The Power of Optimism in Design: Lessons from Sales and Personal Experience

When we are optimistic, we strive to bting out the best in us and create our best work. An optimistic attitude allows us to be bold and even adventurous with our ideas, and we start to create out of inspiration and confidence in the true potential of our work.

Introduction

In his book Learned Optimism Martin Seligman describes a study in 1985 that focused on fifteen thousand insurance agent applicants to Met Life [1]. The study involved one thousand of the fifteen thousand applicants who failed the standard industry test, but who took an additional test called the ASQ that determined whether they were optimists or pessimists. The higher the ASQ score the more optimistic an agent was determined to be. The goal of the study was to hire these agents as part of Met Life’s workforce and measure the performance of optimistic agents compared to the pessimistic ones.

The study showed that agents in the top half of the ASQ score sold 20% more insurance than the less optimistic ones from the bottom half. Agents from the top quarter of the ASQ sold 50% more insurance than those from the bottom quarter. The study predicted that optimism determined which of the agents survived and sold the most insurance, and it did so about as well as the industry test. Seligman’s study clearly shows the impact of optimism on the success of insurance agents selling insurance, and it enabled Met Life to change their hiring practices to not focus only on whether agents passed the industry test, but also on how optimistic they were.

How does Seligman’s study apply to design? Designers, like insurance agents, are also sales people. They sell ideas, stories and concepts that shape products to a different group of people. While insurance is a discretionary product that consumers can choose not to buy, designers sell key ideas that shape the way business organizations operate, the way they serve their customers and that ultimately shape the business bottom line. In a way, the challenges designers face in their task of selling their design ideas can be just as challenging, if not more challenging, than that of insurance agents. That’s because designers must sell ideas for products that must work and achieve the business and organizational success they set out to achieve. In this case, “not buying” the product is not an option for the organization, and the product and the ideas behind it must succeed.

Why optimism is essential for a designer

A designer’s role is not limited to only being able to tell compelling stories about the design solutions they propose. They need to effectively sell the ideas built into those stories to business stakeholders, who can often be at different levels of seniority and receptiveness. If we were to rely on the results of the study by Seligman as a guide, then optimism and a positive mindset play a key role in enabling a designer to achieve their objectives.

An optimistic mindset is essential to the designer’s success and the success of their team. Every organization has a different culture and level of receptiveness to change, especially when it comes to digital products that reimagine existing business processes. The designer may be working with a business team that is used to following a decades old business processs and they may be resistant to changing it. A successful designer can place themselves in any type of business environment, adapt to the existing culture and learn to work within its confines.

The key is to maintain a positive and optimistic attitude towards the outcomes of the project, the stakeholders and the team the designer works with. This attitude communicates the designer’s confidence in their ability to succeed in their work by demonstrating to everyone around them, that they believe in the value their work and design will bring.

How optimism helped me in my career

On a past project where I led the design for an options trading application at a financial institution, I witnessed the importance of an optimistic mindset firsthand during a design review I was leading. The application I was working on was a highly specialized investing application, and I was working with a team of stakeholders who were extremely specialized in their line of business and had strong beliefs about how the application should behave. The stakeholders believed, and rightly so, that they had a strong understanding of their customers and how they tended to use the application. When I started work on the application, I relied on user research, personas and journeys as well as extensive competitive analysis and frequent peer reviews to propose my designs. During one of the design reviews, as I was reviewing a flow in the design I was proposing, one of the stakeholders in a corner of the room interjected and said:

“I am not sure why we should take his (referring to me) advice on how this should work. We can do a far better and more efficient job at it if we design and implemented it ourselves.”

This comment could have demotivated me and discouraged me from continuing with my review. I could have viewed it as a failure rather than feedback. However, I remember not being phased by it because I was confident in the value of my design and I needed to show that to the stakeholders. Instead of taking that comment and allowing it to impact me negatively, I acknowledged the feedback and I repeated my explanation of the design. I backed up my explanation by invoking the research, the competitive analysis, best practices and peer reviews that led me to the proposed design. Reframing this experience and seeing the positive in it fueled my confidence that I would be able to get buy-in from all stakeholders including the one who offered the feedback. I was able to show them the value in the design I was proposing by acknowledging their feedback and showing my confidence in the design I was proposing through evidence and research.

There was another occasion in my career where I realized the value of having an optimistic mindset. On that occasion, I found that my design was well received by the stakeholders after several design reviews and iterations. However, one day as I was reviewing my design with my manager, I realized he did not have a good opinion of it. This was not uncommon, because a good designer should always operate from a perspective that no design is prefect and that there is always room to improve. However, what was uncommon was the way this feedback was delivered:   

“I understand this design has been approved by the stakeholders, but I don’t like it. It may too late to change it now, but I will make sure to change it in the next product iteration.”

In other words, instead of his feedback being constructive and offering ideas on how to improve the design, it was dismissive and only offered the option of him taking over the design and changing it himself. This could have been another instance where it was easy to feel a sense of failure after all the work and effort I invested in obtaining the stakeholders’ buy-in. Instead, I worked with my manager to understand where he thought the gaps were, took his feedback and incorporated it in the design. I took leadership and ownership of this situation and worked with the project manager to allow me to regroup with the stakeholders, and I was able to successfully obtain their buy-in on the updates.

These experiences, along with many other experiences I had over my career, taught me the power of optimism and a positive mindset. On both of the occasions I mentioned above, I was successful in moving the design toward production with great feedback from end users. I did not give up and maintained confidence in my abilities and my design ideas, and I was able to approach my work from a perspective that was geared towards and focused on success. Everyone I worked with also wanted to invest in my success because it also meant they were also investing in their own success. When a designer adopts an attitude of optimism they quickly notice that everyone they work with also adopts the same attitude. There is no doubt that an optimistic attitude paves the way to overcoming the  challenges and obstacles faced in the design process, even if that took time and effort to achieve.

How a designer can adopt an optimistic mindset

The practice of cultivating optimism is grounded in Psychology. When practiced by the designer, these principles can bring tremendous benefits to their work. Below are the most important principles that can be practiced to cultivate optimism:

Cognitive reframing – Mistakes can happen. Important requirements may be missed or misunderstood. Other times, design decisions are made but no close attention is paid to them until much later in the design stage, and they must be changed. Instead of the designer blaming themselves for mistakes, it is more useful to reframe the mistake, turn it into a learning experience and find a way to pivot.

Gratitude practice – For a designer this means observing and focusing on the occasions when their work makes a positive impact. For example, not everyone may agree with their design direction, and they may often face criticism on what designs should look like. Focusing on the positive aspects and how their design is making a difference to the stakeholders and end users, and appreciating the impact it is making, can inspire the designer to take the feedback received and further improve on their work.  

Visualizing positive outcomes – Visualizing best case scenarios helps create a sense of possibility and cultivates an attitude that anything can be achieved. A designer should focus on the possibilities a design solution can create and operate from a mindset that their design solution will bring the value that is expected.

Surrounding oneself with optimism – Our environment is important in reinforcing how we behave and react. When we surround ourselves with positivity, positive outcomes will come to us. This practice goes beyond the workplace and applies to everything we do in life. If a designer is constantly seeking a positive environment, then that will ultimately reflect in their attitude and how they come across to others they work with. The designer will notice that everyone they work with becomes more receptive to their ideas, and more willing to work with them to develop those ideas and share in their success.

Setting small, achievable goals – Progress fuels optimism, and small wins help us feel capable. When design problems seem difficult or consensus seems out of reach, it is important to set small and achievable milestones, and celebrate when those milestones are achieved.

Practicing self-compassion – We are always our own harshest critics. Speaking to ourselves with compassion and encouragement, not blame, helps us find the positive in our work and move forward with solutions that will allow us to achieve our goals.

Adopting an ‘Experimental’ mindset – This practice is the most important one in cultivating an optimistic mindset. If something does not work, it should be considered as feedback to improve and not a failure. It is all too often that designers experience setbacks where design may not meet expectations. Sometimes business stakeholders or managers may disagree with the designer’s approach. A designer might react to this thinking “I did not do a good job on this design” or “I failed to understand the requirements”. Reframing this as “I can propose different design alternatives” or “I can show how my design improves on the requirements” makes the setback feel less threatening.

Conclusion

Seligman’s study showed that optimism could predict success, above and beyond traditional criteria for hiring insurance agents. The results of the study were so effective that Met Life and other industry players changed their hiring practices to hire agents who scored high on the optimism test yet narrowly failed the industry test. Like this study in insurance sales, the success of a designer in his work also hinges on optimism and a positive attitude. It is possible for a designer to follow and implement the best practices and theory of design, but if they cannot maintain an optimistic and positive attitude they will struggle to achieve a successful outcome. When we are optimistic, we strive to bring out the best in us and create our best work. An optimistic attitude allows us to be bold and even adventurous with our ideas, and we start to create out of inspiration and confidence in the true potential of our work. Optimism empowers a designer to focus on the success of their design ideas rather than the failures, turn setbacks into opportunities and adopt a mindset where everything is achievable even when faced with complex problems.   

References

[1] Seligman, M. E. P. (2006). Learned optimism: How to change your mind and your life (2nd ed.). Vintage Books.

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How My Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) Research Shaped My Design Career

“Research in HCI continues to be the primary contributor of the methodologies, technologies and tools we use to support modern application design, and it continues to remind us that the origins of design as a discipline have always been deeply rooted in how humans interact with computers.”

Introduction

The methodology and best practices behind design are constantly evolving, yet they have always been deeply rooted in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). I think about how my career progressed in context with the rapidly changing nature and landscape of design and usability, especially when it comes to the lightning speed with which AI technologies have evolved and the ubiquity of user interfaces and technologies supporting them.

I have always viewed my time at Queen’s University and my research as a graduate student as the foundation of my career. I did not set out to pursue a career in design or usability when I started my graduate studies. In fact, I thought that my career would evolve around software development or solutions architecture. I had a good theoretical foundation during my undergraduate studies, yet the idea of choosing a research topic that is yet to be explored seemed daunting to me at first. Among all the specialized fields of study in Computer Science such as Data Mining, Machine Learning, and Parallel Computing, I knew that Software Engineering was a topic that I was interested in exploring further.

The research I embarked on with the help of my advisor, Prof. Nick Graham, involved researching and programming user interface libraries that developers would use to write applications [1]. It would take me years after completing this work to realize the significance of its contribution to HCI. That’s because I was initially focused on the execution of the ideas in my research, and designing and writing code to implement user interface libraries. However, the two years I spent doing this work would prove to be transformative in my understanding of application design, and in how my research would shape my thinking and work as a user experience designer, a product designer and an interaction designer.

The Origins of User Experience in HCI

To understand the origins of user experience design and how it evolved, it is important to shed light on how deeply rooted it is in HCI.

The term “User Experience” (UX) was originally coined by Don Norman while working at Apple in the early 1990s. On why he coined the term Norman writes [2]:

“I invented the term because I thought Human Interface and Usability were too narrow. I wanted to cover all aspects of the person’s experience with the system.”

Long before Norman proposed the term “User Experience”, Human-Computer Interaction emerged as a formal research field in Computer Science in the early 1970s and 1980s.

In 1982, the Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction (SIGCHI) was established under the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM). SIGCHI was established as a global body to focus on the emergence of Human-Computer Interaction in the 1970s and 1980s as a major field of Computer Science research, and the rapid shift in computing from command-line interfaces to graphical user interfaces (GUIs). This shift highlighted the importance of human factors, cognitive psychology and ergonomics as key elements in the design of interactive systems.

Since its establishment, SIGCHI has become the most prominent international conference where top HCI researchers and design practitioners present new theories, models and technologies that have helped shape the field of usability and user experience design. SIGCHI cemented the role of HCI as a discipline of Computer Science and established the core theories, principles and methodologies behind the user experience design practice as we know it today, including usability testing, interaction design and service design.

In the Psychology of Human-Computer Interaction, Card, Moran and Newell [3] highlighted the user as the key information processor. Therefore, good systems design must focus on understanding human perception, memory and problem solving rather than hardware and programming. Furthermore, since human attention, memory and perception are limited and predictable, the system must be designed with these considerations in mind.

Card, Moran and Newell established key models that helped establish the foundations of UX research and usability today, with the most notable one being the Model Human Processor (MHP) model. The MHP model identifies the human mind as comprising of three main subsystems:

  • Perceptual – responsible for sensory, visual and auditory input and output.
  • Cognitive – responsible for thinking, reasoning and short-term memory.
  • Motor – responsible for all motor skills required for a user to interact with a system such typing, mouse movement and pointing, and eye tracking.

Jakob Nielsen helped further shift the focus in application development on the user when he formalized the role of usability in software engineering in his book Usability Engineering [4]. Nielsen argued that usability must be an integral part of the software design and development cycle through rapid, iterative, and low-cost methods. Nielsen also defined the five key components of usability as learnability, efficiency, memorability, errors and satisfaction. These components remain the cornerstones of user experience design and its role in the software development lifecycle today.

My Research in HCI Shaped My Mindset As a Designer

My research focused on the topic of User Interface Plasticity, which turned into a published article in an HCI journal [1]. I explored how simple user interface widgets such as a menu and a scrollbar could behave on a desktop computer and a digital whiteboard. I wrote libraries that allowed developers to write an application that automatically rendered scrollbar and menu widgets and adapted them to the device they were running on. In other words, the menu and scrollbar widgets retained plastic properties, which meant they could be ‘molded’ to match the the device they are deployed on. In designing the menu and scrollbar widget libraries, I needed to shift my focus from implementing libraries for the menu and scrollbar widgets to thinking about how these widgets would be used by the users along with the context and device. This relates back to the need to consider the perceptual, cognitive and motor subsystems discussed by Card, Moran and Newell in the MHP model.

The launch of the iPhone (2007) a few years after my research was published, and the iPad a few years after that, sparked a rapid pace of development in UI frameworks for mobile devices and tablets. This pace of development was propelled by the growing adoption of the web coupled with a user base that became increasingly sophisticated, with clear expectations on how applications should behave depending on the devices they were using. The launch of the iPhone and iPad allowed me to understand the importance of my research in defining how user interfaces behaved on different devices.

More importantly, my research shaped my understanding of how applications should behave on difference devices, and how application design overall is governed by the principles of HCI. Until that point, I was trained to write command-line programs on Linux using C, and as long as the program behaved as expected on the command line by providing the right prompts to the user, receiving the required inputs and producing the correct output, the program was considered successful.

Conclusion

The rise of Human-Computer Interaction in the 1970s and 1980s came out of a growing need to enable software applications to better serve users. It was no longer sufficient to expect that command line interfaces would be able to satisfy the needs of all users. As devices and the web evolved, so did users’ expectations of how applications should behave on the variety of devices available.

HCI was still growing as field of research in Computer Science when I embarked on my research at Queen’s University with Prof. Graham, yet it profoundly shaped my mindset as a designer, and how I approached design problems in various industries throughout my career. My research helped lay the conceptual foundations for device-independent UI frameworks that fed into ubiquitous computing, multi-platform design frameworks, adaptive UIs for smart devices and early thinking about device independence and context awareness. Through this work I was able to practice novel concepts at the time such as the MHP model, and other concepts introduced by Nielsen on usability in software engineering.

All of this work helped focus me on solving design problems and designing applications with a clear focus on user interaction. This is why I believe that as designers we must ensure that we always maintain a thorough understanding of the theory and research the HCI field offers. The core foundations of design have always been deeply rooted in Human-Computer Interaction, in Computer Science and in Psychology. Research in HCI continues to be the primary contributor of the methodologies, technologies and tools we use to support modern application design, and it continues to remind us that the origins of design as a discipline have always been deeply rooted in how humans interact with computers.

If this story resonates with you — or if you’re tackling challenges at the intersection of UX design, usability, and emerging technologies like AI — I’d love to connect.

Whether you’re working on adaptive interfaces, modernizing legacy systems, or simply want to apply HCI principles more deeply in your product design, I help teams bridge research, strategy, and practical execution.

Feel free to reach out through LinkedIn. Let’s explore how thoughtful, human-centered design can transform your next project.

References

[1] Jabarin, B., & Graham, T. C. N. (2003). Architectures for widget-level plasticity. In Proceedings of the 10th International Workshop on Design, Specification, and Verification of Interactive Systems.

[2] Norman, D. A. (n.d.). The Definition of User Experience (UX). Nielsen Norman Group. Retrieved July 9, 2025, from https://www.nngroup.com/articles/definition-user-experience/

[3] Card, S. K., Moran, T. P., & Newell, A. (1983). The Psychology of Human-Computer Interaction. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

[4] Nielsen, J. (1993). Usability Engineering. Boston, MA: Academic Press.

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Designing with Empathy: A Universal Practice for Meaningful Collaboration

In an era marked by the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence, it is reassuring to recognize that the human capacity for empathy remains unique and irreplaceable.

Introduction

On a recent project I worked on I found that I was not very clear on the subject matter and the complexity of the problems that were presented. I did not know any of the business stakeholders well, and while I had previously worked with some of the project team members, I had not yet developed a meaningful working relationship with them. I needed to get up to speed quickly so that I could start thinking about how to run discovery sessions, and how to frame the problem and ask the right questions in my stakeholder interviews.

To arrive at that stage I needed to get to know the stakeholders, understand what was important to them and what motivated them to embark on this project. To accomplish this, I spent time both privately and in group discussions with the stakeholders. The one-on-one interviews I initially conducted with the stakeholders and the group discovery workshops were helpful in allowing them get to know me as a person first, before being the individual filling the role of the designer on the project.

I was able to gain the stakeholders’ trust by showing that my role was first and foremost focused on understanding their needs and goals, and that I was immersing myself in their experiences. This was essential for the stakeholders because they were trusting me to lead the design on a project that impacted their day-to-day work, and it was also essential for me to help establish a strong foundation and build trust as I embarked on this project.

When I reflect on how I was able to arrive at that stage of trust and partnership with the stakeholders, I realize that it was the fact that I understood and related to how they felt about their work, and that I tried to put myself in their shoes by rephrasing and reconfirming my understanding of their problems. I was successful in letting the stakeholders know that that they were not alone in the challenges they were facing, and that I was there to understand the problems they were trying to solve by really imagining myself as part of their team. I wanted to show that I could relate to them so that together we could start a journey to gain a better perspective and create a great solution.

This example is only one of many I can reflect on throughout my career as a designer, where I realized the fundamental role empathy plays in providing reassurance to myself and others I worked with, that we all shared a mutual care and understanding of our experiences and goals.

In this post, I explore the need for designers to consistently practice empathy throughout all aspects of their role. For designers, empathy extends beyond end users, encompassing every individual involved in the design process, including stakeholders and colleagues. I refer to this as Universal Empathy, wherein a designer is expected to genuinely understand and relate to everyone within their professional sphere to effectively create products that are usable, impactful, and successful.

Why Empathy Matters In Design

In psychology, empathy is defined as the capacity to comprehend and share the feelings of another individual. This extends beyond courteous or considerate behavior, involving the ability to perceive situations from another person’s perspective, understand their emotions, and respond appropriately in alignment with their perspective. Such an understanding allows individuals to convey genuine support, assuring others that their experiences are acknowledged and their needs are recognized.

Tim Brown identifies empathy as a fundamental element in design thinking, particularly when addressing complex problems [1]. As a human-centered methodology, design thinking requires a comprehensive understanding of users’ needs, business requirements, and relevant organizational and technological considerations to achieve successful product development.

Kouprie and Visser [2] provide an in-depth examination of the role of empathy in design by presenting a four-phase model. They describe how designers should adopt a dynamic, multi-stage approach to empathy that includes the following phases:

  • Discovery: In this phase, designers remain inquisitive, actively observing, learning, and asking questions about users.
  • Immersion: This phase involves designers engaging directly in the user experience through interviews, observation sessions, and shadowing activities.
  • Connection: At this stage, designers identify with users and establish a genuine understanding of their feelings regarding their experiences.
  • Detachment: Finally, designers apply their insights objectively, ensuring that design decisions are informed by the observations gathered during earlier stages.

The work by Kouprie and Visser further underscores the designer’s essential role in acting as a catalyst for the phases of empathy. This helps foster the creation of effective solutions that serve both end user and organizational goals.

Universal Empathy

I would like to emphasize how the designer’s universal approach to empathy is essential to their success, the success of their team, and ultimately the success of the products they design. This approach is essential throughout the product design lifecycle, beginning with the design thinking phase and through to the development and implementation phase. Designers play a pivotal role, not only in guiding design discovery and generating research-driven concepts, but also in fostering team cohesion and promoting a collaborative culture rooted in empathy. The designer accomplishes this by bridging the gap between the user needs, stakeholder needs and the project team needs by fostering a comprehensive understanding of the goals of everyone involved in the project.

The designer cultivates universal empathy by:

  • Listening to, understanding and connecting with user needs, connecting with their experiences and knowing when to disconnect in order to be able to make objective design decisions.
  • Building trust with stakeholders and connecting with their needs and establishing a strong foundation to collaborate on building a product that meets the needs of both the business and the end users.
  • Facilitating their team’s understanding of technical design aspects by readily addressing questions, remaining attentive to the team’s needs, and helping when required.
  • Fostering an overall inclusive environment that recognizes and values feedback from everyone in their sphere, promotes successful collaboration and addresses the diverse requirements and viewpoints involved in the design process.

Conclusion

I have consistently found that demonstrating empathy toward those around me has contributed significantly to my success in my work and my career. By cultivating this approach, I learned to listen, understand, acknowledge and fully immerse myself in the experiences and feedback from users, business stakeholders, and my colleagues alike.

I have also been able to help to foster a culture in which individuals support one another and feel comfortable seeking assistance when needed. In my experience, such an environment always promoted greater job satisfaction, personal growth and stronger professional relationships that extended beyond individual tasks and contributed towards shared goals.

In an era marked by the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence, it is reassuring to recognize that the human capacity for empathy remains unique and irreplaceable.

References

[1] Brown, T. (2009). Change by Design: How Design Thinking Creates New Alternatives for Business and Society. Harvard Business Press.

[2] Kouprie, M., & Visser, F. S. (2009). A framework for empathy in design: Stepping into and out of the user’s life. Journal of Engineering Design, 20(5), 437–448.

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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

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Case Study: Designing an AI-Driven Product with Strategic Ownership

“In complex AI systems, clarity is not a bonus—it’s the core feature. Product Designers must lead the charge, not just in how things look, but in how they think and work.”

Project Overview

In this case study, we examine a team that has recognized the potential of Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to refine and enhance a longstanding methodology for forecasting product order volumes. By leveraging AI and ML, the team can achieve more precise ordering based on those forecasts, while also gaining the capability to monitor market prices and receive insights on how to adjust orders to minimize costs. Historically, this team has relied on Excel for manual and meticulous user input, maintaining continuous communication among members and adhering to a process honed over several decades. While this approach has been effective, they have now realized that integrating AI and ML can significantly enhance their workflow by handling larger datasets at a faster pace and generating profound insights aimed at maximizing efficiency, reducing costs, and driving business growth.  

Role of the Product Designer

The Product Designer in this role helped initiate a significant project aimed at transforming a long-standing, Excel-based process into a web-based application. This endeavor required not only a user-centered design approach but also an understanding of how AI and ML can be applied effectively to realize the project goals and meet the users needs.

To achieve this, the Product Designer addressed the following considerations:

  • What processes were being followed?
  • How did users use Excel for data entry and forecasting?
  • Which identified business processes needed to be maintained, which could be enhanced with AI, and which could be replaced entirely?
  • Where could AI and ML introduce efficiencies and savings, and provide valuable insights?
  • Were the identified AI efficiencies and insights aligned with user expectations?
  • How would the design help users provide inputs easily, and act upon AI-generated outputs and insights?
  • How would the design help users enhance their work efficiency and enable them to focus on more strategic and human-centric tasks?

At this stage, and before any of the AI models and algorithms were developed, the Product Designer assumed a strategic role in defining the foundational framework for the data the AI models would use and the outputs and insights they would generate for user consumption and action.

By adopting a product owner’s mindset and taking on a strategic role in determining the user requirements as they pertained to the AI models, the Product Designer shaped the product through the following actions:

  • Identifying key stakeholders through close collaboration with the project manager
  • Gaining an understanding of the current business process and the value the project proposes to achieve
  • Developing interview scripts designed to deepen understanding of:
    • The current business process and how Excel is used to generate forecasts
    • The ideal product vision and how it aligns with the user needs and expectations, particularly as it applies to the use of AI and ML
    • How the product could add value to users’ day-to-day work
  • Scheduling and facilitating interviews with stakeholders.
  • Maintaining an openness to any additional insights gained during the interviews such as including additional stakeholders, and exploring other areas of the business as necessary.
  • Collecting and synthesizing feedback from the stakeholder interviews.
  • Establishing a framework based on the feedback analysis for user personas, user journeys and user flows.

These activities enabled the Product Designer to acquire deep insight into the current business process, the stakeholders and users and their roles, and most importantly, insights into the AI and ML user needs and what outputs would be expected .

Research & Discovery

Using the insights gained from stakeholder interviews, the Product Designer was able to:

  • Identify user personas based on the roles and users discussed during the interviews.
  • Conduct additional workshops to further refine the identified user personas.
  • Discover new opportunities for additional user personas not previously identified and develop them further.
  • Develop user journeys for key user personas or those with the most critical needs.
  • Create user flows that outline the application’s essential features, associated screens, inputs, and outputs.
  • Refine user flows, enhance identified features, and ascertain any missing components and data.
  • Develop an information architecture (IA) aimed at providing easy and intuitive navigation that prioritized productivity and ease of navigation between various sections of the application.

The outcome of this process was a well-defined product roadmap and vision that provided a clear framework for technical teams. Data scientists, engineers, back-end and front-end developers could use this roadmap, along with the user needs and technical requirements identified, to begin designing and developing AI models. This structured approach ensured that the AI models were not only functional but also optimized to enhance the user experience.

Designing with Clarity and Logic

The research and discovery phase provided essential insights, enabling the Product Designer to conceptualize how the application would meet users’ needs and allow the AI models to generate the necessary outcomes. The user flow diagrams established an information architecture that formed the basis for the features the application offered and the overall user experience. With the information architecture now established, wireframes and mockups were created to facilitate discussions with users regarding the design direction.

  • Wireframes and mockups enabled stakeholders and end users to understand how input is provided into the AI models and what the output would look like.
  • This stage was crucial in the product design process as it helped establish the foundation for robust AI models that would directly meet the users’ needs.
  • The wireframes and mockups were refined based on feedback from users and stakeholders through recurring reviews and workshops.

Wireframes, mockups, and user flows helped the Product Designer build a prototype that:

  • Assisted data scientists, engineers, front-end, and back-end developers in visualizing user input and the generated output in the application.
  • Assisted data scientists and engineers in understanding the requirements for data input and output processing, and design algorithms to meet these requirements.
  • Illustrated the detailed interactions necessary to enable users to calibrate their inputs into AI models.
  • Facilitated collaboration between back-end and front-end developers with data scientists and engineers to design and build APIs that support the flow of data and insights from AI models.
  • Allowed running usability testing sessions with end users to validate the design and iterate based on the feedback received.

The development of a prototype represented a significant milestone and underscored the strategic role of the Product Designer played in guiding stakeholders and users through discovery sessions, workshops and design reviews. The Product Designer’s efforts in understanding data input and output requirements, and visualizing them clearly as part of a prototype, enabled technical teams to design AI models and algorithms that met those requirement. This hybrid mindset adopted by the Product Designer, functioning as an intermediary between business strategy and technical execution, was pivotal in fostering collaboration among product, engineering, and data teams, ensuring a clear understanding of the product vision and roadmap.

To drive the success of this AI-enabled product, the Product Designer delivered a strategic and structured design process that included:

  • User personas, journeys, flows, and an information architecture that defined core behaviours and ensured the experience aligned with user needs.
  • Interactive prototypes, refined through multiple rounds of usability testing and stakeholder input.
  • Detailed interactions clearly outlining user inputs and the data required to support model performance.
  • Insight-driven visualizations, which shaped how AI outputs were presented and guided model design.
  • An end-to-end product roadmap, mapping the full product vision while enabling the extraction of an MVP and a plan for iterative, future releases.

Lessons Learned

In this case study, the product designer started their work by identifying users’ needs and pain points related to an existing business process. Stakeholders and users wanted to explore how AI and ML could introduce savings and efficiencies into their business.

The designer’s responsibilities included identifying and analyzing the problem, and integrating ML and AI solutions through extensive collaboration with stakeholders, product managers, engineers, and data teams. This collaboration was crucial for the designer to articulate the product vision using a user-centered approach while also providing comprehensive insights into the data engineering efforts needed to optimize AI model outcomes.

Designing and developing AI and ML models for a product is a time and resource-intensive process. Therefore, it is essential for organizations to ensure these resources and efforts are invested in a manner that maximizes benefits and potential gains. In this case study, the Product Designer’s role was vital in establishing the product vision and roadmap, and in helping the various project teams understand and acheive this vision.

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