Designing the future: 5 key lessons from the IxDA’23 conference
The IxDA design conference held in the picturesque city of Zurich, Switzerland, was a grand affair, spanning over four days that included a workshop, a networking event, and a series of talks by over 50 global speakers. The conference was expertly curated to cater to a range of topics, such as designing strategy, exploring research methods, creating new work experiences, and rethinking design metrics. The lineup of speakers included experts from renowned organisations, such as Google, Amazon, and MIT, among many others.
Personally, I found the conference to be an enriching learning experience, and I would like to share the five key takeaways that stood out for me.
Designing with AI
Artificial Intelligence (AI) had been proficient in data analysis, pattern recognition, and providing recommendations based on such analyses for a while now. However, with the advent of Dall-E, we have seen AI’s practical influence in the creative domain like never before. The use of AI in the creative field is expected to grow exponentially in the coming years. It would be unwise to ignore how AI can assist designers in various phases of the design process.
At the IxDA, experts discussed the emerging technology of AI and its potential to improve designer productivity. A couple of aspects that stood out for me:
- Ideation with AI: Lasse Underbjerg, Global Future Lab Director at Designit, spoke about his work on Future Dualities, an idea generator tool that explores novel perspectives on possible futures. The tool considers various dimensions such as Convenience & Consideration, Centralization & Distribution, etc., and helps brainstorm different ideas around any particular topic.
- Co-Creation with AI:
Andreas Markdalen, the award-winning Global Chief Creative Officer of frog, discussed the paradigm shift in the design field caused by AI. He mentioned how Midjouney’s text-to-UI has resulted in impressive dribble shots, and text-to-editable UI can be expected to be more mainstream soon. The future may bring a text-to-design system, with intelligent design tools collaborating with designers. Genius by Diagram has launched its work on this topic. Furthermore, we can expect different brands to use AI models to replicate their brand statements to increase efficiency.
However, it is essential to consider how much and how often we should rely on the AI system. Maintaining a balance between leveraging the capabilities of AI and retaining the human touch in design is crucial for better results.
PS: This blog was co-written with the help of ChatGPT and Grammarly’s AI. They helped me to combat creative block and rewrote some paragraphs so that they sound better.
Designing for impact
The competition around online services is more intense than ever before. Users have a plethora of options for performing various tasks, such as grocery shopping, investing, and booking travel online. So, the critical question arises: How can you engage users on your website and convert them into paying and loyal customers?
The Persuasive Design workshop taught by Demel, Peter, and Federspiel highlighted fundamental aspects to persuade users to induce specific behaviours and have a significant impact. The principles of persuasive design revolve around two dimensions: increasing user motivation and increasing ease of use to perform a task. Applying these principles results in a seamless user experience that encourages desired actions and improves conversion rates.
User motivation and ease of use can be increased through the following triggers:
- Social Facilitation: Leveraging social factors such as social comparison (User Reviews), social learning (Duolingo streaks), and peer pressure (Saving energy) to encourage desired behaviours.
- Tailoring: Personalizing information(Spotify), and promoting self-monitoring (Apple Health monitoring) can help long-term engagement.
- Surface Credibility: Providing information that demonstrates experience and competence, and showcasing endorsements from respected, authoritative sources (Michelin Star or Hotel Star) can help establish trust and credibility.
- Recognition/Rewards: Acknowledging and rewarding desired activities (daily exercise goals on an Apple Watch) can motivate users to continue engaging with a product or service.
- Ease of access, and Support: Making products or services easier to access (Reminders, suggestions) and more accessible (Webflow tutorials) can reduce friction and increase user engagement.
- Real-World Feel: Providing information about the people behind the system’s content (Airbnb Hosts description) can help create a more human and relatable experience for users.
Note: I’ve combined some of the triggers we learned in the workshop for easier reading.
Designing for meaningful connection:
A fast and seamless experience is crucial for the success of the product, but unfortunately, this can unintentionally hinder users from feeling connected to our products. Fostering meaningful connections can help users experience self-reflection, self-discovery, and personal growth, which ultimately leads to increased loyalty and retention.
Have you ever wondered what makes us deeply connect with others? True human connection involves feeling seen and valued, and a sense of belonging, which requires time and effort. So, simply making a product easy to use is not enough to create this kind of connection.
Former Airbnb employee Steve Selzer suggests in his talk “Designing with Friction” that intentional friction can be added to the design process without making the product unusable. He shared an instance of his work at Airbnb where he added friction for a better outcome (some highlights can also be read in the Airbnb design blog here).
Here are 3 ways that can your user feel more connected with your product:
- Engage users in the process: The IKEA effect shows that users tend to put a high value on products they partially created. Companies like HelloFresh involve users in the cooking process by delivering only pre-portioned ingredients right to their door instead of providing cooked meals.
- Share the story: Stories are a powerful way to connect with users. Sharing stories of the other person at the end of the service brings a more humane aspect to the story. For instance, a small description of the Airbnb Hosts, or the Uber Driver makes us feel connected to the product.
- Spark humane conversation: Airbnb had experimented with adding friction to the booking process by requiring guests to directly contact hosts, which led to greater user satisfaction. As, Tim Ferris noted, “A person’s success in life can usually be measured by the number of uncomfortable conversations he or she is willing to have.”
Designing with a story:
After attending several talks by various speakers, a few speakers stood out for me, not because of their work, but because of their exceptional storytelling skills. As designers, we also need to frequently present our work to various stakeholders to bring our designs to reality. During his talk titled “Writing as Design,” Jason Brush, Principal UX Designer for Amazon Web Services, covered several aspects of storytelling, which I found intriguing.
Subsequently, I delved deeper into the topic and discovered the Hero’s Journey, a framework which is commonly used to communicate stories in movies. This framework can also be applied to our design work. Designing a user experience is essentially crafting a story with a connected chain of events, featuring a character, setting, challenges, and a narrative flow.
I tried to contextualize the design process within the framework of the Hero’s Journey. The resulting narrative goes as follows:
“The designer was having a fine time when one day he/she receives a call to adventure, an invitation to solve a problem. Initially, the designer hesitates after looking at the vagueness of the subject but, after an encounter with other stakeholders — researchers, the data team, etc, decide to take ownership of the challenge.
Next, the designer ventures into another world — the world of the unknown, and faces multiple constraints in the form of time and resources while exploring different ideas to solve the problem. Despite these challenges, the designer perseveres and comes up with a proposed version. However, it doesn’t go as planned. The designs perform poorly in the initial A/B testing and the designer faces a huge setback.
But the designer is not the one who gives up easily. He/she fights back with more determination and increased focus on the business and user needs. With persistence and problem-solving skills, the designer eventually succeeds in shipping a better and improved version of the product.”
Does this story sound familiar to you? Incorporating different elements of the Hero’s journey framework can significantly enhance the excitement and impact of a presentation. When presenting work, one should consider connecting the various steps of the framework to create a more compelling and memorable experience for the listeners.
Designing for well-being, equity and sustainability
During his talk “Redefine Design Success,” Lennart Overkamp emphasized the importance of incorporating ethical considerations, specifically wellbeing, equity, and sustainability, into the design process. He noted that these aspects are often overlooked because their impact on business metrics is not immediately apparent. However, from a systems-thinking perspective, this is the wrong level of influence. To better incorporate ethical considerations, Overkamp suggested involving stakeholders early in the process and shared a Miro board for the ideation session.
Many companies are already recognising the importance of ethical considerations such as Booking.com and Google have been promoting environmentally friendly travel options, such as eco-friendly hotels and flights, as part of their efforts to address sustainability concerns. The emphasis on this topic will increase in the coming years.
To summarise:
- AI will have a greater impact on the design workflow soon, so keep an active lookout for ways it can assist you.
- Use various triggers, such as social facilitation, tailoring, surface credibility, recognition, and a real-world feel, to increase user motivation and ease of use for maximum impact.
- Consider making meaningful connections with users by engaging them in the process, sharing the story, and sparking humane conversation.
- Tell a compelling story by incorporating the Hero’s journey.
- Define success criteria with a focus on well-being, equity, and sustainability.
I would like to give a big shoutout to YouTube for helping me with the conference ticket and Trivago for assisting with other expenses.
Do you have something to add? Please leave a comment on the article or connect with me on LinkedIn or Twitter.
