Akshay Kore - Designing Human-Centric AI Experiences: Applied UX Design for Artificial Intelligence (Design Thinking)

Akshay Kore

Designing Human-Centric AI Experiences

Applied UX Design for Artificial Intelligence

The Apress logo.

For

Mummy and Ajji, for always loving and supporting me despite not understanding what I do.

Kanika,for always loving and supporting me while understanding what I do.

and our cats,Momo and Shifu,for teaching me that keyboards make for great cat beds.

A photo of two cats.

Many of my favorite science fiction authors predict a worldview that I often find inevitable. Humans evolved to be intelligent, and over time, we will imbue intelligence in our things, systems, and environments. In fact, weve already started doing this. If I ask you to find information about Aryabhata, I am confident you would begin with a Google search. Many of us would prefer our streaming services to suggest things to watch. I used Grammarly, an AI assistant, to correct grammatical mistakes when writing this book. A car that drives itself is just around the corner, and it is not odd to talk to your speaker anymore.

Artificial intelligence is inevitable, and anyone interested in shaping the future should take note. Do an image search for the term artificial intelligence. Many results will be abstract representations of brains, networks, and robots. AI starts to feel like an esoteric technology meant for geniuses in labs churning out sophisticated solutions. While parts of this picture are true, AI is also about how we work, play, and live. It is also about making mundane everyday interactions smarter, more efficient, and easy.

Over the last five years, Ive had the opportunity to work with AI teams in various large companies and start-ups. Ive consumed numerous books, videos, podcasts, articles, and research papers on the topic. Ive spoken to over a thousand people from product management, design, engineering, and research. I realized that there is a gap between a designers understanding of how the technology works and the practical realities of building AI products.

AI brings a fundamental shift to how we design products. Instead of specifying rules, AI teams are responsible for curating outcomes based on algorithms and large amounts of data. AI systems are dynamic, they change over time, and their user experience needs to adapt to this change. This calls for a shift in how we think about designing intelligent products.

Designing good AI products is also a highly collaborative process between different disciplines. It is extremely unlikely that a lone designer will be responsible for building and shipping AI. A big part of being a good AI designer is being a good team member.

Over time, I started compiling my learnings on what works and what doesnt when building AI products and how designers can become effective and impactful team members. This book is merely a distillation of this collected knowledge.

You should read this book if you are a designer, technologist, researcher, manager, or founder working with or interested in building human-centered AI products. No prior experience with AI is required to read this book. This book can help you identify opportunities for using artificial intelligence to solve problems and create desirable AI products. The contents of this book are also relevant for developers interested in building intuitive interfaces for AI-based solutions.

I wrote this book as a practical guide to designing human-centric AI products. And even though Ive written this book, Im pretty sure I will have to keep going back to refer to sections from time to time. The pace at which we forget things is astonishing.

While you might want to finish it in one go, in most cases, you will encounter different types of challenges at different times in your product development journey. I would recommend that you read it once and then use the book as a reference whenever you get stuck or when you want to explore different approaches to solve a problem with AI. Think of it as a working handbook for designing AI products, a tool in your design arsenal.