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Design Uncle's Guide to Surviving the AI Revolution in UX

• Adrian Franks • Season 1 • Episode 7

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Artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming the design industry, and this episode of Graphite Radio takes you on a deep dive into the tools and trends shaping our future. Your Design Uncle breaks down UIzard, an emerging AI tool that transforms hand-sketched ideas into interactive prototypes, and examines Figma's new AI Beta that promises to streamline workflows while enhancing collaboration.

Beyond tools, we explore Spotify's ambitious move into video podcasting with potential six-figure earnings for creators, signaling a direct challenge to YouTube in the content creation space. We also uncover the surprising resurrection of Digg, as its original founder Kevin Rose partners with Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian to reimagine the platform for a post-social media world.

The heart of this episode addresses the critical question on every designer's mind: which UX roles will thrive in an AI-powered future, and which may fade away? Growth areas include UX strategists, conversational designers, accessibility specialists, and ethical AI governance experts. Meanwhile, traditional UI generalists, manual researchers, and junior designers may face challenges as automation accelerates.

To survive and thrive, tomorrow's designers must develop "T-shaped" skill sets—deep expertise in strategic areas combined with breadth across multiple disciplines. The message is clear: AI won't replace designers who can think strategically about human needs and ethical concerns, but it will transform how we work and what skills command premium value.

Share your thoughts about the future of UX on social media or LinkedIn, and don't forget to check out the other amazing shows on the Caffeine Network. Stay cool, stay creative, be human.

:: Outro Music created by YG

You've been tuned in to Graphite Radio, where creativity meets culture. Part of the Kaffeine Audio Network and proudly distributed by Pepper Labs. Thanks for joining us on this journey of ideas, art, and innovation. Be sure to subscribe and stay connected for more stories that shape the world we create. Until next time, keep sketching your vision into reality.

Speaker 1:

This is. This is. This is Graphite Radio. Thank you.

Speaker 2:

What's going on, people? This is your boy, ad, bringing you another episode of Graphite Pro Radio. The last couple episodes, we've been taking a really cool deep dive into this, more or less this series I'm calling Black Magic, this exploration of individuals from the different, various design backgrounds whether they're like artists, designers, architects, industrial designers and we really took like a really cool deep dive Well, not so deep, but deep enough to kind of, you know, whip your pattern and sparking inches around all these different unsung heroes, what I'm calling the African Diasporic Creative Experience. Yeah, welcome back. And this week we want to jump back into like our regular schedule of graphite, which is covering like the things going on in the design world, the creative world, as well as a couple things a little bit in the news, but overall just kind of give you guys game right, what I'm calling free game, free design game. I mean even, I guess, coining myself as this whole design uncle. I probably need to like register that or something. So, yeah, we're going to dive right into a couple of different key topics here. A few things I want to cover off on is this idea of what the future ux is going to be, and a couple of different tools have been more or less popping up. Everything called u UI Zard kind of a weird name, but that's been like a thing that's been popping up out of here. Figma has this new beta version of Figma AI, so I think we need to kind of get into that, talk about that as well, as well as some other things around, like what Spotify is doing when it comes to its new podcast programming for creatives, is doing when it comes to its new podcast programming for creatives, and even like this idea of like these.

Speaker 2:

I wouldn't call it legacy, but the early double o's or the early 2000s had a lot of cool platforms and dig was one of them. So I think we should kind of talk about that and then we get into like the tool of the day. You know, let's dive right on in. So let's talk about UI czar Now again weird name, but I must say it's this kind of powerful AI tool that a lot of UX and designers more or less augment their productivity around sketches, screenshots, anything around like UX and thinking about like product design. This tool has more or less have taken a lot of those sketches and screenshots and use like text prompts to turn things into, like these interactive wire frames and high fidelity prototypes. Now, some of the key features, or what I'm calling the killer features, of UI czar are a couple of different things. One is this AI powered design generation that's been using these instantly prompts to kind of convert like hand-drawn sketches and screenshots and these written scripts into, like these interactive prototypes, as I just mentioned. Also is using another killer feature around these pre-built templates and components.

Speaker 2:

Now, if any of you guys know about components and design systems, that's a huge thing. So is there a way that I guess the UI's artists I hope I'm saying this right, but whatever they're kind of I guess can use those components to more or less help build like the quick ways of outputting, like UX and screens or whatever. Right Now they also have like drag and drop editing, so that's always a good thing to have as well. They have like these automatic theme and like style, like adaptations. What that means is kind of analyzing existing designs and suggesting matching these things for consistency or just giving recommendations on how to make these designs better. So I always think that's kind of cool. They have like these collaborative tools as well, so enabling teams and members to work together in real time. That's been like a thing that's big with a lot of design tools in general. I know Figma, which we'll cover in a second, has more or less been doing that same thing. Being able to kind of collaborate on the same files I always think is a huge thing.

Speaker 2:

Another key feature or killer feature is that, hey, it can export code. Now, again like something like Figma and a couple other programs have more or less been out to like generate HTML and casting style sheets or even like React code that a lot of people are using to design and deploy experiences. That's going to work in multiple channels and even like multiple platforms like Android or iOS, but being able to export code is a huge, huge thing for iOS. But being able to export code is a huge, huge thing. And I think one of the last killer features of UIizard is being able to do usability testing. Being able to test and get feedback from my users pretty quickly and gather those insights is always a plus.

Speaker 2:

Now, if you're comparing this tool to a couple of different other tools like Figma, framer, I guess what used to be Adobe's XD what I'm noticing, the one thing that this tool does, you know, is market share. Figma has a huge market share. I think UI's artists trying to gain some of that market share. Even with Framer, it's kind of great with the interactivity and the, with our prototyping, and even like these smooth animations. It seems that Zard is focusing mostly on like generating quick UI generations from sketches. So for you old school UX guys who just like to sketch by hand and turn those things into real wires, hey, ui Zart may be for you. I think that's something to consider if you're going to use this tool and check it out.

Speaker 2:

Okay, the next thing we're going to jump right into is Figma AI Beta why designers should pay attention to this. Okay, the next thing we're going to jump right into is Figma AI Beta why designers should pay attention to this. As you guys know that Figma has been that go-to tool to a lot of different type of product and UI and UX designers. Well, I mean, it's pretty ubiquitous, it's everywhere, it's user-friendly, it allows for good collaboration. What I noticed here lately they have rolled out like this AI beta and is set to be, I guess, a game changer for a lot of designers and even streamline workflows, because ultimately, that's kind of what AI is doing is allowing people to work a little faster and more efficiently. What I'm also noticing is that this AI tool is doing a bunch of different things that a lot of designers may want to some close attention to. That one is automating these tedious tasks, such as generating layouts or suggest design improvements, creating UI components based on simple prompts.

Speaker 2:

I got a chance to use the prompt tool and it's pretty cool. I like it. It's a little fussy, but I do like some of the aspects of the prompt tool. Give you different things to choose from. What are you going to be choosing? Designing a basic wire for a mobile app or a website, or a quasi high fidelity comp or wire that you can customize a little bit? You know it gives you these different options just in the prompt too, so I actually think that's pretty cool.

Speaker 2:

Another thing I like about this tool is it's kind of enhancing collaboration, mainly because Figma is just a collaborative tool, so there's no big surprise there. But what's cool about it is that this AI-driven beta is kind of doing certain things in terms of driving insights and automating documentation. Now that's kind of cool. Let's be honest, when you're working on screens, especially with big teams, the biggest answer is understanding who has worked on what, what changes have been made and what's the documentation and the understanding of these screens? That's always a big pain. Now, I think this AI-driven part of Figma's beta version of this product that they're offering will more or less help with that. It can definitely iterate things faster. Supposedly it also can generate summaries. Now, I think that's a big thing generating summaries and translating the feedback into actual changes. Also speeding up the prototyping.

Speaker 2:

A lot of times us as designers, we want to kind of start and come up with a prototype that we can get a user to give us some feedback on and be able to click through or socialize the idea. So I think you know this Figma AI is going to allow for designers to kind of quickly mark up ideas and explore variations and even refine the interfaces using for the most minimal, you know, effort. Now what that means, could? It means fast ideation, maybe more time refining the designs and ideas. Who knows? It just depends on the person You're marketizing.

Speaker 2:

Design, this idea of bringing non-designers and cross-functional teams Maybe they can use these general tools to come up with some ideas on their own, present it to the design team and maybe just more or less, you know, ideate around what the experience can be versus like pixels or, you know, design system, because you know me personally, I still like to talk more experience than get into the weeds of things initially, and maybe this AI tool will help a lot of non-designers. You know, think about the design process a little bit better, or more so, think about the user experience. Now, I guess the bottom line to all of this it's not going to replace designer, it's just going to more or less amplify their creativity, potentially improving efficiency and helping them to kind of work smarter. Now, I think a lot of professionals overall are looking to kind of stay ahead. You know, check out this tool, see what you think to kind of stay ahead. You know, check out this tool, see what you think, hit me up, tell me what you think about it. You know I'm using it, I'm liking it. You know there's some things about it that we can. You know they can kind of improve upon, but hey, something to check out.

Speaker 2:

Okay, let's get right into talking about Spotify. They have a new video podcasting program. Supposedly it's going to be pretty lucrative and a great opportunity for, like all these content creators helping to expand, like their video podcasting capabilities and more or less helping these creators of this kind of content to monetize. Now, as you know, spotify for a while I wouldn't say they was a king of like podcasting because they kind of took a lot of that they went back and forth between Apple's podcasting app and their platform. But for a while, you know, spotify was really banking on a lot of like great podcasting platforms, such as things from the Obamas their opportunity and the partnership they had with Joe Rogan. From the Obamas their opportunity and the partnership they had with Joe Rogan, or even some of the things they had with other people from like culture, like Joe Budden and a couple of other podcasts that was only exclusive to the platform for a while. But and even Dope Labs a lot of that podcast that was exclusive to the platform as well. But it seems that they're now opening up the platform to be a little bit more inclusive, trying to compete with YouTube versus Apple Podcasts.

Speaker 2:

Now Spotify is launching this video podcast for creators to provide like new monetization options for the creators. They're definitely partnering with programs that really have like some kind of high earnings potentials, especially when it comes down to like creators. That is making like six figures, suppose, in the first month, but keep in mind that's not for every creator. That's going to be for a lot of creators who have a good deep reach as well as a really loyal audience, because everybody got a podcast right. Listen to my podcast and hey, I'm not at six figures yet, but I'm going to give it a try Now. Another thing supposedly with this program is that the creator's payout would be increased by supposedly about 300% from this past January compared to, like the previous years. Also, this engagement metric, some type of interactive viewers are four times more likely to return and listen to the content, partly because Spotify's app is just a ubiquitous app.

Speaker 2:

People use it for well everything. There's leisure listening playlists, popular music Definitely like when people want to kind of do this whole recap of the music you listen to throughout the year or music and podcasts, and I guess they're going to be moving into audiobooks. I don't know, but it seems that Spotify is becoming like this, go-to in terms of the listening experience, but they also integrate now more video to in terms of the listening experience, but they also integrate now more video. So it seems like to me they're taking a direct jab at YouTube in terms of just overall media. Now, I think the last thing this platform is going to offer is this strategy and their whole approach to innovation and some of the tools they offer is just going to get a content creator's control to enhance revenue and audience experience. So I guess we should just check it out and see where it goes.

Speaker 2:

Now. Here's a throwback from the past. Uh, how many of you guys remember dig? Dig is that early platform from like the early 2000s founded by kevin rose. Uh, this was like the pre-reddit before Reddit. You know, there was that one cool place. You went back and it was kind of like a curate of everything on the Internet. Back then, I know I used it curate and use it kind of like this landing experience for all a bunch of different sites I was reading. So whether it's going to be news, whether it's going to be like sports or, in the case of me, obviously you know design and art, I use it really to just curate the web. Now, you know, I know a lot of early on search engines did the same thing in terms of indexing the web. I think dig did a good job at curating web.

Speaker 2:

Now here's where it gets a little odd. It kind of went away and the owner sold it and it gave a birth to what we now know as the news feed for Facebook, if you want to look at those terms. And then you know it kind of just got forgotten about. It's the brand. It wasn't really a big brand like that, I don't know, but it wasn't until a lot of people were using it in early 2000.

Speaker 2:

And at some point it just kind of disappeared into like oblivion, especially, I guess, with the rise of social media like Twitter and Facebook and you know Snapchat and a bunch of other different you know social platforms. But it seems that that version of internet consumption just kind of just died off. It ultimately it ultimately landed into the hands of this company called the Money Group and it was kind of resurrected from. Its original creator is, you know, kevin rose. Now here's the funny thing he is partnering up with one of the original founders already, which is lexus ohonian I think I'm saying this name right. I think that's serena's husband and serena williams husband, if you can remember. Now you know that whole ux back then was definitely an aggregator. These guys are now want to bring this whole platform back and, I guess, turn it into the new social, especially with this fallout from social overall. So I guess we'll just check out, see what's going on, yeah, but it seems like Digg is about to be the new Reddit, from the guy who helped start Reddit and the guy who created Digg. So, hey, welcome back Digg. I sign up for it. Guess I'll check it out when it, you know, roll out the new product. It'd be great to see what's going to happen, especially in this new era of, like podcasts and new media and I guess you could say, post social media. So there it is the return of Digg. Let's get right into the graphite tool of the day.

Speaker 2:

I do get a lot of young people basically asking me a lot of questions of how to break into the whole creative industry, and I do think I want to kind of start giving, like you know, what I call in free game or design uncle, advice around like young designers and maybe giving them like a roadmap new designers and new creators who just want to bring it to the industry. So, for today, I'm going to really mostly talk about the future of UX design and where we're heading Now for a lot of you young people who want to become like either like UX designers or industrial designers or some type of service designer. I think it's pretty important that you understand where UX is and where it needs to go. Ux did come from the practice of industrial design, but it's mostly been turned into like a digital practice. It's rapidly evolving due to, like, the advance of, like AI, automation and increasing expectations for, like these seamless digital experiences. It used to be this thing when I worked at IBM this idea that the last great experience is the minimal experience. You want going forward, and if you think about UX, it's kind of that. If you're using, like, some type of contactless payment, you expect that to work just about everywhere as an example, whether it's gonna be at the supermarket, the bodega, calling a store or even an airport, or even just passing money from one friend to the next. You want that seamless, frictionless experience. So that's ultimately what UX have to do.

Speaker 2:

Here's a couple of key points and insights that I think that's going to help to kind of reshape the role of UX design, or you know this idea of service design and why it really matters, and you know which ones might be like, more impacted by consolidation and optimization. So let's jump right into that here. Like those, I guess, the bullet points that we should discuss when it comes to, like the future of ux and I'm gonna give why it matters part to each one of these points and a future impact, to kind of give like some kind of juxtaposition. Now, if you think about the future UX, it more likely is going to be shaped with hybrid roles that integrate traditional UX principles and practices with emerging technologies. You know some critical roles that you may want to consider. Depend on what you want to do and get into the field. Consider these roles. A UX strategist you know why it matters. Companies really need a high level thinker who can align UX or like business goals, user needs and just overall emerging technology. That's a person who can think a little XYZ versus. You know the binary way of thinking in terms of like UX. Now, the future impact to that most UX strategy would be more data-driven, leveraging AI insights for predictive and user behaviors, being able to actually take the data and actually predict what you should create in terms of a UX, I guess strategic output or just roadmap. Yeah, I think data is going to help a lot with that, so that's something to consider.

Speaker 2:

Conversational UX designer you know that's going to be dealing with anything around AI and voice UX. Some guys I used to work with. Back in the days they called it like the whole zero UI, right, this notion that you probably just use your voice or gestural movements with your hands or whatever, to actually interact with anything or be able to, like, consume data and information. Now, why that matters? Because, as like most voice assistants and even these chatbots become very standard, which they are designing, intuitive and, like this, natural language driven experience would be very crucial, especially when you're now talking about, like, inclusive design and accessibility, the future impact to all of that. This role will probably continue to expand and incorporate more AI of personalization. Now, you know personalization is a big thing, especially when it comes to just the user experience, because you know your data is kind of your data, so keep that in mind.

Speaker 2:

In terms of the conversational UX design, ux research, this is going to be definitely AI and data science driven. Now, why it matters. Well, the demand for understanding complex and user behaviors through AI and analytics is growing, especially in the practice of behavior design. Now, future impact to all of that Well, this research world probably is going to have to increase this use of machine learning and predictive analytics rather than traditional user testing alone. I do think user testing is still going to be prominent, but definitely using data and analytics to kind of get like the results we're looking for, especially historical data, is going to be an idea.

Speaker 2:

Inclusive and accessibility design why does this really matter? Companies are really up on a lot of pressure to meet accessibility overall goals and WCAG guidelines and ensure inclusivity for all users. Now, future impact to all of that a lot of designers with like deep expertise around accessibility they're going to be in high demand and especially when it comes to, like, automation of tools and handling, like these compliance and base tasks that more or less a lot of companies that are putting out digital products really have to like meet these standards. So I think that's going to be a big thing. Ethical AI and UX governance specialists Now, why does this matter? Well, you know, ai-driven UX raises, like always, a lot of ethical questions, especially around biases, privacies and transparency. Now, this is usually driven by who's programming the AI in the first place, which kind of brings up the issues of bias, privacy and transparency, depending on who's programming the AI. Now, the future impact to all of that Well, this is going to be pretty emerging and it's going to grow as companies face regulatory scrutiny over, like the AI, fairness and even their large language models. So, you know, keep that in mind.

Speaker 2:

Now, I think the last one we can really talk about in terms of roles, that's, in terms of growth, is the UX writers and the content designers. Now, why does that matter? Well, think about what used to be in the ad world, that we had copywriters that turned into creator directors. But if you think about, like, these content designers and UX writers, a lot of this is going to be more or less people who can take these ideas, come up with, like micro copy and even use AI to generate content and even think about how to personalize messaging, which are going to be very vital to engage in our audience, right? The future impact to all of that is that AI would assist in writing a lot of this stuff, but a human oversight has to remain critical for these different roles, especially when it comes to like nuance, these cultural sensitivities, as well as just being like aware when it comes to the communication. So we just talked about roles can be like you know, can experience a lot of growth, right? Especially when it comes down to like those different things. That's going to help to shape the future of, like the whole UX industry. So I do think we need to look at the flip side of that coin, right, like well, what roles could be impacted by consolidation optimization, especially when you're now talking about, like AI automation you got no code and low code platforms accelerating several UX roles may see like transformation, if not a decline.

Speaker 2:

Role number one the UI designer, the generalist why Well, ai powered design tools such as Figma what we just mentioned earlier Adobe Sensei, and even, like the UI czar, they're automating these whole layout schemes and this UI adjustment. Now, a future trend to that, well, ui design would be more defined by rules and guidelines, while automation could execute pretty much all the details. It's like taking a design system and plussing it up with automation and code. So, yeah, the UI design generis, I think, is something that might see some effects there UX researchers, in terms of the traditional method of it all, like why we? Well, why Well?

Speaker 2:

Ai and big data analytics are really like automating the user research and insights and they're reducing really the need for manual surveys and usability testing. Again, we mentioned that earlier that a lot of it is gonna be driven by data and AI potentially. So you don't have earlier that a lot of it is going to be driven by data and AI potentially, so you don't have to do a lot of this stuff manually anymore. Now, a future trend to that is that UX research will probably shift towards more strategic interpretation rather than like manual testing. So it's almost becoming like a strategist unto itself and like a scientist to a certain degree. So, for the UX generalist, well, why? Well, if you think about companies, they're looking for more specialized, hybrid-skilled designers who can integrate AI and data and just code overall.

Speaker 2:

Right Now, a future trend to that would be a generalist role that more or less can be replaced by AI-driven tools that assist with like design thinking and iteration. So I think it's going to be more about your thinking than you know the actual method of like um, being a UX generalist and I even told a couple of my old coworkers that you know at some point, ux can get automated. They're kind of like really, I'm like anything can be automated. So there it is Front-end UX engineers. Now why? Well, again, what we mentioned earlier is that a lot of no-code or AI-assisted development platforms such as Webflow or even like Framework AI, or even ChatGPT, for that matter they're using these platforms to kind of reduce the need for, like hard, heavy handed, just hard coding. So a lot of that stuff now can just be just completely automated. Now, a future trend to that developers would more have to kind of shift around solving complex integration of all this code rather than simply just the UI assembly of something Right. So think about it like this. So think about it like this they're more or less going to become like SMEs of making sure that all these different systems integrate better in terms of the different kinds of code versus doing hardcore code themselves.

Speaker 2:

And I think the last one we can kind of consider that may have to be rethought or potentially could be on decline, unfortunately, is the junior UX designer. Now, I know a lot of young people probably don't want to hear this, but keep in mind the why this could be a potential fallout. Well, ai powered design systems such as Copilot, or even FigJam, for that matter, can automate a lot of repetitive tasks such as wireframe I just mentioned that a few minutes ago especially when it comes to testing. Especially when it comes to testing, now a future trend to that, you know these entry-level designers would really need to kind of upskill, or upskill in this idea of like AI collaboration and strategy just to kind of remain competitive. But I think the biggest thing for any junior UX designer is really about learning as much from old heads such as myself, or anybody for that matter in the game, right. So you know, connecting with people, maybe you can future-proof yourself.

Speaker 2:

As you can see, we've kind of covered off on a lot of different groundwork and I think we should just kind of just get into. What does all this mean for the future UX design? Ultimately? You know, strategically, ai is going to augment roles that will either thrive or is going to kind of get rid of some roles, right. So keep that in mind. This whole shift towards automation usually means that you as professionals or UX professionals more likely just going to have to kind of focus on strategy, ethics and just overall AI governance.

Speaker 2:

The hybrid skill sets are kind of the future. You can't just be a designer. You have to be a designer part, strategy part. You know person kind of know how to code. It's kind of like the T-shape, right. So you know you have that one or two things that you can go deep on in terms of like a skill set, but you need to be able to work across a bunch of different things. So having like a T-shape kind of like skill set is always a good thing.

Speaker 2:

So I would love to hear you guys' point of view and opinions. So do me a favor, if you can hit me up on LinkedIn or the website or even on social media, drop me some points of views and maybe we can talk about it in the next part. So, before I sign off, definitely want to give a shout out to the rest of the parts on the caffeine network, such as the Ad Bros, curious Story Labs, the stages, dope TV, and you know I just want to just make sure you guys go check out all those different parts and, you know, support the shows and subscribe, share with your friends and definitely just give love to the podcast man and we out here doing the work having fun. But more or less, we definitely want to continue to tell stories and you know we got some other things cooking and working with some people. It's going to help develop, I think, some phenomenal great storytelling for this overall platform called Caffeine and, you know, expand the family a little bit. So stay tuned and, as always, stay cool, stay creative, be human Peace.

Speaker 1:

You've been tuned into Graphite Radio, where creativity meets culture, Part of the Caffeine Audio Network. Thanks for joining us on this journey of ideas, art and innovation. Be sure to subscribe and stay connected for more stories that shape the world we create. Until next time, keep sketching your vision into reality. Bye.