4 Cool Ways to Use ChatGPT for UI/UX Design
ChatGPT has taken the world by storm and might be more popular than r/wallstreetbets.
At first, I was unsure how I could use ChatGPT to help me do anything related to UI design. Then ideas came to mind as I was working on a few designs. A few weeks later, I found myself using AI to reduce the time-consuming tasks I felt would bog me down.
Let’s go through those and how you could use ChatGPT for your UI/UX designs.
1. Stop Using “Lorem Ipsum”
This is my #1 use of ChatGPT for UI design. Lorem ipsum is a huge crutch for speedy design. I wrote this blog post explaining why I stopped using Lorem ipsum in my designs.
Let’s say you’re on a tight deadline. The client or stakeholder(s) want a high-fidelity mockup to review within 24 hours. You’re scrambling, and, in the essence of time, you toss in the old Lorem ipsum.
The next day, during the meeting, all you hear is, “what is this funny text?” You don’t get an ounce of valuable feedback for iteration, leaving the Zoom meeting feeling defeated. If I had $1.00 for every time this has happened to me, I’d have about $100.
Did you think I would say, “I’d be a millionaire,” huh? Well, I wouldn’t. I won’t exaggerate that much, but after 100 meetings of hearing those same words, I felt like there had to be a better way.
So, I started writing full-blown copy for every new design. I can’t tell you how many hours I have spent writing copy for websites I have designed. Did it help me get more constructive feedback? Absolutely. Was it worth my time? No, not at all. So, as soon as I started to do the same song and dance for a new client, I thought, “wait, I wonder if ChatGPT could write copy for a website?”
Sure enough, it could. Here’s an example.
Next, we can ask it to create headings optimized for SEO.
Man, we’re cookin’ with Crisco now, boy! Shew!
This has saved me hours of valuable time already. Now, I can take this copy and the headings and start to piece them together into the site layout I have created. As a first draft, this gives me a starting point to get more valuable feedback from each meeting, reduce confusion, and improve my client satisfaction. This brings me to my next favorite use—writer’s block.
2. Get Rid of Writer’s Block
Ask it anything! Break up the blockage and get the creative juices flowing with some stream of consciousness. UI/UX designers are not technically “writers,” but my thoughts can get jumbled with everything coming in as I start a project. So, writing them into ChatGPT as I go and fleshing out the conversation as if someone were sitting next to me helps me prioritize tasks and stay productive.
Here’s an example of a recent conversation I had for a “settings” page I was working on.
It’s important to note that AI is not foolproof. It will make mistakes or misunderstand context more often than you think. As you can see, there was nothing for users to manage their billings options. So, I corrected it and told it that it missed the Billing option.
In less than 2 minutes, ChatGPT was able to generate loads of options for me to work from on this “Settings” page I was working on. I might have spent hours searching for different line items I needed to include on these pages. Instead, I saved myself all of that time. Since I was able to spend a fraction of that time and automate all of that stuff that tends to be fairly boilerplate in many apps, I can consider my hourly wage increased.
3. AI-generated User Flows
This is one of those crutches that can quickly make designers very lazy. AI is cool and helps us save time, but we must remember to listen to our users. You can use AI to create these user flows for the first iteration to use for testing. But AI cannot empathize the same way we can.
When my brain is in overdrive, and I need to put something in words quickly to iterate from there, I hop on ChatGPT and start plugging away.
4. Ideation
Ideation ties into ‘writer’s block,’ sort of. This example is a bit different, though. Recently, I picked up a client that wants to create an app for his mortgage business. After doing some competitive analysis, I struggled to see how this app would find a user base. So, I asked myself, “how would this app be marketed?” When I had no idea how to answer, I asked ChatGPT.
The answer was shockingly detailed and got the juices flowing for me right away.
Immediately, I could see the light at the end of the tunnel and started to iterate and ideate further to give the client a nice workup to consider.
Conclusion
These are the top ways that I use ChatGPT at the moment. I am finding how to incorporate AI more daily to reduce my downtime and improve my efficiency as a designer.
Shoot me a message if you have more cool ways to use ChatGPT in your design process. I’d love to chat!
