Artificial Intelligence, machine learning, and conversational interfaces are all affecting the way web design happens. It was a website development and design system that was powered by artificial intelligence. The idea was a platform where site modules and other interaction patterns design themselves without the need of a designer. Conversational interfaces would engage the user to supply information and make decisions about the design of the website is created, but the results did not live up to the hype. The resulting sites were a disaster. The good news in the accident? Designer jobs will remain safe for the foreseeable future.
Smarter Design Systems
Design systems are a series of patterns, modules, and elements that, taken together, build the design language of a brand or a product. Start-ups and enterprises alike trust their design systems to keep their products consistent for users. Adding a layer of intelligence to these systems to analyze how users interact with each element will help identify which parts work best for each function. With AI and machine learning, these intelligence layers learn and determine what things are working and what aren’t. It will help to optimize design systems to deliver better results. Some web design companies are doing precisely that. Squarespace and Wix embed AI into their workflows to guide designers on more mundane design decisions. We can expect to see more AI-driven tools embedded within design processes.
Creativity versus Task Automation
Design is more complicated than other jobs that are task-driven and repetitive. These repetitive types of jobs are the ones that are most likely to be replaced by robots. As for design, it requires the ability to assess information within different contexts, to establish a framework for design, as well as an empathy for other users. Robots are not sophisticated enough at this time to successfully perform jobs that require that kind of perspective, insight, and creativity. In the future, they will be well suited to automating repetitive tasks and making designers more efficient.
What we will see in the next several years
We can expect to see designers and robots working together to create all sorts of new opportunities. One area where robots could benefit designers is automating specific tasks like cropping assets, color correcting photos, and resizing images. AI is perfect for automating many of these tedious, repetitive tasks associated with a designer’s role.
Everyone Will Become A Designer
Most design jobs today are defined by creative and social intelligence. The skill sets associated with these job titles require problem framing, creative problem solving, empathy, negotiation skills, and persuasion. One of the most significant expected impacts of AI will be to make everyone a designer. There will be a push for all individuals to increase their employability by developing their creativity and social intelligence skills. These skills will no longer be limited to designers only. Instead of just training traditional creative occupations in design thinking techniques, all rules will be trained to use the skills traditionally reserved for design and original positions. Designers will need to have additional knowledge and expertise. Expertise should be in the fields of multidisciplinary contexts that will bring that extra value to the job roles that companies look to employ. In turn, it could lead to exotic specializations. There are already examples of this trend. The Seattle mayor’s office has created an innovation team tasked with finding solutions to some of Seattle’s most immediate issues and concerns. The group includes designers and design strategists and embraces human-centered design as a philosophy to guide their work. A new integrated design and management program at MIT is yet another example of this trend. Even medical schools are beginning to train future physicians in design thinking. Design is taking on a much broader role and significance in work processes as well as opening up new opportunities for educators across different disciplines to include creative intelligence training and human-centered design as part of their courses and curricula.
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