Designing Human-Centered AI Experiences

Workshop

This session lives at the intersection of education, digital and the creative fields. It introduces the challenges and potential of a new paradigm for user experience designers. It challenges educators to question the skills students need to have to effectively contribute in the AI industry. It provides a platform to interact with others as we question our relationship with AI technologies.

Timetable

Short presentation: how AI transforms products and human computer interactions (30 min).
Presentation and exercise: Defining User Jobs (30 min).
Value Proposition for AI (30 min).
Mapping user and AI journey (1 min).
Playbacks/retrospectives (30 min).

Interaction

A good user experience is directly correlated to the perceived value from users. In this workshop participants will use Design Thinking to create AI experiences with strong value propositions. We will use an adapted journey map to articulate the journey between AI and users. We will also use a framework to define value propositions for AI.

Takeaway

At the end of the workshop each participant will have the skills to envision digital products in which AI is indispensable.

Participants will have an understanding of the implications that smart machines will have in our daily lives. They will have the tools to educate others to design the future we want with our omnipresent smart machines.

Outcomes

I have tested and refined this workshop with 500 fortune companies in my role as Design Principal for data and AI at IBM. This workshop is also part of the syllabus in the Advanced Experience Design course at Texas State University. I plan to write a book on design education for AI.

Abstract

AI forces designers to think differently about user experiences and digital interfaces. Data is now a unique asset for product differentiation. User Journeys are now unpredictable. Information architecture is now contextual and temporal. Designers will not be able to define and predict the interfaces of digital applications. Instead, they will design the principles that govern the machine. They will design the rules of their relationship with humans. Trust will become the ultimate measure of successful user experiences. Language and behavioral sciences will be the sought-after skills of AI designers.

Over the past year I have worked with clients to define their AI strategy. We have used the material of this workshop to identify their product experiences. Last year I taught the first course in advanced user experience focusing on AI at Texas State. The material of this workshop was used in this class. The quality of the projects was exceptional considering none of the students have had any exposure to AI design prior to joining the class. I expect participants of this workshop to be energized about the potential of AI in design education and gain tools to question our relationship as humans with machines.

This workshop is a condensed version of the course at Texas State and the workshop I conduct with our clients at IBM