Design: Artificial Intelligence Design

For decades, principles relating to usability, predictability, and efficiency have guided UX design, ensuring that users can complete their tasks with minimal cognitive effort. With traditional, direct-manipulation graphic user interfaces (GUIs), users take action, then the system responds in consistent, expected ways.

However, generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) disrupts this UX design paradigm by introducing an interaction model that is based on the specification of intent-based outcomes. [1] Instead of following predefined workflows, users describe what they want, and the AI generates variable results—often with unpredictable or emergent outcomes. [2, 3, 4]

This UX design paradigm shift that we’re currently experiencing challenges long-standing UX design heuristics such as consistency, predictability, and seamlessness. Designing for GenAI requires a new approach—one that embraces transparency, adaptability, and user control, empowering users to navigate uncertainty, iteration, and co-creation rather than expecting deterministic outputs. Read More

Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly woven into the fabric of our daily lives, from recommendation engines to large language models (LLMs) that assist with our professional tasks. However, there is a growing concern that our reliance on AI systems promotes cognitive offloading, diminishes critical thinking, and disrupts the development of human mastery. As users delegate reasoning to AI systems, bypassing traditional methods of developing expertise, they reduce their critical engagement with their tasks. All of these factors warrant a deeper exploration to understand the implications of AI on human cognition, creativity, and innovation.

Current research into the influence of AI across different age groups and contexts is beginning to expose the full impact of cognitive offloading. Gerlich’s 2025 study, “AI Tools in Society: Impacts on Cognitive Offloading and the Future of Critical Thinking,” [1] provides valuable insights into this phenomenon. Through a mixed-methods approach to research, involving 666 participants, Gerlich found that heavy AI use significantly reduced users’ critical-thinking skills, mainly because users offloaded cognitive tasks to AI tools rather than engaging deeply with problems themselves. Younger participants, in particular, exhibited a higher dependence on AI tools and lower critical-thinking scores, emphasizing the need for strategies to mitigate these cognitive costs. Read More

Have you ever stared at a blank screen, willing a brilliant user-interface (UI) design to appear? You're not alone. But what if there were a tool that could spark your creativity and help you design amazing user interfaces faster? Enter generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI), a powerful technology that promises to transform the world of UI design. It doesn’t just automate tasks; it acts as your creative partner. Imagine an AI churning out fresh design ideas, suggesting color palettes, and even building prototypes of user interfaces—all in seconds!

With Gen AI, UI designers can quickly turn complex ideas into user-friendly interfaces, saving their valuable time, allowing them to fully explore multiple design options, and pushing the boundaries of traditional UI design.

The adoption of generative AI trends and tools is transforming UI design while making digital environments more dynamic and responsive. This is opening up new possibilities for easy-to-use, accessible user interfaces, significantly improving the ways in which users interact with technology every day. Read More