AI and the Future of Design

Whenever we imagine the future it’s inevitably rooted in that present moment. In the 1960s,The Jetsons depicted a futuristic world with flying cars, robot maids, and automated home appliances. This vision was heavily influenced by the space race and technological optimism of that era. The gadgets and conveniences in The Jetsons reflected 1960s americas' hopes and dreams for what technology could bring to their everyday life. While our predictions may feel insightful, in retrospect it’s glaring how those ideas are often trappings of the past. Examples of retro-futurism are strewn through popular culture from the intentional, e.g., Terry Gilliam’s Brazil, to what only feels retro upon looking back, e.g., Back to the Future Part II.

In this moment—at the precipice of Generative AI—an imagined future is so palpable. Collectively we’re grasping at that future horizon, yet constrained by the present. Large language models are becoming quickly interwoven into everyday tasks, such as shopping. Retailers including Walmart and Instacart have added AI assistants to the search bar, providing customers lists of products or recipes based on queries (e.g., "What do I need for a Cinco de Mayo party?"). The rapid adoption of this these advancements presents a huge opportunity for designers to forge the founding principals for how humans interact with AI in the everyday context. Though there hasn't been much evolution of the AI interface. As more and more new AI product features release, chat has remained the central interaction. From standalone AI chatbots like Chat GPT, to AI embedded features such as the fore mentioned retailers or Ask Meta AI, our interactions are limited to questions or commands.

Currently, technology vs. design, for the most part, is defining how we interact with AI. As language is at the core of these models, interactions follow suite in the form of conversational prompts—absent of menus, buttons, scrolling, swiping, pinching, tapping, turning. Over the last year, our collective imagination has also been captured by Apple's Vision Pro. Conversely, Apple's concept of "spacial computing" is an evolution of interaction design realized via technological advancement. Vision Pro is very much a design driven experiment that seeks to expand the lexicon of human/computer interactions beyond the constraints of physical hardware and the confines of screens.  

It's really interesting thinking about these two divergent paths to future day-to-day interplay with human/computer interfaces. One rooted in conversation, an idea that has long permeated pop culture (perhaps since Hal 9000 in 1968's 2001 a Space Odyssey), but is relatively new in terms of the bulk of our interactions with technology. The other, rooted in a deep heritage of design—its lineage linking back to simple interfaces, like 1950s radio dials. Dieter Rams mid-century industrial design work famously played heavy influence on numerus Apple products of the 2000s. Rams' mark on Apple's design language can be felt even today across both hardware and software. The idea of two such future paths, one built on decades of design exploration of human/machine relationships, the other a very new way of "conversing" with machines, is indicative of this present moment. This moment, like any other is defined and contextualized by our collective memory of the past.

It's hard to imagine how we'll interact with artificial intelligence in the future, once tech advancements are no longer the great differentiator between AI products and design becomes much more the defining factor. AI has such transformative potential, it's fathomable that the future of UI design could step far away from its long held lineage. But, are we really going to forget the design ethos of the last 75 years?  

No one can predict the future of AI and design. But, good design will always be about achieving a deep understanding of context and applying that context to craft the right solution. The design principles that guide the creation of breathtaking products are never about the use of a button or even how we physically interact with those products. They hone in on a key tenet; an overarching truth that if steadfastly maintained produces magic.