Let’s talk about the elephant in every designer’s room: AI. Artificial intelligence is here and it’s here to stay. It’s invading everything—classrooms, offices, banks, Hollywood, cell phones, roadways, etc. It’s growing increasingly difficult to tell what’s real and what’s a deep fake on social media today. With the rise of AI every person, business, and school must address it and either find ways to ban it or to utilize it. Designers are no different.
A recent post I saw on LinkedIn shared by the VP of Figma is what sparked this blog idea. In the post they explained their recent decision to pull back the Figma AI Make Designs feature:
“After we learned about an issue with the underlying design system, we made for it that resulted in some designs resembling existing apps, we temporarily disabled it to not only fix the issue but to review and understand what we could have done differently.” – Noah Levin, VP of Design at Figma
After reading this, I did what everyone else does: I went to the comments section. There were several designers sharing their opinions on why they believe this AI feature is entirely unnecessary and how it cut out most of the creative process for them. Others brought up the issue of copyright infringement and how it’s basically copying existing websites. There are already tons of pre-made templates out there (either free or for purchase), and some argue that there are only so many ways to design certain components. So, what’s the problem? Don’t most websites look alike anyway?
Well… yes, and no. It’s true that using pre-made templates will leave your site with similar component structures as other websites. No one can own the rights to a three or four column section, or a hero section with text to the left and a big image to the right. Some sites even share similar color palettes and font families. The originality kicks in with the site language, how the colors are utilized, how the images and icons are styled, even how the website flows and animates.
As a young-ish designer still, I get overwhelmed by the thought of creating wireframes and web designs from scratch. I’m still learning best web practices and pushing (or sometimes pulling back) boundaries when it comes to what’s possible. I think that incorporating AI in the initial design process can help speed things up and get the creative process rolling. I’m sure that when Figma designed their AI Make Designs feature they didn’t intend for us to use whatever it spits out without any tweaks, but their other AI features are spot on. I believe that using AI in the world of digital marketing has a lot of potential benefits, but it also comes with new challenges. Here’s a rundown of my personal pros and cons:
Pros of AI
- Speeds up organizational tasks (rename layers )
- Helps to generate somewhat accurate placeholder copy
- Can speed up the initial wireframing/design process
- Can generate unique imagery for clients so that they don’t have to rely on overused stock images
- Helps with consistency across design elements and pages
Cons of AI
- Could cut out the creativity process that most designers love
- Could infringe on copyrighted material unknowingly
- All websites created could start to have the same structure and becomes monotonous
- Needs very specific prompts in order to generate accurate results
- Generated imagery doesn’t always look realistic
- Not all clients are comfortable with using AI imagery
- Could potentially devalue hard-working, brilliant designers and lead companies to deem them irrelevant
Now I thought it would be interesting to see what ChatGPT thinks about the pros and cons of AI. Although I believe my list is more concise, we actually agreed on most of the same things. Here’s what it had to say:
Pros:
- Efficiency:
- Speed: AI can automate repetitive tasks and speed up design iterations.
- Rapid Prototyping: AI tools can quickly generate multiple design options.
- Enhanced Creativity:
- Inspiration: AI can suggest innovative ideas and design elements based on vast datasets.
- Exploration: It can help explore unconventional design solutions that might not be immediately obvious.
- Data-Driven Decisions:
- Analytics: AI can analyze user data to inform design choices and improve user experience.
- Predictive Insights: It can forecast trends and user preferences.
- Customization:
- Personalization: AI can create highly personalized designs tailored to individual user needs and preferences.
- Cost-Effectiveness:
- Resource Management: Automating routine tasks can reduce labor costs and resource wastage.
- Error Reduction:
- Consistency: AI can help maintain design consistency and reduce human error.
Cons:
- Creativity Limitations:
- Originality: AI might produce designs that are derivative or lack the unique touch of human creativity.
- Over-Reliance: Heavy reliance on AI could stifle individual designer’s creativity and skill development.
- Ethical Concerns:
- Bias: AI can perpetuate existing biases in design if it’s trained on biased data.
- Ownership: Issues of intellectual property and authorship can arise with AI-generated designs.
- Complexity and Integration:
- Learning Curve: Designers might need time to learn how to effectively use AI tools.
- Integration: Integrating AI into existing design workflows can be challenging.
- Dependence on Data:
- Quality of Input: AI’s effectiveness is dependent on the quality and breadth of the data it’s trained on.
- Data Privacy: Handling and analyzing user data raises privacy and security concerns.
- Cost:
- Initial Investment: High-quality AI tools and systems can be expensive to acquire and implement.
- Limited Human Touch:
- Empathy and Intuition: AI lacks human intuition and empathy, which can be crucial in creating designs that resonate deeply with people.
Incorporating AI into design can enhance productivity and creativity, but it’s important to balance its use with human insight and oversight. I believe that tools like ChatGPT can be a blessing for designers and project managers like us at Redonk when it comes to shortening a long product description or writing quick little updates on the status of a project. I believe that a lot of Figma’s AI tools will improve our everyday lives, but in the words of the great Tony Stark: with great power comes great responsibility. We, as humans, have to steward this new tool into uncharted waters.