Stop swinging the AI hammer at everything!
I recently attended Uber Design Night, on the theme Pixel, Purpose, and Perspective at BIC. I last attended an Uber event back in 2018 (sketchnotes here!), and it was great to see so much has changed in the Uber design world.
The event featured lightning talks, teasers & panel discussion around how AI is reshaping design & research workflows.
AI is like a storm. Instead of finding shelter, go build windmills!
Vaibhav Bhasin kicked it off with a provocative take on AI, inspiring designers to use opportunity to experiment & explore novel ways to solve existing challenges.
He showed examples of how designers at Uber are using AI, including his own experiment with gamifying growth plans for his team through a vibe-coded dashboard.
When quality of your words defines the quality of your work, you must focus on vocabulary.
Sunit Singh highlighted how he recommends designers to approach working with AI. He reiterated a quote by cyclist Greg LeMond, “It never gets easier, you just get faster.” to summarize how AI has changed his way of working.
He recommended exploring the following:
- Learn the language of experts
- Critique great work
- Build your own cheatsheet
Sandeep Karmarkar hosted a short panel discussion with Vaibhav, Sunit, Anant & Shravan. My favorite discussion in the panel was about three key skills that will be crucial for designers in the age of AI:
- Curiosity, driven by continuous learning
- Agency, shown through how you respond to chaos & uncertainty
- Taste, by defining what is average, good & great
The event wrapped up with a bunch of lightning talks by several enthusiastic designers & researchers at Uber, elegantly summarizing multiple unique features that have been powered by AI. It was great to see these quick presentations showcase so many unique use cases.