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This video is featured in the AI and UX playlist.
Summary
In an environment of UX staff reductions, a focus on tangible design skills and tool expertise, quarterly profits, and angst over what AI means for the future of everyone’s jobs, what place does “theory” have? As designers and researchers we engage in theory every day by hypothesizing: “If we design it like this, then we will have outcome X.” The bigger the problem you’re trying to solve, the more important it becomes to have a theoretical framework about why you’re doing what you’re doing. The breathless parade of AI releases present the biggest challenges (and potential opportunities) in many years. As designers we should have a posture on how to shape how AI is used and its impacts. Much as the mid-century modernists developed coherent frameworks for understanding the relationship between form, function, and human needs, using novel technologies coming out of World War II, we must now articulate theories that help us make sense of this new landscape where intelligence itself has become a design material. Join UX researcher/strategist Adam Richardson and UX design leader Uday Gajendar for an exploration of how we might develop the theoretical foundations designers need to thoughtfully shape AI interactions.
Key Insights
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Design has always been a form of theory, predicting outcomes and unintended consequences of design decisions.
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Historical design movements, like Arts and Crafts and Bauhaus, were driven by social, cultural, and humanistic ideals, not just aesthetics.
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Victor Papanek framed design as a conscious effort to impose meaningful order against mass consumerism and ecological damage.
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Dick Buchanan viewed design as a liberal art of technology and a form of rhetoric shaping how people live.
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Many foundational UX theories, such as affordances, are being neglected in favor of short-term growth and efficiency.
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The current design profession lacks a shared, hopeful ideal or movement that is sustainable and collective.
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Craft involves intentionality and care, extending beyond physical making to digital micro-interactions that convey human presence.
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AI introduces knowledge as a new material in design, complicating notions of authorship and human touch.
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Systems thinking and participatory design remain crucial for understanding trade-offs and unintended consequences in AI-driven projects.
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Individual designers often struggle to enact humanistic values within large organizations driven by investor and capitalist pressures.
Notable Quotes
"As designers, in many ways, we are theorists, even if we don’t think of ourselves that way."
"The Arts and Crafts movement tried to recapture the artisan’s humanity lost after the industrial revolution."
"Mass production is here to stay; modernism asked what we can do to make it more humanistic."
"Design is a rhetorical statement, an argument for living your life a certain way."
"You can’t develop a career just mastering a tool; those become obsolete as technology evolves."
"We don’t need more tactical skill training; we need a movement with shared ideals and collective purpose."
"Good designers can shift scale fluidly between the big picture and craft-level details."
"AI means knowledge is now the material we’re working with in design, not just pixels or code."
"AI-generated imagery feels too perfect and shiny, lacking the flawed human presence we appreciate."
"Trying to figure this stuff out inside your day job is nearly impossible; we need spaces for slower thinking."
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