📰 3 ARTICLES
The Complexity Paradox of ChatGPT, AI, and UX
- UX consultant Peter Ramsey explores how AI's constant evolution could make it more challenging for humans to master its use, as frequent updates leave little room for deep understanding.
- Ramsey also highlights the way AI “thinks”, or generates information, as a potential pitfall when it comes to trust: Google, for example, provides you with an answer but subsequently lists often reliable sources as the point of reference—with ChatGPT, this is not always the case.
- “In short: the change in complexity of AI is outpacing behavioral evolution—by a lot. It's harder to build predictable and transparent experiences when even literal computer scientists can't predict the outcome of a prompt, or explain it to someone on the train.”
Watch Here: Sitdown with Colin Dunn, Cofounder of Visual Electric
- We were recently joined by Colin Dunn, cofounder and CEO of Visual Electric. If you’re not familiar with the tool, Visual Electric is an AI-powered image generator made specifically with designers in mind, with an interface made to promote creative output and easy iteration.
- Dunn chats with the Designlab team and then offers a fascinating tour of the tool, displaying its robust capabilities. He also discusses what’s up next for Visual Electric and how the tool will continue to evolve to serve designers.
- Special Offer for the Designlab community: Use code DESIGNLAB at checkout and receive $20 off Visual Electric (this is equivalent to a free month of their Standard monthly paid plan).
Figma on Figma: Evolving Our Visual Language
- The Figma blog delves into the company’s evolution from a tool for designers to a broader ecosystem supporting more diverse roles, and explores how the company redesigned its visual language to reflect a more inclusive and collaborative identity as a part of this growth.
- Inspired by playfulness and shared interaction, the refresh is made to be flexible and adaptable while emphasizing dynamic compositions, an expanded color palette, and integrated motion principles, all aimed at capturing the co-creative process.
- “As shapes and composition convey the multivalent nature of work, our expanded color palette punches up the message. While we’ve retained our signature purple, we’ve introduced a broader range of colors that include bold primaries, bright neons, and muted earthy tones that reflects the diversity of our community and the breadth of what you can do across our products.”
💜 PORTFOLIO INSPIRATION
Stephanie Oliver, a UX Academy graduate, brings her passion for creative problem-solving to her UX design portfolio. With Revolve, she couples strong user and competitor research to design an app for virtually trying on clothes, building confidence in the purchasing process for shoppers. She also showcases her strong UI skills with the responsive redesign for Fable & Fawn, a black-owned and represented site dedicated to bridal content, creating a more sophisticated and accessible experience.
Got a portfolio you love that you’d like to share with our audience? Email your suggestions to hello@designlab.com.
💡 INTERESTING STUFF...
- When Did Color Palettes Become Content?
- Embracing Introversion in UX
- Igloo Inc: A Design Case Study
- Super Short Firm Subs Leaves for Light
Design is where science and art break even. — Robin Mathew (designer)
🧪 FROM THE LAB
🚀 Upskill Your Design Team with Designlab
In the past year, we’ve been working with an increasing number of design teams to help them upskill together and build shared context around new skills to drive business impact.
Next Wednesday, October 2nd at 1pm ET, we’ll be hosting a special webinar: Designlab for Teams, where we’ll provide an overview of the different types of training we offer for design teams, give examples of prior success, and have a live Q&A for questions you might have.
Register now—even if you can’t attend, you’ll receive a recording.
🎨 Learn More About Design 101
The first cohort of our new Design 101 course launches in just under a month, on October 25th. This course is perfect for entrepreneurs, marketers, and other non-designers who still find themselves having to create and/or collaborate on visual deliverables.
Next Wednesday, October 2nd at 12pm ET, we’ll be hosting a webinar where you can learn more about curriculum, format, and more. There will also be a Q&A at the end.
Register for the webinar or enroll now.
🎤 Special Event: Designlab x Optimal Workshop
We're excited to join Optimal Workshop for talk "Quantifying UX the Value of UX Research in 2024", dedicated to unpacking their new white paper of the same name.
This session will delve into how to effectively demonstrate UX impact in your organization, and equip you with strategies to future-proof your skills in our rapidly evolving industry.
Designlab mentor Rafael Madrid will join panelists Eniola Abioye (Meta, UX Outloud), and Philip Cockrell (Xero) to explore the paper's key findings and their real-world applications. Sign up here.
👀 UX Academy Foundations Launching Soon
Our next cohort of UX Academy Foundations (the beginner-friendly intro course for our career accelerator UX Academy) is launching in just over a week, on Monday, October 7th. You’ll work through hands-on projects to learn visual and UI design fundamentals while also gaining proficiency in Figma – all while being supported by 1:1 mentorship with an industry expert.
Ready to get started? Learn more at an upcoming webinar or enroll now.
