like something out of a sci-fi movie, but it's becoming a powerful tool for UX designers and no, it's not about AI taking over our jobs or making us obsolete. In fact, it's giving us a lot of new opportunities to be even more creative. So let's jump right into how AI is already transforming our work, starting with content generation.

Alright, so let's start with the basics. If you've ever been in the position of having to create tons of content for a website or an app, whether it's copy for landing pages, whether it's blog posts or product descriptions, you know how time consuming it can be. And if you're like me, sometimes you just wish there was this magic button that could help you generate all that content in an instance.

And AI is pretty close to that magic button. Of course, a professional AI copywriter, of course, is much, much better. But especially for early prototypes or an MVP, I feel most of the times you don't have a professional copywriter or someone who prepares all the visuals for you. So you need to do that. And there's already tools like NotebookML that can generate entire pieces of content for you.

from podcast scripts to website copy at the click of a button. I even created a whole podcast episode with NotebookML and I'm going to link it in the show notes and it's absolutely fascinating. It creates an interesting conversation about a workshop that I gave for actually a free webinar that I hosted a couple of weeks ago. Absolutely fascinating, so make sure to check it out.

Let's say you're designing a new website for small business, for example, and you need to fill up pages with product descriptions. Instead of staying up late, writing everything yourself, you could use AI, maybe your own GPT that you trained on or just JetGPT, Google Gemini, whatever, to draft the content in basically minutes. And it doesn't stop there.

Think about all the times you've needed amazing visuals for your design and with the AI image generation tools like Midjourney, Adobe Firefly or even Adalie, not so much I feel, but especially with those tools, you can simply type in a prompt like futuristic city at sunset and boom, you've got a stunning and unique image that fits perfectly into your design. And it's almost like having an art department at your fingertips and

Except it's powered by AI. And I'm also seeing that in my own work. So when I'm working with clients, when I'm creating presentations, when I'm designing any mock-ups, usually or for most clients, I'm working on like strategy docs, presentations, concept for a certain topic. So most of the times I'm not doing the design itself.

But for the visuals, for the presentations, for the story basically that we are telling, that we are trying out, that we are experiencing, I really love to use Midjourney to create the visuals.

And another area that I find absolutely fascinating are any avatars are also virtual spoke persons. I shared one and I think on LinkedIn a couple of weeks ago and it's absolutely fascinating. So I used HeyGen, which is an avatar creator platform. I uploaded a two minute video of myself, which was actually an old YouTube video. And this tool can create out of this two minute video

very realistic and expressive characters to guide users through your digital experience.

So imagine how much time you would save instead of hiring actors or animators. You could just let AI handle it. And HeyGen also introduced a new feature, which are interactive AI avatars that can basically take over your meetings. I tried it. I wouldn't say it's working out perfectly. So it's still, yeah, it's still a bit strange. It doesn't look super realistic, but

But it's definitely fun. And I feel give it like one or two years and then maybe some meetings can be taken over by your AI avatar. And then your AI avatar is having a meeting with another AI avatar while you're sitting at the beach having a drink or something like this. No, I'm just kidding. But I think it's interesting also to see...

Yeah, what's happening out there? I shared this on LinkedIn and got a lot of interesting comments from people. Some people were like, ah, you know, this will never happen. We need real people in meetings and this bullshit. But I don't agree. In so many meetings from so many companies, people are involved or joining meetings who don't say anything, who are not...

basically bringing any value, but they need to be part of that meaning. And Kate Moran, I also had her in the podcast. She's a UX researcher at the Nielsen Norman Group. She's awesome. I also had a podcast episode with her about how to use AI for user research. And she shared that she heard that even some people are

recording videos of themselves only nodding and then adding this as a background image to zoom while they're doing something else and I think this is fascinating and this also shows that there are still millions of meanings that are not necessary and you can change meaning culture so easily so pretty interesting

Another example is I was working on an educational app for kids and we needed to create a ton of interactive activities each with personalized instructions and we used AI and different

different variations of those activities. We even had mini avatars delivering the instructions in super fun, engaging ways, created visuals, created mini movies, and the kids really loved it. And it made the whole process so much faster and more efficient and really helped us to create a good testing environment, right? Like to really test out if our concept of all the hypotheses we had are working out. So...

What does this mean for us as UX designers? AI-powered content generation isn't just about saving time, it's also about expanding our creative horizons. We can use AI to handle the tedious tasks where we focus on what we do best: crafting memorable user experiences.

And by saying that, it's not without challenges. There is still the need for quality control, for judgment, making sure the content feels human and ethically sound. But that's where we come in. We as designers. Okay, so now let's come to this episode's sponsor, Wix Studio. Web designers, let's talk about the C word, creative burnout.

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That's wixstudio.com. What comes after all the AI content generation? Yes, you might have guessed it: AI-driven interface structure and information architecture. Now we are shifting gears and talk about something even more futuristic: the AI-driven interface structure and information architecture. And this is where AI takes things to the next level. This will come next after the content generation.

Not just helping with content, but actually shaping the entire user experience. The term "generative interface" is something you might have heard, but what does it mean? Basically, AI can create or optimize the layout and flow of an app or website in real time based on user data.

It's like having this invisible designer constantly tweaking and improving the user interface into, yeah, to make it as seamless as possible. Let's take an example you've probably experienced: a shopping app. Imagine AI not only recommending products based on your past purchases, but also adjusting the entire layout of the app to match your preferences.

If you like a minimalistic, clean interface, the app will adapt and show fewer elements on the screen. If you're more visual, it will give you bigger pictures and fewer words. And the app literally evolves with each user's preferences, making it personalized and tailored. Another application could be in the News app.

Let's say you prefer reading sport news in the morning and technology news at night. AI could rearrange the interface throughout the day. So when you open the app in the morning, sport news is in front and in the center. And in the evening, tech updates are waiting for you at the top. The app learns from your user behavior and adjusts its structure to fit you without you even noticing.

And here's another cool example: Imagine building an app that's designed for users with different accessibility needs. With AI, you could personalize user experience based on a person's specific requirements. Someone with low vision, for example, could get a high contrast and larger text version of the app

And someone with mobility issues could navigate entire through voice commands or gestures. But of course, this brings up an important questions. Will AI replace us designers? Of course not. AI can't replicate the human touch, the empathy, the feeling, the deep understanding of user behavior that we bring to the table.

What it can do is augment our abilities. And what are we seeing with the example, with some of the future things that are going to happen pretty soon with our interfaces, we need designers who have an oversight of that. So also the way we work will change from like having static flows to super interactive, always changing interfaces, basically. And the question for me is still like, how do we design that? Definitely not with Figma.

we need other tools for that. We need already AI integration for that. Otherwise we can't really prototype it. It's not possible. We can mock certain things and test it out, but because the AI interfaces are always changing, we can't test and prototype this with static interfaces. This is not going to work. So you see, this was a little sneak peek into what's ahead of us. Sounds still very futuristic, very sci-fi,

But hopefully helps us also to understand what new tasks are waiting for us as designers. That even if we have tools now that can basically create an interface based on a prompt or entire flows based on a prompt,

It doesn't mean that that's it. There's so much more that we need. We don't need just one flow. We need a million of different flows for all the different users, for all the different learnings that we're having, for all the personalization. So it needs to be recreated on the go. So I hope this helps also many of us to understand that it's great that AI is taking over parts of our work now, so we shouldn't be afraid of it.

Because our work, our task, our responsibility will be so much bigger because we're designing for AI product that also having changes or changing user information architecture. So think of AI as a tool that allows us to focus on the big picture.

While AI handles the heavy lifting more or less, like maybe optimizing the layouts or generating the content or even predicting user needs, we get to concentrate on the more creative and also the strategic aspects of design. Not about competition, it's collaboration. So to wrap things up, we've explored two fascinating ways AI is revolutionizing UX design.

First is the content generation topic, which is currently shaping the very structure of our interfaces. AI is giving us more tools than ever to create personalized, efficient and delightful experiences for our users. But remember, this technology is here to enhance our capabilities, not replace us. The future of UX is about working alongside AI and learning how to use it to push the boundaries of what's possible.

while staying grounded in what makes us human. Empathy, creativity, and a deep understanding of how people interact with the world around them. Thank you so much for tuning in. If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe, rate this episode with a five-star review to support the podcast, and stay updated on the latest trends in UX and AI.

Until next time, keep designing, keep innovating and keep imagining the future. Hear you in the future, my friends.