Artificial intelligence & design: imagining the future of UX

Clara Kliman-Silver
Staff UX Researcher, Google
California, United States

Speaker Bio:

Clara Kliman-Silver is a Staff UX Researcher at Google who studies design teams, design systems, UX tools, and designer-developer collaboration. She specializes in participatory design and generative methods to investigate workflows, understand designer-developer experiences, and imagine ways to create UIs. In previous roles, she has conducted research on developer tools, artificial intelligence, and healthcare. Clara holds a Bachelors of Science in Cognitive Science from Brown University.

Talk description:

Over the last several years, artificial intelligence (AI) has permeated the software world––from “smart reply” functionality in email to auto-completed code in developer tools––but it’s only recently that AI has been implemented into creative processes. With systems like DALL-E, people can create AI-generated imagery, and in the design world, auto layout in design tools allows designers to iterate more quickly and efficiently than before. But as AI-driven functionality becomes more common in the design tooling space, questions arise––what is cool? Inspirational? Useful? And what is creepy? Unhelpful? Where is the line?

This talk will explore the emerging role of AI in the UX world, focusing on its impact on the design process and the nuances around the value it provides. Specifically, we will focus on research our team has conducted on how UX designers want to use AI, when AI could be useful in design, and when it might not. We will share a set of best practices for incorporating AI into the design process, including the importance of establishing trust between designers and their AI-powered tools, as well as how to conduct research on experiences that don’t yet exist. We will finish with a discussion of where the field might be heading, and how designers can think about the role of AI in their work.