The Future of AI and UX
A per the Sanskrit epic Mahabharata, when the eighteen day long battle was going on, the father of one side (Dhritarashtra ) who was blind, was desperate to see what was happening.His loyal minister Sanjay who was blessed with divine vision , became his eyes and through his vision was able to see what was happening miles away and give an exact live account of the battle as it progressed.
He describes his power as following :
“…I have obtained excellent and celestial apprehension, sight beyond the range of the visual sense, and hearing, O king, from great distance, knowledge of other people’s hearts and also of the past and the future, a knowledge also of the origin of all persons transgressing the ordinances, the delightful power of coursing through the skies, and ability of being untouchable by weapons in battles, listen to me in detail as I recite the romantic and highly wonderful battle that happened between the Bharatas, a battle that makes one’s hair stand on end”
[Source: Speaking Tree]
Progress to the modern times we live in and we have a visually impaired father struggling to help his child do his school homework.He is equipped with the Seeing AI by Microsoft which scans the homework and guides the father son duo through the school homework and ensuring its completion.
This is the power of human imagination being brought to life through human intelligence and technology.This is the power of Artificial Intelligence and User Experience Design merging to create a product which augments human capability and strives to achieve a more inclusive society.
What is User Experience-UX?
“Good UX design is a renaissance attitude that combines technology, cognitive science, human need, and beauty to produce something that the world didn’t know it was missing.” — Paola Antonelli , global ambassador for design
User Experience Design is ubiquitous, from making a online purchase on Amazon, to watching movies on Netflix, doing laundry with a washing machine, asking Siri on your iPhone to search for a sushi place nearby and a lot more.The nature of interfaces and experiences has come a long way from TV to computers to smartphones to wearable tech to robotic exo skeletons.
What is Artificial Intelligence ?
AI is when a machine mimics the human cognitive functions .Think Ava from Ex Machine or the adorable Wall-E.It is the technology which enables Netflix to give you movie recommendations based on your viewing history, drones which deliver you hot pizzas within 30 minutes and self driving Uber cars for your transport needs.
What happens when these two collide?
Debbie is buying her first car and has absolutely no idea about buying car insurance. She comes across an online assistant who promises to provide her seamless experience of buying an insurance policy via a simple online conversation.Debbie is surprised to receive an email with the policy file within few minutes of the conversation. She has not interacted with a human, rather with a chatbot with built in AI. The AI provided data insights like : image recognition, social data, geographic data , identity verification which resulted in a highly satisfying user experience.Debbie is happy and spends the rest of the day taking her friends out for a drive.
It is the ultimate collaboration of Science and Art to create interfaces that are delightful to interact with, useful and very easy to use.
Minimum Human Interaction, Maximum User Experience is the core principle of AI + UX.
Trends in AI and UX Collaboration
- Website Building and enhancing Search Engine Optimization
Bookmark’s AiDA can build websites within 2 minutes.It continuously takes user feedback and keeps improving the website till the client is satisfied with the result.
- Language Processing/Translation:
In Rochester Institute of Technology around 1500 deaf/hard of hearing people are able to attend a lecture with regular students by reading real time captions on the screen.These real time captions are made possible by AI based Microsoft Translator which has translates raw spoken language into fluent punctuated text.
- Developing User Interfaces for High Accessibility
With close to a billion people worldwide being disabled, focus and investment on assistive technologies is on the rise to ensure a dignified and gainfully employed life for them.
A New Zealand based startup called the SoulMachines has devised a Voice based AI called as Nadia which can assist disabled people with various tasks.It claims to have Emotional Intelligence to be able to converse with people with empathy and understanding.
- Voice based UX :
People don’t just want to interact with a screen every time, there are times where they would prefer invisible interfaces and Voice based interfaces are the most proliferating ones.Apple has Siri, Google has Google Assistant, Microsoft has Cortana, and Amazon has Alexa. Voice is poised to impact UX design, just as smartphones did a few years back — except this shift is going to arrive way faster, and far from being limited to screen-based interactions, this transformation is going to permeate every aspect of our users’ lives. The designers will have challenges like ensuring almost human dialog based interaction with the users, the ability to understand user intent and also a proper error handling to ensure user engagement.
Key areas in successful merging of AI and UX
- High collaboration between Design Team and AI team : With advanced hardware, software and new online markets like China and India being open, technology and design will have to collaborate heavily to produce human centric design products.Google’s PAIR Initiative exactly intends to do this.
- Build Diverse Teams : A most commonly known AI mishap was the bias towards Caucasian skin by a passport bot , which was unable to identify photos of Asian people because ‘their eyes were closed’.A diverse team from various backgrounds will enable data outliers like the above to be handled better.
- Setting expectations right of what machine cannot do : In January 2018 in San Fransisco, a Tesla car driver was found passed out behind the wheel.He was arrested on DUI charges , but pleaded that the car was on auto pilot so he would not have harmed anyone.Tesla issued a statement that Auto pilot doesn’t not mean that you can take your control off the vehicle.
There should be no room for misinterpretation of data and users should be fully aware of what they are getting into.
Will AI replace UX Design jobs?
Is human empathy, ability to handle ambiguous situations and creativity fully programmable?The way I perceive , the way forward will be AI+UX era. AI will be managing the repetitive tasks involved in Designing and Data Analysis and leave the strategy , creativity and personalizing experience in the capable hands of the human brain.For example, hundreds of layouts, color schemes, and logos could be computed in seconds, websites can be designed in few minutes ,leaving the designers to focus on focusing on picking the right combinations to create a meaningful and emotionally engaging visual design.
A Glimpse into the Future..
Alexa:
07:30 am : Good morning Anna! It is a sunny day and its Monday 6th August 2018.You have a doctor’s appointment at 11 am today and your husband Tom will take you at 10:45 am.I will remind you at 10:00 am to get ready.Please call me Alexa when you have a question.”
This will how 68 year old Anna’s day starts.She is in Stage 2 of Alzheimer’s disease and tends to forget the day, her husband and her appointments.Alexa is helping her out without being prompted and is programmed to play the role of a patient carer who will make Anna and Tom’s life a little bit easier.
As scary as popular culture makes out AI to be hell bent on subjugating humans, I see immense potential in the field of AI and UX to solve genuine human problems and design a better life for everyone.