Summary
Discover the transformative power of shifting from passive users to active shapers of AI in Tricia's compelling closing keynote. Unveiling the insidious "User Trap," Tricia exposes the pervasive sense of powerlessness entrenched in our tech-driven world. She champions a radical shift in the researcher's mindset, advocating liberation from the confines of being "user researchers" to versatile professionals adept at navigating the complexities of human-tech interactions, especially ones that force people into becoming users. As AI tooling improves, Tricia envisions a future where human ingenuity stands as the cornerstone, complementing and enhancing the capabilities of advanced AI tools. In this world, researchers who can truly understand human beings, gather thick data, and communicate complexity and context-loss with clarity, will become even more indispensable.
Key Insights
-
•
Web 2.0 has created a 'user trap' where humans are passive, commodified data points rather than active participants.
-
•
AI amplifies fears rooted in Web 2.0's centralized control and lack of transparency over data inputs and outputs.
-
•
The dominant AI narrative frames humans as in competition with AI, fostering fear and loss of agency.
-
•
Shapers are people who actively collaborate with AI, blending human and machine intelligence to amplify outcomes.
-
•
Four key skills of shapers are coaching AI, adaptive intelligence, responsibility, and seeing AI as an extension of self.
-
•
Thick data, or deep qualitative insight, is critical to compensate for context loss inherent in digitization and big data.
-
•
A cultural shift is needed from data-driven to insight-driven organizations to better integrate diverse data and human perspectives.
-
•
Decentralized technologies like blockchain show potential, especially for underrepresented communities, but face commercial and idealistic challenges.
-
•
Researchers should rethink the term 'user' and their own roles, focusing on complex human relationships rather than simplified user categories.
-
•
Fully escaping the user trap requires understanding and proactive engagement with technology, not simply disconnecting from platforms.
Notable Quotes
"AI is the latest tool that’s gonna help us make better decisions for people, for the planet, for future generations."
"We’re all in the user trap — dependent on technology platforms that reduce our agency and treat us as passive data sources."
"Shapers show a two-way street with AI — coaching the AI and being coached by it."
"Thick data is the opposite of big data — it cuts through noise and rescues lost context."
"Web 2.0 platforms gave us the ability to be producers but the power always goes back to centralized monopolies."
"Our fear of AI comes from not trusting the data inputs powering AI models."
"Being a user has become an identity that limits human expression to a set of pre-approved interactions."
"The role of researchers is to zoom in and zoom out — navigating complexity while understanding the big picture."
"AI products don’t have to be platforms; smaller, open source models allow more control and customization."
"We are at an existential moment — will AI make tech bigger or more humane?"
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"I wish I could tell my 22-year-old self what to stop doing and what to embrace to be a better designer."
Adam Cutler Karen Pascoe Ian Swinson Susan WorthmanDiscussion
June 8, 2016
"We don’t get upset when users say one thing and do another, but we freak out when our leadership behaves that way."
Peter MerholzThe Trials and Tribulations of Directors of UX (Videoconference)
July 13, 2023
"Everything that has been put online, someone like us made and put there; we bake our own biases into it."
Lisa WelchmanCleaning Up Our Mess: Digital Governance for Designers
June 14, 2018
"Investing in sustainability today will yield dividends for future generations."
Vincent BrathwaiteOpener: Past, Present, and Future—Closing the Racial Divide in Design Teams
October 22, 2020
"If you forget the individual, you cut out psychological safety, and that’s the foundation of strong teams."
Brenna FallonLearning Over Outcomes
October 24, 2019
"Factory owners manipulated people’s time so much that workers were afraid to carry a watch."
Tricia WangSpatial Collapse: Designing for Emergent Culture
January 8, 2024
"Creating hypotheses from pain points with measurable success criteria helped prioritize which to pursue."
Edgar Anzaldua MorenoUsing Research to Determine Unique Value Proposition
March 11, 2021
"Knowledge needs to be thought of as a reusable circular process, not a linear one ending at project completion."
Designing Systems at Scale
November 7, 2018
"If my experiment made front-page news tomorrow, what would the headline be? Would my mother be proud?"
Erin WeigelGet Your Whole Team Testing to Design for Impact
July 24, 2024
