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AI-Driven Design: How Artificial Intelligence is Shaping UI/UX Design

AI products have started entering our era quicker than we could imagine. Artificial intelligence has found its place in different industries. From spam filters to autopilots in aeroplanes – AI surrounds us and impacts even the most unexpected areas of our lives.

UI/UX design is not an exception. Entering this industry has given birth to the concept of Artificial Intelligence Design.

Wired magazine calls AI-Driven Design, while others name it ‘Algorithm-Driven Design.’ However, there are also those who call it ‘Design Intelligence.’ Despite its numerous names, essentially, it means the same – non-human intelligence capable of generating creative results that seem genuine to the human eye.

“Surrounded by misconceptions and questions regarding its purpose and power, apart from its known ethical and philosophical challenges, AI can be the catalyst for great user experiences” – Joël van Bodegraven, Product Designer at Adyen.

Indeed, AI continues to open new opportunities for us as creators. AI-driven user experiences and interfaces are the future, knocking on our doors today. However, we’re still very early on.

According to Tim Urban, there are three levels of artificial development:

• Artificial Narrow Intelligence. The concept means that AI development is at the level where it’s not able to perform highly complicated tasks related to a creative UX job, for example.
• Artificial General Intelligence. At least, this level should be reached in order we could make machines do more creative tasks. Here, artificial intelligence = human intelligence.
• Artificial Super-intelligence. At this level, artificial intelligence is even “smarter” than any human intellect.

Here’s a trick question. What will happen when AI reaches the third level of its development? Will it be a harmonious human-machine interaction making it easier for us to create exciting and even emotionally intelligent user experiences? Or will people lose their jobs simply because machines will replace them? Everyone would prefer the first option, however, at this stage, it’s anyone’s guess.

Is artificial intelligence a friend or foe to designers?

We’re not saying that a machine will become self-aware and realize that humans stand in its way like Skynet from the Terminator movie. However, it’s not so crazy to say that many AI may steal UI/UX design jobs in the future. There are two sides of the coin when discussing why AI is a friend or foe to designers.

AI is a Friend. It’s the beginning of a new era

AI systems can create a deeper connection between brands and their audiences, enhancing their relationship. Artificial intelligence can help us collect and analyze a vast amount of data to design the products that are able to satisfy human needs and wants.

Artificial intelligence is changing the way consumers and companies think about user experiences. AI offers more innovative insights, more intimate engagement, more specific contexts, faster processing, and more intuitive interfaces. AI personalizes user interfaces to be targeted at the individual’s preferences, challenges conventional interactions, and adds new channels such as voice.

AI is a Foe. The end is near

Robots will be stealing a portion of jobs currently occupied by humans. How is artificial intelligence going to affect design and app development careers in the long term?

Robots are not replacing designers and mobile app developers, at least not in the near future. Or, maybe, do you know how to convince 7 billion humans to trust a decision made by an algorithm? Well, no one does.

Humans have a unique ability to set the context for our design and create empathy for other users.

• Mobile app designers don’t decide whether an app’s menu should be exposed or hidden under a hamburger icon simply based on the number of items it contains.
• Web designers don’t decide whether they’re creating a 2 or 3-column grid on a website solely because of the size and amount of displayed images.
• And, surely, most designers don’t decide the font color based on a “color psychology bible”.

AI may help deliver the UX we’ve been waiting for

At its heart, AI-driven design is a new level of relationship between AI and customer experience. Machine learning-based user experiences are incredible playgrounds for UX designers. They are challenging both technology and people and promises to move UX design to a new level of digital experience.

Imagine AI behind the scenes of UX design. It can help enhance user experience by delivering automatic and intuitive responses to user requests. AI has the ability to create numerous design variations that respond to users quickly. Utilizing the information derived to revise user behaviors, AI-based algorithms can simplify the process of improvised user experience.

The benefits of AI go even deeper. If we use AI in UX design more often, it’ll free up more “headspace” and prevent the user from being overwhelmed with voice commands, gestures or buttons.

According to the results of a recent survey conducted by Adobe, 62% of designers are interested in artificial intelligence and the benefits it can add to the creative process. AI and machine learning promise to make a “democratizing effect on creativity” in applications and products.

AI as the new UI. How does machine learning help create a smarter design?

UI design is still paving its way into a world where AI and the future of design is much better connected than now.

Designer and developer communities have started taking AI user experience together in their journey to creating unique mobile applications. So, it seems AI has become one of design and mobile app development trends gaining popularity in 2019.

Designers have started to make designs localized by taking the help of AI-based translation. Artificial intelligence helps also get insights into which elements users are interacting with, which needs attention.

Now, the work of image resizing and color adjustment can be done by robots, which increase the designers’ productivity a lot.

A great example of AI-driven UI is technology announced by Airbnb. It can identify the design sketches and then convert them into coding in real time. In this way, designers will have more time for the strategic decisions of the product, and this is something that computers will take at least a decade to learn.

All in All

AI can help us automate repetitive tasks and free up the time to focus on the more strategic side of design. Undoubtedly, artificial intelligence and machine learning help us to design experiences that are more personalized, relevant, smart and efficient for people.

It’s time we started identifying these opportunities to work with technology – not against it, not afraid of it.

The post AI-Driven Design: How Artificial Intelligence is Shaping UI/UX Design appeared first on Speckyboy Design Magazine.

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Social Mail: How To Use Email Marketing To Build You Social Following

In modern day digital marketing, utilizing one or two communication channels won’t cut it anymore. You’ll need to make the different channels you’re in work together for you. So while it’s easy to think that email and social media are two different entities, there are a number of ways you can complement your social media strategy thru email marketing.

Below are tips on how to grow your social following with email marketing – all of which could help not only expand your reach, but improve conversion rates as well.

Why the usual approach doesn’t cut it

As alluded to earlier, looking to grow your following solely within the platform you’re in isn’t the optimal way of going about it. You can promote your page, boost posts, or even implement sketchy tactics like mass following and buying followers, but it still won’t be as effective as using your other channels to promote your social channels.

Email marketing not only has the highest ROI of all digital channels, it’s also excellent at spreading the word about your social channels. This is simply because the people on your list already know you and have an ongoing relationship with you.

So if you already have a robust email list, here’s how you can translate that to more social media followers:

Improve your list building strategy

Of course, before you can leverage email to grow your social reach, you’ll need to have a healthy email list. And you don’t want just any list, you want a robust list of people who will actually engage with you. One way to do this is by having easy-to-fill subscription forms on web pages you identify as frequently visited by potential subscribers.

Make sure you keep your forms short and simple, asking only for the most basic information. If there are two things people don’t like – it’s filling up long forms, and giving up too much information.

Include social media links in your emails

One of the most straightforward ways to go about it is to simply ask your subscribers. They’ve opted in to receive content from you, so you can entice them to get similar content on the platforms they’re already on.

As you can see below, Crate & Barrel has a small “Get Social With Us” section at the bottom of their emails. In it are social buttons of all the social channels they’re in, letting their subscribers follow them on whichever platform they prefer.

Alternatively, you can straight up send an email encouraging subscribers to engage with you on social media, as McDonald’s does below.

It even has a great two-fold call to action (more on this later) – “Keep us in your pocket with our mobile app. Or follow us!” This approach is also a great way towards becoming an integrated mobile driven business.

Weave social media into email campaigns

Here are some of the ways you can do this:

• Upload your subscriber list to social networks – Following your subscribers on different social channels gives you an idea of their interests, preferences, and the types of content they engage with. This also lets them know that you’re on the platform, so if they find your content interesting enough, they just might give you a follow back.
• Add a live social feed in your emails – Third-party tools like Zapier allows you to include live Twitter and Instagram feeds in your emails. So when a subscriber likes a post, they can click on it and be redirected to the social account, making it a great way to get organic engagement and following.
  
• Retarget active email subscribers with social media ads – These days, it’s all about multichannel marketing, and a great way to go about it is matching intent and interest with targeted ads. For example, if a subscriber showed interest in a particular product, you can keep showing that same product on their social feeds with Facebook advertising. This way, you’re not only keeping the product in their minds, you know you’re reaching out to qualified prospects.

Incentivize subscribers who engage on social

For example, you can send an email offering a 10% discount for subscribers who like your page and share a particular post. You can even give an additional 5% for every one of their friends that does the same. Additionally, you can also host the incentive on your website, enticing more traffic along the way.

Add more calls-to-action

Sometimes, your subscribers just need to be told what to do. This is why you need to add compelling calls-to-action whenever you can. Whether it’s following you on social media, sharing a link, or reposting content, entice your subscribers to engage by telling them exactly what to do. As well, explaining what they get in return for following up on your CTA also helps in convincing them to oblige.

It also doesn’t have to be all about your social media, as you can see below, where multiple CTAs are placed.

Incorporate a social media contest

Everybody loves contests, and you can leverage users’ affinity for contests (and prizes) by making yours fun and engaging. Alternatively, you can just make it easy for people to join as Diamond Candles did with their contest below.

Every week, they ran a sweepstakes on their Facebook page. This created a habit, excitement, and expectation – turning those who were merely aware of their brand to fans. In less than six weeks, the brand was able to generate 30,000 leads and 148,000 Facebook followers.

Come up with a plan and stick with it

Building your social media following takes time regardless of how sound your tactics might be. The important thing is to come up with a solid plan and practice enough patience in thoroughly implementing it. Now, sticking with a plan doesn’t mean you can’t tweak a few things. See what works and what doesn’t and adjust your plan accordingly.

Takeaway

The good thing about using email marketing to build your social following is that subscribers are already aware of what you do and what value you can potentially bring. Getting them to engage with you is just taking your relationship to the next step.

But before you begin to think about growing your social following thru email, make sure you have a healthy list that’s actively engaging with your content. Once you have that, it’s easier for you to grow your followers.

The post Social Mail: How To Use Email Marketing To Build You Social Following appeared first on Speckyboy Design Magazine.