Week 08: User Experience/User Interface Design and AI

Lecture

Today we will be having a guest speaker, Julia Bradshaw, Lead User Experience Designer at Color Of Change, giving us a breakdown of what user experience and user interface design is and her process when working on a project. We will then be looking at how we can use generative AI platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity, MidJourney, Uizard and Figma AI Plugins (Wireframe Designer and Codia AI Design) in collaboration with traditional tools like Google Forms, Adobe Illustrator and Figma to help augment and optimize the user experience and user interface design process for an interactive digital experience.

Julia Bradshaw’s Talk

UX/UI and Gen AI Demo

Homework

  • Pick a website to redesign.
  • To help with the user experience design process, use ChatGPT or Perplexity to:
    • better understand the company as well as the market, user demographics and competition.
    • understand the existing website (sitemap, current user flow, content architecture, content hierarchy).
    • better understand how the website could be improved for that specific demographic.
    • put together survey and interview questions.
    • identify internal staff members who you should interview. As a thought experiment use ChatGPT/Perplexity to act as each one of those staff members and answer the interview questions.
    • output suggestions on a recommend new sitemap, user flow, content architecture, content hierarchy.
  • Play around with Uizard’s AI tools and Figma’s Wireframe Designer plugin.
  • Use a text-to-image platform (MidJourney suggested, Firefly is fine) to generate wireframes for the new website and import those wireframes into Uizard’s plaform or Figma using the Codia.
  • Write a blog post talking about your experience going through this process and where you see generative AI being helpful when it comes to user experience design and user interface design.

Week 06: Midterm Project Development

Lecture

Today we will be having a guest speaker, Pablo Stanley, who will be discussing his experience with AI from creating inclusive images using generative AI to AI for UX to building AI driven creative platforms.

Link to Slides: https://www.figma.com/slides/z4AFQxoy9TuICsGOtHysYm/UX-of-AI?node-id=1-255&t=SfcI7BaMmpBVdXCy-1
Pablo’s Contact Information: [email protected]

We will also be discussing your midterm project ideas and moving forward with development on the selected midterm project.

Homework

Continue working on you midterm project, create a blog post based on the project and your process and be prepared to present your project to the class next week!

Week 05: Communication Design and AI

Lecture

This lecture will cover different generative AI models you can use and the process of using AI to augment your process of designing brand identities, marketing materials, sales materials, social media posts, advertisements, etc. We will discuss how to use ChatGPT as a means to help ideate for the creative process by asking it to help with color schemes, typography, iconography and imagery. We will look at using existing generative AI platforms specifically designed for branding and communication design like Adobe Illustrator generative vector tool, using text-to-image platforms to help with logo development, experimenting with Adobe Express and ChatGPT, and looking at platforms like playground.com, looka.com, as well as brandmark.io.

Lecture Slides

Referenced Links:
Josef Albers Interaction of Color
Google Fonts
Brand Style Guidelines
Adobe Firefly
MidJourney
Looka
Playground
Adobe Express
Google AI Experiment – GenType
Google AI Experiment – Say What You See Prompt Training

In Class / Homework

Using ChatGPT (or similar) come up with a list of project ideas that you could work on for your midterm project based on what we have covered so far in class. Write a blog post based on your conversation with ChatGPT (or similar) and select one option to move forward with for your midterm project. We will discuss your project ideas in class the following week.

Week 04: Ethics, Bias and Legalities in AI

Lecture

This class will be focused on ethics, bias and the legal side of generative AI. We will discuss the ethical side of how these platforms are trained on vast amounts of data that was taken without the consent of the original creators. We will also talk about the issues with the outputs generated from these platform that tend to have a racial and socioeconomic bias. We will also be talking about the legal issues behind how these modals are trained as well as how to properly use the content that is generated by these platforms.

Guest Lecture: James Creedon

Sam Harris Podcast

Homework

Choose one (or more) below:

If you are interested in bias and stereotypes in AI training data:

Using a generative AI image model of your choosing, output at least 100 generations using a descriptive adjective (beautiful, ugly, scary, joyful, etc.) or job title (doctor, lawyer, teacher, police officer, nurse, etc). Analyze the outputs and see what stereotypes or trends you see. Create a blog post on your findings. Look at Professor Woo’s gender and race bias studies for reference.

If you are interested in the use of IP and copyrighted materials used to train image models:

Use Have I Been Trained to research 5 of your favorite artists to see how much, if any, of their art has been used to train an AI image model. Create a blog post on your findings.

If you are interested in ethical solutions and best practices around generative AI:

Using the United Nations AI Advisory Board report on Governing AI for Humanity as a guide, design a poster (11″ x 17″) around the suggested rules and regulations for adopting AI for a more positive impact on humanity. Create a blog post showing your process and final poster design. Feel free to use ChatGPT to help you analyze the report.

Week 03: Illustration and Image Generation with Generative AI

Lecture

This class will introduce us to the world of AI generated imagery. We will explore multiple models and platforms including Adobe Firefly, Adobe Photoshop Generative Fill, MidJourney, Stable Diffusion, Dalle and Flux. We will also be discussing different techniques for writing text-to-image prompts as well as out-painting, in-painting, composition reference, style reference, character reference, etc. We will also touch upon issues with commercial use and ownership, output issues, protecting your art and digital assets and test your skills when it comes to identifying what is AI generated versus human created.

Lecture Slides

In Class Assignment

  1. Test your ability to see if you can tell what is AI generated versus human generated at thisimagedoesnotexist.com and share your score on Slack.
  2. Play with AI image generators to see what you can output and try to test the same prompt on multiple platforms to see the difference in the outputs.
  3. Explore the Spaces on Hugging Face. Share on Slack what Spaces you found interesting and why.

Homework

  1. Use ChatGPT (or another LLM) to generate a short story, children’s book story or comic book around a topic of your choosing.
  2. Use text-to-image platforms (Adobe Firefly, Adobe Photoshop, Stable Diffusion, Mid Journey, Dalle in ChatGPT Pro, or similar) to generate visuals for the story.
  3. Use ChatGPT (or another LLM) to help you with the design process for the book.
    • Color palette
    • Imagery
    • Image prompting
    • Fonts
    • Dimensions
    • Layout
  4. Using Adobe InDesign to design/layout a small book for the story.
    • The book must be at least 10 pages (5 Spreads).
    • You must include a cover and back cover design as well.
    • Dimensions can be whatever you would like.
  5. Export your book spreads as a PDF and share that on Slack.
  6. Write a blog post about your experience using generative AI platforms to design this short story and share the link to the blog post on Slack.

Week 02: AI-Driven Research, Ideation and Concept Development

Lecture

This class introduces students to the transformative potential of Large Language Models (LLMs) in the design process. Students will learn to leverage LLMs as powerful research assistants, idea generators, and concept development tools. By mastering prompt engineering and AI-driven methodologies, students will gain hands-on experience in utilizing LLMs like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity to accelerate the design process and generate innovative solutions.

Guest Lecture: Professor Michael Morgan

Homework

  1. Option 1: Pick a song from any artist that resonates with you.
    Option 2: Use ChatGPT to generate a new original song for you.
  2. AI Conversation:
    • Engage in a conversation with ChatGPT about the song.
    • Discuss the song’s themes, emotions, stories, and symbols. ENGAGE IN A DIALOG!!!
    • Let the AI help you explore new angles or perspectives about the song.
      • Feel free to use Professor Morgan’s prompt library for assistance.
      • This is where your creativity and learnings from the workshop will shine, ask about the lyrics, the imagery, ask it to describe the image to you.
    • Feel free to copy and paste these directions into ChatGPT to give it more context with what you are trying to do.
  3. Imagery:
  4. Required Design Elements:
    • Artist Name
    • Song Name
    • Lyrics
    • Imagery or other design treatments inspired by conversations with ChatGPT
    • Use Adobe In Design or Adobe Illustrator to layout your designs.
  5. Technical Specs:
    • Size: 11 in x 17 in
    • Resolution: Minimum 300 dpi for any manually sourced images. AI-generated images should be of the highest quality available. Feel free to use an AI image upscaler.
    • Final File Format: PDF of JPG
  6. Documentation:
    • Please document your process and creative collaboration with ChatGPT in a Medium.com blog post. Include prompts used and some of the responses as well as your general experience collaborating with ChatGPT.
  7. Submissions:
    • Please submit both the link to your Medium.com blog post along with the PDF of your final poster design to the Slack channel.

Week 01: Introduction to Generative AI in Design

Lecture

In our first lecture, we will dive into the foundational concepts of machine learning and generative AI, exploring their roles and applications within the design industry. We will discuss the differences between machine learning and generative AI, providing a clear understanding of how these technologies function. This session will also introduce various AI tools, such as text-to-text, text-to-image, text-to-video, and text-to-audio models, with practical examples of their use in graphic design, communication design, interaction design, and more.

Lecture Slides

In Class Assignment

Setup and get added to the class Slack channel.

Homework

  • Set up a blog on Medium.com to track all of your experiments and studies.
  • Write a reflection on the potential impact of AI in design and the design industry. Add the link to the write up to the class Slack channel.