rel-AI-tion: UX and AI toolkit
Learning more about AI, I realized that there was a potential to help design better experiences when AI is involved. This was a solo project.
Project Scope
AI technologies are becoming more integrated in the tools we use everyday. Due to the novelty of this tech, I wanted to explore a better understand how UX designers could mold products that use AI.
Solution
As AI becomes more advanced and perhaps more human-like, the result focused on the relationship end users would build with their AI products.
The Research
I began with understanding the role AI would have on people's lives. According to Susan Weinschenk, the 4th era of the future of Human-Technology interaction would be that "we have relationships with the machines."
The Approach
Can the design process include the concept of relationship in order to build an effective UX for AI applications?
I started with looking at the 5 elements of UX design and explored ways in which I could imbue a human centric process that would enable a designer to easily integrate a relational aspect to the build of the product.
Part 1
This part was understanding the reasons people begin to use a product and keep using it. According to psychology, "[i]ntrinsic motivation occurs when we act without any obvious external rewards. [People] simply enjoy an activity or see it as an opportunity to explore, learn, and actualize our potentials." - Introduction to Psychology: Gateways to Mind and Behavior With Concept Maps.
Part 2
This is the core of the relational aspect. I wrote up a questions that focused on what people want from AI and conducted 1 on 1 interviews to refine the questions that were then formulated a survey that I sent to over 30 people around the world. The answers were then grouped up according to keywords. These keywords were what I perceived as the foundation of AI - Human relationships.
Part 3
This section is bridges the 'Structure' and 'Skeleton' elements. Listening to real life stories in which a person helped another person, the stories then became points in which UX designers could be inspired to think of a human-centered way to design interactions and features with a product.
Part 4
This last part helps the designer organize all the thoughts/points and connect them back to the user needs. User needs are both functional and emotional, especially when developing a smart product that is meant to have a good relationship with the end user.
The Toolkit
The final toolkit was a deck of cards that UX designer's could use to inspire the design process when developing solutions that use AI. As you can see on the 'Visuals' card, these cards are meant to help brainstorm idea's and then organize the points to build features within the user flow and make sure to have the emotional points covered in various parts of the solution.
This project inspired me to study AI further and create the Mi Data solution.
