Why AI Won’t Replace Designers: The Human-Centered Core of Design
Introduction
Artificial intelligence (AI) is introducing new capabilities across various professions, including design. As AI continues to evolve, it will increasingly be able to execute tasks that professionals have spent years developing, mastering and specializing in. In design, AI is transforming established design methodology through its ability to generate design drafts significantly faster than what human designers can traditionally achieve.
There is concern that AI could eventually replace designers due to its ability to produce designs of quality that matches or even surpasses those created by experienced professionals. Nonetheless, envisioning a world where AI is able to perfect what is fundamentally a human-centered discipline remains challenging. Design, as a profession that is fundamentally centered on human interaction, is particularly well-positioned to challenge AI's influence on our daily lives and on our professional practices, and this concept can be extended to other professions and not just design.
In this article, I discuss why design serves as an excellent example of a profession that defines how AI can assist designers by allowing them to produce superior designs with greater efficiency, rather than supplanting the essential skills that proficient designers contribute to their field. I show how AI can make the future of design more exciting and promising as the technology continues to evolve and enable designers to do more. In the process, AI will enable designers to focus on developing the design skills that matter, namely those anchored deeply in design thinking, empathy and user research.
Design is rooted in Human Factors
Design, as a discipline, is rooted in the ability to comprehend, empathize with and relate to user behaviour and mental models. This is achieved through the designer's ability to identify and resolve problems by connecting with users, building trust and cultivating empathy. This is how a meaningful co-creative environment is established, where design is genuinely focused on addressing user needs and providing solutions that positively influence human agency and fosters social, organizational and demographic constructs.
Effective design empathises with users by first diving deep into their requirement while taking into account the thoughts, feelings and emotions they would experience through their interaction with an application. This human-centered approach to design is at the core of why artificial intelligence may not be able to fully supplant designers.
User behaviour is unpredictable
User behaviour does not always follow predictable patterns that are documented and defined through data. Each design problem has unique requirements based on the users, their context and environment, and how they navigate their surroundings. Real world user behaviour is fluid and not always predictable. Physical and social contexts profoundly influence how users think, understand, and act. The concept of situated action is essential to understanding why AI, which relies on predefined and existing models, fails to capture the complexities of human-centered design [1].
In describing embodied interaction, Paul Dourish [2] emphasizes the importance of considering the connection between mind and body when addressing design problems, rather than solely focusing on immediate issues. This approach necessitates observing and engaging with users, acknowledging that the intricacies of their daily lives can influence their actions, thus requiring design solutions that go beyond the linear and well-defined models characteristic of AI.
Designers anticipate complexity
A designer can pose intuitive questions to foresee potential challenges users might encounter, especially in unique or ambiguous situations. Don Norman’s example of “Norman Doors" [3] effectively demonstrates the importance of human-centered design in conveying functionality through affordance and feedback. It is therefore challenging for AI to anticipate and predict complexities in design and effectively address user problems.
Artificial intelligence can only identify issues when provided with comprehensive sets of data that encompasses as many patterns and probabilities of human behavior, and how all these patters and probabilities can be applied to solutions for various design challenges. This task is further complicated by the uniqueness of individual users' thinking and behavior. Designers, on the other hand, endeavor to discern overarching patterns in user behavior and common themes, and pinpoint opportunities for design enhancement through usability testing and user research.
A small percentage of users will always manifest unique needs, perspectives, and methods of interacting with the user interface, requiring the designers to make strategic and deliberate design decisions on how best to accommodate these users while balancing the overall goals of the application. The key takeaway is that user behavior patterns are constantly evolving and can be unique to different users and user groups, making it impractical to accurately encapsulate these behavior patterns through data to be used by AI models.
AI cannot co-create meaningfully with users
For design to be usable and effective for users, it must be executed with them rather than for them. This concept is inspired by the political and social context of Scandinavian trade unions in the 1970s and 1980s, which advocated for greater participation in the design of IT systems utilized in their workplaces [4]. It underscores the notion that design is inherently collaborative, focusing not only on creating tools to provide solutions but also on developing tools that navigate human agency and organizational structures. Designers create for eve evolving user groups with diverse ages, socio-economic backgrounds, geographical locations, and professional contexts, and the key to successful design lies in co-creating solutions that serves the needs of these diverse user groups.
Designers often lead this co-creation process by building trust and fostering principles of shared goals and collaboration. This approach helps deliver meaningful products that genuinely assist users in achieving their objectives and addressing their needs. AI cannot replace the invaluable ability of designers to navigate power dynamics, facilitate feedback, and ensure inclusive design.
What AI Can and Cannot Do
AI presents valuable opportunities for designers by serving as a collaborative partner. It can greatly enhance the designer’s output in several ways, such as:
Rapidly generating visual mockups tailored to the designer's specifications.
Searching through extensive datasets of design patterns.
Automating tasks like adding content and creating simple flows.
Generating functional prototypes and interactive user interfaces from designs or prompts.
However, as previously discussed, AI has limitations when it comes to essential design tasks. Specifically, it is unable to:
Navigate power dynamics and feedback loops during stakeholder presentations and design reviews.
Perceive users' feelings and emotions with sensitivity during user research sessions.
Establish deeply meaningful trust and authentic co-creation relationships with stakeholders and end users.
Comprehend users' needs thoroughly and understand how complex contextual factors can influence their behavior.
Real-World Design Challenges Require Human Judgment
Design must not only ensure that user needs are addressed in an application but also meet the requirements of stakeholders and the business behind the application. Otherwise, poorly designed applications can lead to financial losses in financial applications, exclusion of user populations such as those with accessibility needs in government applications, and potential harm in healthcare applications. In addition to human factors, design demands deep empathy, accountability, and the ability to anticipate future risks. These characteristics are intrinsic to the human-led design process and cannot be easily automated or replaced by AI.
Therefore, AI should be considered as a designer’s creative partner rather than their replacement, providing powerful tools to produce designs more efficiently and create highly interactive and code-ready prototypes. Designers who learn to leverage AI in their work will shape its role in design and can spearhead the movement towards more informed and user-centered design using this innovative technology. AI will not independently shape the future of design, instead designers will drive AI's integration into the design process while maintaining the core principles of design such as empathy, design thinking, and user research, principles that AI cannot easily and reliably adopt.
Conclusion
Our apprehensions regarding AI may be justified if it were capable of independent thinking and applying human-centered design principles to individual design problems, addressing user pain points, needs, and goals. Such concerns might also be warranted if AI could effectively communicate with end users and stakeholders, understand their requirements, and lead an ongoing process of refinement and interaction to achieve outstanding design outcomes. Despite continuous advancements in AI, the inherently human-centered nature of design ensures that it remains focused on understanding people rather than merely producing data-driven results. AI will continue to serve as a tool that enhances the designer’s mindset and skill set, which are profoundly rooted in humanity.
References
[1] Suchman, L. A. (1987). Plans and Situated Actions: The Problem of Human-Machine Communication. Cambridge University Press.
[2] Dourish, P. (2001). Where the Action Is: The Foundations of Embodied Interaction. MIT Press.
[3] Norman, D. A. (1988). The Design of Everyday Things. Basic Books.
[4] Bødker, S., Ehn, P., Sjögren, D., & Sundblad, Y. (2000), Co-operative Design – Perspectives on 20 Years with the Scandinavian IT Design Model, Proceedings of DIS 2000
