How will UX design adapt to emerging technologies?

In this week’s #UXchat we’ll be discussing emerging tech and where UX design fits into the crazy new worlds of AI, VR, AR, MR, IoT and other advances that result in even more confusingly similar abbreviations.

In this conversation, our community of UX professionals will tackle such lofty topics as how humans can work in harmony with our new robot overloads (probs get to sit around a lot more) as well as tackling the ethical considerations (who makes the tea?) and product design challenges (comfier chairs will have to be made).

Just in case you’re new to UXChat, here’s a little background to our weekly UX conversation where you can rub virtual shoulders with some of the most knowledgeable ‘UXperts’ on the planet, every Thursday at 4pm.

This week’s conversation was hosted by Miklos Philips, Head of User Experience at DoubleVerify and a huge proponent of user-centred design thinking. You’ll find many of Miklos’ helpful comments throughout the following discussions.

In the world of emerging technology, what are the implications for design?

From both the user and designer’s point of view, we’ll have to get used to new modes of interaction. Whether gestural, voice control or eyebrow raise (see the Roger Moore bot), new ways of interacting beyond the screen will become the new normal.

These new experiences will require new modes of interaction—modalities yet to be designed. Touch will evolve and expand. Gestures and physical body motion will become a more natural way of interacting with the digital world around us. What are the design implications? #uxchat

— Miklos Philips (@MiklosPhilips) November 23, 2017

I don’t think the Design Thinking process will change. We’ll just have to adapt to new technologies and paradigms or risk becoming irrelevant. Experiences that we design for are shifting dramatically AI, VR, AR, MR, IoT, and any combination thereof. #EmergingTechnologies #uxchat

— Miklos Philips (@MiklosPhilips) November 23, 2017

As you would hope, there’s a heavy responsibility for the designer of new technology to remember the user at the centre of the product. As Mira Nair states below in regards to interacting with AI, there will perhaps be a move away from UX design to relationship building.

I met a #chatbot at an event last night. Great to see how ppl interacted w it,but it felt a bit wrong to call it #UX.Was more like relationship building;as robots humanise, they are less like products.Is #productdesign for some #AI applications really relationship design? #uxchat

— Mira Nair (@MiraTeachMe) November 23, 2017

Really interesting studies on how #robotics should be made to look NOT human. People dont trust robots looking too human bc they can still tell its not a robot. That would be one consideration in the robot product design process that you dont get w many other products! #uxchat

— Mira Nair (@MiraTeachMe) November 23, 2017

This is in some cases not true. It is highly dependent on several factors such as culture, previous experiences with #AI/robots, media exposure, etc. Lots of research being done in the area of anthropomorphism as we speak. 🤖#uxchat

— Liza Dixon ⚡️ (@lizadixon) November 23, 2017

About process: we must never lose sight of the fact that it’s about making people’s lives easier. Designing “moments of delightful surprise” in this new paradigm—along with deep empathy for the user—is a skill designers will need to continuously master. #uxchat

— Miklos Philips (@MiklosPhilips) November 23, 2017

Other ethical debates spring up around data and how it’s used to market to us in new digital landscapes.

I believe Futurama covered this rather accurately.

A1: I think designers will be confronted with the challenges of consistently keeping users (people) at the centre of technology. Does this benefit the user at all? How? Is it ethical?#uxchat

— OJ Quevedo (@OJQD) November 23, 2017

I think ethics and new data laws will be key to this. It could change how consumers are contacted and kept at the centre of technology #uxchat

— Research Geek 📊 (@Jakepryszlak) November 23, 2017

If you’re a giant tech company, you can find the resources to innovate beyond your core product. But for smaller businesses in the emerging tech space, how will they balance innovation vs scale?

Great #uxchat now on #emergingtech – shall we use an example to start off? #AutonomousVehicles #design challenges include designing for #innovation vs designing for scale ie design decisions need 2 account for how many users there will be,but its hard to predict future usage

— Mira Nair (@MiraTeachMe) November 23, 2017

#Emergingtech #design raises the perpetual question of ‘Am I making this product bc it is innovative for the sake of being cool, or for the sake of helping ppl address an existing challenge in a new way? Is it useful, as well as usable?’ #uxchat #innovation #ux #usability #tech

— Mira Nair (@MiraTeachMe) November 23, 2017

It’s hard to say,as what’s usable for a few may not be usable for the masses….but this is a challenge for lots of other #productdesign at some stage, not just #emergingtech. Maybe flexibility is increasingly important in the design process for this kind of technology? #uxchat

— Mira Nair (@MiraTeachMe) November 23, 2017

And that’s just at the early design stages…does the balance get easier after users have actually used the product and given us feedback? #uxchat

— Mira Nair (@MiraTeachMe) November 23, 2017

There will be more pressure on lean UX and product teams. If you’ve gotten used to being a UX team of one, you may have to prepare to push yourself even further into scary new realms – like collaborating with other people! Shudder.

Q1. #VR + #AR puts further pressure on teams who are already lean. 🦄s wanted! Be a designer, a programmer, 3D/4D expert etc. Not so easy. #uxchat

— Liza Dixon ⚡️ (@lizadixon) November 23, 2017

Yes, I think collaboration with a team will become more important than ever. The end of days is nigh for people “designing” solo in a dark corner 🙂 #uxchat

— Miklos Philips (@MiklosPhilips) November 23, 2017

The collaboration dynamics won’t change as much as disciplines within a development team. As far as how to work with people during this process there’s a great, recent article about this: Great Questions Lead to Great Design – https://t.co/cSeDdp8rNm #uxchat

— Miklos Philips (@MiklosPhilips) November 23, 2017

How do we work in harmony with the machines? Maybe they’ll give us more time to concentrate on the bigger picture stuff – strategy, researching other future tech. Or maybe we’ll just have more time to watch Adventure Time.

Q1. In the spectrum of #AI, Human-Automation Interaction raises many questions = How do we ensure an easy exchange for humans which work together with #AI to achieve their goals? #uxchat

— Liza Dixon ⚡️ (@lizadixon) November 23, 2017

I hope that the #automation capabilities provided by new #AI etc. #tech for designers will free up their time to focus on the new challenges presented by #emergingtech…a cycle in which some new technology enables us to better focus on other, different new #technology. #uxchat

— Mira Nair (@MiraTeachMe) November 23, 2017

How is the design process changing, in regards to emerging tech?

Will we see the end of user research and testing using actual human beings, now there’s the possibility that AI can do just as good job as us mere flesh-bags?

I think AI and neural networks might kill both of them (research & testing). It’s possible even now. #uxchat

— Wojciech Dobry (@wojciech_dobry) November 23, 2017

I don’t think AI and neural networks will replace user research and testing with real people. But if you give me an example I could be swayed. 🙂 #uxchat

— Miklos Philips (@MiklosPhilips) November 23, 2017

Yes—automated usability testing has been shown in some cases to reveal errors just as well as usability experts. Sobering. Yet, humans have still got that elusive qualitative gold 🌟 #uxchat

— Liza Dixon ⚡️ (@lizadixon) November 23, 2017

What are the biggest product design related challenges in emerging tech?

Invisible UIs, 360° environments, no buttons, health & safety concerns, education, training, whatever made The Lawnmower Man turn evil – all very important things to consider when designing products in the future.

To me, one of the big challenges: users operating in 360° “free space” … without windows and buttons to click, the old paradigms. *The future of interaction is spatial.* Today we’re still confined to 2D screens. What does it look like when we don’t have 2D “screens”? #uxchat #ux

— Miklos Philips (@MiklosPhilips) November 23, 2017

And will we have the equivalent to heatmap attention mapping for non-2d experiences? in #VR for example, could we record behavior patterns by users and use this data to improve the #UX? #uxchat

— Mira Nair (@MiraTeachMe) November 23, 2017

Yes, I think “invisible UIs” and pre-visualizing human interactions in these new interfaces will be a challenge in the new works of AI, VR, AR, MR, etc. How do we wireframe a VR experience? #uxchat #ux #uxdesign

— Miklos Philips (@MiklosPhilips) November 23, 2017

I think product design related challenges will be working with team members with different disciplines than what we’re used to and having the right tools to do our design work. What kind of artifacts are we going to have to produce in this new paradigm? #uxchat #ux #uxdesign

— Miklos Philips (@MiklosPhilips) November 23, 2017

Finally, here’s some reading material to help prepare yourself for designing beyond the screen…

Q2. This primer by @graeme_fulton covers the basics very well! “Design Beyond a Screen: A Primer for #VR, #AR and the Multiverse” https://t.co/qKCAf5hV9l #uxchat

— Liza Dixon ⚡️ (@lizadixon) November 23, 2017

Indeed! I read that. Here’s another good one: New Realities: VR, AR, MR, and the Future of Design https://t.co/ijj5e1LXtU #EmergingTechnologies #ux #uxchat #uxdesign

— Miklos Philips (@MiklosPhilips) November 23, 2017

Thanks so much for everyone who took part in #UXchat this week. Please follow us and tune into Twitter every Thursday at 4pm for more insightful UX based discussion.

Main image by Samuel Zeller