# Design in the AI Era

> Some thoughts on how designers should work in the AI era.

Some thoughts on how designers should work in the AI era.

## Identify the work AI should not do

To use [AI](https://wiki.g15e.com/pages/Artificial%20intelligence.txt) well, we need to identify the kinds of work we should not ask it to do and find ways to make that work more efficient. Otherwise…

- We ask AI to do something it should not do, causing problems. (Quality suffers.)
- We continue doing work AI should not do in the old way, creating a bottleneck. (<Productivity> suffers.)

For example, [LLMs](https://wiki.g15e.com/pages/Large%20language%20model.txt) are susceptible to [hallucination](https://wiki.g15e.com/pages/Hallucination%20(AI.txt)), so telling one to "use color combinations that meet [accessibility](https://wiki.g15e.com/pages/Accessibility.txt) requirements" is quite likely not to work.

To delegate work to AI with confidence, we need ways to enforce the principles the designer has set.

## Color

In <programming>, static checkers and <unit tests> serve this role. The more such mechanisms we have, the more confidently we can delegate. It would be useful to think about mechanisms that can play the same role in [design](https://wiki.g15e.com/pages/Design.txt).

Color seems a relatively easy place to start. Research into human <color perception> is already well developed from an engineering perspective, so there are plenty of theories and tools we can use.

- Automatically check for accessibility violations.
- Automatically generate dark modes, high-contrast modes, and so on while ensuring [accessibility](https://wiki.g15e.com/pages/Accessibility.txt).
- Automatically generate color palettes that accommodate users with red–green color blindness, total color blindness, and other differences.

See [Computational color system](https://wiki.g15e.com/pages/Computational%20color%20system.txt).

## Layout and typography

If these efforts prove reasonably successful, we could gradually extend them to other visual elements, such as layout and [typography](https://wiki.g15e.com/pages/Typography.txt).

Design inherently requires [multidimensional separation of concerns](https://wiki.g15e.com/pages/Multidimensional%20separation%20of%20concerns.txt), so we need ways to address <aspect weaving>—for example, how typographic characteristics affect the margins of a grid. I find it difficult even to locate discussions of these issues.

## Vision

I would like humans and AI to be able to pursue more creative and experimental work freely, trusting programs to take care of the low-level functional details. Much as advances in structural mechanics have enabled modern architects to be extraordinarily creative.

Some say software in the AI era will become a manufactured product rather than an artisan's craft. I would like us to imagine the stage beyond that.

## Related articles

- [Tasteful software](https://wiki.g15e.com/en/pages/Tasteful%20software.txt)
- [Declarative design and design runtime](https://wiki.g15e.com/en/pages/Declarative%20design%20and%20design%20runtime.txt)
- [Premature death of UI design](https://wiki.g15e.com/en/pages/Premature%20death%20of%20UI%20design.txt)