Will there be UI designers in the future?
By arvid, 2023-04-02.
AI, UI. You and I.
AI has gone from lukewarm to simmering to scorching in the last weeks. We have all philosophised around how work may become voluntary for future generations. Now, it seems as if the first batches of early retirements due to AI is not generations away, maybe not even years.
I believe that UI Design — as we know it today — might well be one of the very first jobs to be taken over by our new robotic masters. And I will argue for that here. In short, if you’re starting out as a UI designer today, you need to focus on one thing to stay relevant: developing taste.
The day of the UI designer might soon be gone, but the day of the UI Foreman is beginning.
“Is it really so”, you say, “that an AI, a pile of matrixes and linear algebra thrown together, can produce perfect interfaces that humans can use and love?”
Well, yes. I think so. Scrutinising what interface design really is, I think that AI is going to be doing quite well. To start with, interfaces are two dimensional and built using the predictable and well-defined language of code. While an AI might have challenges dealing with the nuances of the messy real world, it’s going to have far less trouble moving around pixels on a screen. And remember, AI relies on training data to succeed, and it can use literally all other UIs as an input.
Further, UI design is governed by rules. Mostly clear and codified rules. Unlike what outsiders to the field think, UI design is far less about creativity, colours and emotions, and far more about the application of the right rules and heuristics. It’s about balancing one good rule of thumb against another one. It’s about known patterns, where the challenge often is to apply the most fitting pattern for the particular problem at hand. Some are explicit; text size, color contrast and other accessibility guidelines are today regulated by law. Other, seemingly fluffier heuristics — such as the gestalt law of Prägnanz or some principle about golden ratios — may be implicit, but can very likely be understood by an AI after analysing some thousands of interfaces.
But most importantly, UI is mainly governed by the given data model. Whatever data you have to display, and whatever action you need the user to chose from, will steer the UI. Let’s say that your data is a set of purchase orders. How many different useful ways are there to present those to a user? Further, let’s say that there are three actions to chose from for each purchase order. And that one is more common than the others. Are there really that many ways to solve this design problem? Maybe a few? Maybe just one. When you think about it.
Really, one can wonder why there isn’t already a tool — AI or not — that can produce interfaces?
So, let’s assume that there will be a near future where your average programmer schmuck friend, can, with a simple click, generate a UI.
What now? Is this design grift that you got going for yourself over? Well, not really. But the UI grind is certainly as outdated as your great-grandpa the ice-trader or your old auntie who claims that she used to work as a computer.
So why isn’t design a thing of the past? Because, while the designer AI can generate design alternatives. Someone must still be there to say whether they are good. And that is certainly not trivial.
Welcome to the age of the UI Foreman.
Developing taste.
The thing you have to do as a UI designer to be relevant in the age of AI is to develop taste. Why? First, because the AI, being a machine of inferences — of averages, means, and medians — will likely create average results. AI itself is not a guarantee for quality. Rather, the only guarantee is variation in outcome. Secondly, because while people appreciate taste, they aren’t in general good at recognising it.
“Wait a minute, what is taste even?” Honesty, that’s a though question that I’ll happily leave for someone smarter to define. But in short, it is a sensitivity of aesthetic quality. It is being attuned to what is good instead of average. It is a built up intuition. And, I’m pretty sure: taste is not subjective. All humans react positively to things of good taste. The Iphone comes to mind as an example. Without dispute, there is certainly a tasteful quality to the Iphone that make people love it. I’m not talking about whether you think pistachio belongs in ice cream, rather about something more universal.
Still, most people cannot distinguish good taste themselves. Just look at all the word-art, powerpoint slides, and email signatures that are being produced. Most people have not had the time or priority to develop a fundamental sense of taste for visuals. Simply as it requires time and effort.
So here is where you come in. In the age of AI, you will be evaluating work, giving stern feedback, and approving the good stuff. Gone are the days of laborious pixel pushing — that's for the AI to deal with. You are now the UI Foreman.