I attended a lecture tonight at the University of South Carolina with Helen Armstrong, professor and researcher from NC State. The talk was well attended… mostly students with a handful of professional designers sprinkled in. I didn’t take notes, but figured I’d share some quick impressions.

  • Designers need to learn to use AI. Think of artificial intelligence as a tool that we can wield to design more effectively. The point isn’t that AI will do the whole project, but that we can choose how to implement AI tools most effectively.

  • Designers need to partner with data scientists to maximize the impact of AI tools. Helen talked about the importance of partnering with data scientists to understand the tools and help focus AI products.

  • Designers can craft the interface to AI. Right now, we think of most AI tools as text prompts, but designers can work to help build the interfaces that allow people to get the most out of the tools.

  • Students are nervous. During the question and answer session, several students wanted to talk about the role of AI in hiring and worried that employers who might value young designers less because an AI can do it. The nervousness surprised me a little, but it shouldn’t have. The tasks that young designers are often given are likely easier to automate. But I thought Helen made a great point… AI in the hands of a designer will be more effective that AI in the hands of non-designer.

  • A great homework assignment. My friend Kris asked Helen for a homework assignment” for experimenting with AI and I loved her response. First, spend 15 minutes a day playing around with a large language model to familiarize yourself with the possibilities. Second, subscribe to a range of AI newsletters to keep up with advancements.

I purchased Helen’s book, Big Data, Big Design: Why Designers should care about artificial intelligence, from Amazon during the Q&A section. I’m looking forward to reading it.

I tend to be skeptical about the ability of AI to completely automate the creative process, but I agree completely with Helen that artificial intelligence is a tool that is here to stay. And that tool will make us more efficient as designers. She drew a comparison to the popularization of computer driven design in the 1990s. Desktop publishing changed what we designed and how we designed, but there was still an important role for designers.

I pay attention to developments in AI and play around with tools, but I think I need to get more serious about trying to find opportunities to incorporate AI into my creative process. And I probably should start to think about academic research topics into user perception of AI.

Unrelated to the topic of AI… it was so nice to be in McMaster 214 tonight with a small crowd. Back when AIGA South Carolina was rolling, we had a bunch of great lectures in that space. While AIGA SC didn’t survive COVID, I’m glad to see USC’s School of Visual Art and Design leading the way with some great programming and bringing the creative community together. I’ve missed it.

Bob Wertz is a type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina. He’s been blogging since 2008.