Special Design Event & the State of UX

⭐ Special AI Design Event Series ⭐

We're excited to invite you to a series of AI design talks that’ll broaden your understanding, and open a window into how AI is being designed at a leading global technology innovator. 

In a series of three design talks, Stefanie Lauria, Lead Designer and Strategist for AI at IBM, will be discussing how IBM designs with AI, what designing with data in the context of an AI looks like, and why it’s important to be designing with dynamic behavior in mind.

The first talk, Designing for AI: How Is it Different?, will run TODAY, 3/1 at 4PM EST, where you will learn the difference between classical computing and AI, and why it matters for UX. Stefanie will also be delivering additional talks the first Friday of the following two months:

Fri. April 5: AI Design: Data is King

Fri. May 3: Creating Trust with AI 

Each event is self-contained, so you’re invited to attend one or all. We look forward to seeing you there!

📰 3 Design Articles

UX Collective: The State of UX 

• Online publication UX Collective takes a look at what they call “late-stage UX”, assessing how factors such as AI integration, market instability, and shifting corporate prioritization is impacting the larger UX Design landscape. 
• While challenges certainly exist, so does opportunity. But designers will need to stay savvy with skills such as research and management—and consider looking for roles outside of big tech. 
• “Skills such as UX Research and UX Strategy will become more critical than ever. The same is true for conceptual designs and vision thinking. We’ll always have to find the right use cases for new technologies.”

How Design Agencies Are Actually Using AI 

• Author Tom May shares what he learned from surveying 25 design agencies to see how they’re using AI. Brainstorming, idea visualization, and the ability to make quicker decisions are all popular use-cases for GenAI—but we rarely see them creating a final deliverable. 
• One challenge of integration has been AI’s tendency to make mistakes: while it’s fast and highly adaptable, it can take a lot of trial and error, and agencies have found that results are sometimes wrong, flat, or even nonsensical. 
• “Text written by AI lacks the originality, humanity and emotional appeal needed for great creative work. In other words, by itself, it's not actually very good, and so overreliance on AI can make you work generically.”
  

Designing for Children: A Practical Guide

• Designing for children is a very different process than creating something for an adult audience. Children are easily bored, require different UI considerations, and generally have a secondary audience that will need to approve: their parents. 
• Regardless of the type of app you’re designing, gamification is important, as children generally need consistent milestones and rewards as a payoff for their efforts in order to remain engaged. 
• “Children start interacting with the web when they are 3–5 years old… As designers, we should always keep in mind that “children” represent a very diverse range of behaviors and abilities. In general, when designing for children, focus on a two-year age range, max.”

💜 Portfolio Inspiration

‍Riley Chan, a UX Academy graduate, employs strong research skills within her case studies to create streamlined user experiences. Projects include improving usability for an airline and producing a mobile app to help car owners track maintenance needs and fuel costs. Clean designs and intuitive interfaces work to create seamless UX.

Got a portfolio you love that you’d like to share with our audience? Email your suggestions to hello@designlab.com.

Interesting Stuff...

• Case Study: Zoom, Teams, or Chat? 
• Questioning Everything
• Components Inspired By Dieter Rams 
• Vice Media Will Cease Publication

Great design is a multi-layered relationship between human life and its environment. - Naoto Fukasawa (Japanese industrial designer)

🧪 From the Lab

Open for Enrollment: Advanced Courses ‍

Two courses for experienced designers are currently open for enrollment: ‍

Advanced Figma: In this 4-week course, you’ll master the strategies and workflows used by the best, most experienced product designers – bringing your efficiency with Figma to the next level. Next cohort launches April 15th.

‍Data Driven Design: Increase your impact as a designer and gain confidence using product metrics in your design process in this 6-week course. Next cohort launches May 3rd.

Both courses feature a combination of self-paced lessons, hands-on projects, and weekly peer group sessions led by one of our expert mentors.

‍Upcoming Community Events

‍Our slate of free community events continues with several exciting offerings upcoming:

• Mar. 4: Sketching First Ideation Using AI
• Mar. 7: Journey to Product Design: Breaking into the Industry as an Immigrant
• Mar. 12: Closing the Gap Between Designers and Developers

You can find the full event calendar  on our registration page to see what’s coming up next. 

Starting Your Journey to a Fulfilling Creative Career 
‍
The March cohort of UX Academy Foundations launches this coming Monday, March 4th, now with AI content. Learn foundational design skills and get hands-on experience working in tools like Figma. You’ll also receive 1:1 mentorship and a $500 tuition credit towards our career-switching bootcamp, UX Academy. 

Reserve your seat now and only pay when the cohort begins. 

Earn $ Telling People About Designlab 

Know a friend or colleague who would benefit from Designlab’s courses and programs? Have a social media channel or blog related to design? 

If you said ‘yes’ to either question, sharing Designlab with your network is now more rewarding than ever! Earn for each new student you send our way.

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