Todays class was all about the future of design, and the technology that is coming in the future. We looked at some of the new technologies such as AR, VR, and AI. I was interested to hear this lecture as these technologies will probably be around in the near future. We watched a few videos with one in particular by Microsoft of what the future may look like, and the key thing that I got from it was that these technologies can help us learn and play, by using data to enhance how we learn.
We watched a short video about how we are coming into Industry 5.0, and moving from Industry 4.0. 5.0 is all about using AI to connect machinery together with humans, collaborating to get the most efficiency and productivity. “A key statement is that the future of design has to be collaborative.” This is true for both human-to-human, but also human-to-machine. This is important as although new technology can do a lot, there is some things that only humans can do, such as being creative and problem solving.
AI has become massive in the design industry. Figma's UX Pilot AI can generate wireframes and UI designs from simple prompts, while ChatGPT can help answer any question or request you have. While AI does improve efficiency in UX design, it's important to remember that humans and our creativity can’t be replaced. AI should be viewed as an assistant rather than a replacement for human designers, maintaining quality while improving productivity. Asking ChatGTP a prompt about what will smart homes look like in 2050, it was able to list off plenty of ideas of what smart homes could look like in the future. AI’s strongest point is it’s endless knowledge and the fact that you can access it so quickly.
Today we got our project brief, which is to design a smart home ecosystem perhaps for technology that is in the future. As part of this, on the board was the statement ‘Smart home of the future’, and we had to come up with ideas as to what things we think would make smart homes better. My ideas were:
An automated alarm that is integrated with your calendar, knowing when to set alarms and wake you up. This would save users setting alarms themselves.
AR/VR software that allows you to look at food and know the nutritional value of it, saving you from having to check labels.
We looked at design thinking and the design process in yesterdays 303 class, but we had a brief refresh of what it is and how it is important for coming up with and creating designs that are needed and useful. The double diamond from Design Council is one of the best models for design thinking. We are currently at the ‘Discovery’ phase, were diverge and look at a broad range of things before we converge and hone in on the most promising idea. This article by IDEO talks about design thinking and how it brings together what is desirable for users and what is feasible with technology, and economically viable. Todays biggest problem to solve it how we try to navigate rapidly innovating technology and globalism. One key thing I took away from this article was the importance of having a human-centered approach to design. This is so important as we need to know that we’re not designing for ourselves, but for others. We understand our user better through user research, interviews, etc.
Todays class was a good introduction to a new module. I think that this module will be really beneficial for experimenting with up and coming technology, and trying to see what we can do with it, even if actually building the product isn’t possible yet. Doing a bit of brainstorming for our project was useful along with learning a bit more about design thinking and how we can implement it into our projects.