Unleashing the power of ChatGPT for designers
Unlocking new levels of efficiency and creativity in design with ChatGPT
In this article, we’ll explore the various ways that ChatGPT helps designers become more efficient and creative, and how it can change the way we approach design. The main idea here is to use ChatGPT as an assistant, not a replacement of design work. We’ll also discuss the potential implications of ChatGPT for the future of design.
I. What is ChatGPT?
ChatGPT is a natural language processing tool developed by OpenAI that generates responses to text-based prompts. It was launched as a prototype on November 30, 2022, and is based on GPT-3.5, the same language model used in OpenAI’s tool “text-davinci-003” (read more). OpenAI claims that “text-davinci-003” is more sophisticated than ChatGPT, so in case you want to try it, I highly recommend trying out OpenAI Playground.
Ethical implications
When using ChatGPT, it is important to be aware of OpenAI’s data privacy policies. OpenAI collect training data from you, supposedly it does not share the data with third-party organizations or other users, and the data is only used for the purpose of training the system. As such, it is important to disclose any private details or business secretes when you write prompts or send in large text paragraphs into the tool. Because it will be stored it in the hands of Microsoft, and who knows how this will backfire in the future.
Furthermore, it is important to be aware of the potential misuse of the tool and the potential risks associated with using it.
II. How Can designers Benefit from ChatGPT?
This part will explore the ways designers can leverage ChatGPT to improve their work and create meaningful experiences. In the end, it will give you a better understanding of how to utilise ChatGPT in your design work.
Design Research
ChatGPT can help designers in their research work to analyse and summarize complex data, patterns, and insights from white papers, research papers, and blog posts. It is faster than using Google and can respond to simple questions such as “Give me five variations of Likert-scales” and “Which are the competitors to ChatGPT?” (It did not mention Google’s Bard at the time of writing).
ChatGPT can also help generate ideas for creating research plans and roadmaps, and for creating surveys or interview guides. For example, it can find keywords and do sentiment analysis in texts. For example, this section of the article is “positive, praising ChatGPT’s capabilities and potential” (I am a bit biased since I collaborating with ChatGPT and OpenAI Playground writing this text).
Finally, when you don’t have time or are a bit lazy and need a reminder of design methods, you can ask about it and for example get suggestions on how to structure a 90 minute co-create workshop:
First response on “how to structure a 90 minute co-create workshop in Miro”:
1. Introduction (15 minutes): Introduce the topic and purpose of the workshop, as well as the structure of the workshop. Explain the importance of collaboration and participation.
2. Brainstorming (20 minutes): Encourage everyone to share as many ideas as possible. Write down the ideas on a whiteboard or flip chart.
3. Group Discussion (30 minutes): Break into small groups and discuss the ideas generated in the brainstorming session. Ask each group to come up with one or two ideas that they particularly like.
4. Idea Refinement (15 minutes): Have each group present their favorite ideas to the larger group. Refine the ideas together, and vote on which idea(s) to pursue further.
5. Action Plan (10 minutes): Assign tasks and deadlines to each member of the team.
6. Wrap-up (10 minutes): Summarize the workshop and thank everyone for their participation.
Be careful to remove any references to real persons or company secrets, and edit the data so it makes sense.
Writing and communication
ChatGPT is a personal grammar and style guide that can give structure and rewrite your articles, emails and other texts. Whether you want to make it easier for an 8-year-old to understand, or give it the tone-of-voice of a company or even Joni Mitchell or anyone you would like, ChatGPT can adapt the tone-of-voice. ChatGPT is useful when you need to edit that mail that helps you close a discussion in a long mail thread. With just a few clicks, you can restructure your statement and change the tone to be as you like. You can also use it to give your writing a unique voice. Finally, it can be used to assist on structure and creating content for presentations.
Ideation
ChatGPT can be used to spark ideas and provide inspiration by helping to generate new ideas from existing ones. By setting a context and asking ChatGPT questions such as “What could I do to make this initiative better?” or “What new ideas could I come up with for this app?”, ChatGPT can help you explore new paths and come up with new ideas and concepts. Additionally, ChatGPT can also be used to help you brainstorm solutions to existing problems and come up with new ways to approach an existing project. Finally, ChatGPT can also help you generate new ideas by combining existing concepts and ideas in new and creative ways.
Prototyping
Tell ChatGPT to outline user flows and wireframes in text-form. It’s an efficient way to create a prototype, albeit in text form.
For example, if you need to sketch and wireframe a food ordering app, all you need to do is to write a prompt and it will generate a wireframe to get you started. You can then tweak the prototype and make it more specific to get the most optimised answer (read about IDEO brainstorming sessions and AI).
Wireframe generated by ChatGPT:
Splash Screen: A welcome screen that displays the app name and logo.
Login/Signup Screen: A screen where users can either log in to their existing account or create a new one.
Home Screen: The main screen of the app, where users can browse food items by category and add them to their cart. The top of the screen includes a search bar and a menu button for accessing additional options.
Food Item Details Screen: A screen that displays the details of a selected food item, including a larger image, a description, and the option to add it to the cart.
Cart Screen: A screen that displays the items in the user’s cart, their total cost, and the option to proceed to checkout.
Checkout Screen: A screen that allows users to enter their delivery address and payment information, and review their order before submitting it.
Order Confirmation Screen: A screen that confirms the user’s order has been received and provides an estimated delivery time.
Whenever I am doing prototyping I sometimes need a reminder from the design literature, now I use the prompt to ask about certain prototyping methods and how to perform them and it is a bit faster. For example, I tested chatGPT to see it if it could tell me about a less commonly used prototyping method called bodystorming and got the following answer:
Bodystorming is a user-centered design technique used by UX designers to explore solutions to complex, user-focused problems. It involves the physical representation of a system or process by the participants, who act out potential interactions and scenarios. The purpose of bodystorming is to generate ideas for new products, features, or services. It is often used to identify creative ways to meet user needs and to uncover potential problems or challenges. It is a powerful tool for rapidly exploring ideas, and can help UX designers to quickly develop solutions that meet user requirements.
So, it presents me with a quite accurate and short description on what it is, the purpose, and give examples and arguments.
Content generation
Instead of relying on generic, boilerplate “lorem ipsum” text, or if you just need help to fill a text-field with content, ChatGPT can generate text content, product descriptions to call-to-action (CTA) buttons and labels, as well as research questions, survey content, and interview templates. This goes well when there are limited resources or when you lack the time to produce high-quality content. If you already have a design system in place or a tone-of-voice you can feed this to the GPT-model and the system can generate content that follows voice and style, to ensure that content is on-brand.
Connecting design and value proposition
Connecting design with the value proposition can be a difficult task, but it is essential for designer to deliver value with design, and for businesses to understand the potential of their products and services. ChatGPT is a valuable sparring partner designing the new value proposition and identifying opportunities with the design.
ChatGPT can help designers to bridge the gap between design and the value proposition by identifying target groups, pains and gains from research data, this can be fed into the prompts and help identify the correct value proposition.
III. The future of design and ChatGPT
Design will become more data-driven, making NLA models like ChatGPT essential tools to create powerful designs with clear connections to value propositions that permeate the entire design and underlying research. This enables the creation of experiences that are more tailored to the needs of the target audience, which also drives customer engagement and loyalty.
There is no point in waiting to see what happens in the industry, my advice would be to just start learning to work with it and take advantage of the situation.
Finally, experts in AI claim that we are approaching ”technological singularity” — a point in time at which technological growth becomes uncontrollable and irreversible, resulting in unforeseeable changes to human civilization). With influences from both science and fiction, the idea of technological singularity is treated as our destiny rather than as dystopian science fiction (Read my previous article on the potential Future of AI).
Now, I asked my ChatGPT Pro to answer the following:
How could we avoid building a machine that will rule us?
The answer:
- Ethical and responsible development: It’s important to approach the development of AI in an ethical and responsible way. This means being transparent about how the technology is being developed and used, and working to ensure that it aligns with our values and goals as a society.
- Safety and security: Ensuring the safety and security of AI systems is critical to preventing them from causing harm. This includes developing robust safety mechanisms and security protocols, as well as preparing for potential risks and disasters
- Human oversight: It’s important to maintain human oversight and control over AI systems. This means ensuring that humans are involved in the development, training, and use of these systems, and that they have the ability to intervene if necessary.
- Collaboration and cooperation: Addressing the AI alignment problem requires collaboration and cooperation across different fields and disciplines. This means bringing together experts in computer science, philosophy, ethics, law, and other relevant areas to work together on these issues.
Designers have a responsibility to consider ethical issues and to ensure that the products we create are not exploitative of people or the environment. We must ensure that we are taking into consideration the full scope of the impact our work can have on society and creating products that are beneficial to people and the planet. Furthermore, designers should pay close attention to the potential implications of AI and machine learning, and take all the necessary steps to ensure that these technologies are being used responsibly and ethically.
