#112 Quarterly UX & AI Update: Agents, Research Tools & Smarter Design Platforms
23:04 Share

Hello and welcome back to the future of UX. I'm Patricia, I'm a UX and Innovation Designer based in Zurich, Switzerland. And this year, the future of UX is the space where we explore what's next in design, AI and emerging tech.

If this is your first time here, I'm so glad you're tuning in. Welcome to the future of UX. And if you're a regular listener, hi again. I'm super, super happy to have you here again. Today's episode is quarterly updates and it's a mix of some personal updates and also a practical roundup of everything that's been happening lately in the UX and in the tech world.

I really like to call it a quarterly check-in and we will cover what's new in AI and UX. We will talk about trends you really need to have on your radar. And we will also talk about how to make sense of all these powerful new tools popping up from research assistants to visual design platforms and even app building agents.

In this podcast episode, I'm going to share a few tools that I would definitely recommend you to check out. So definitely stay tuned. You can also find all the links as always in the show notes. So make sure to check it out. If you felt like things are moving very fast at the moment and maybe you've missed a few headlines, don't worry, because in this podcast episode, we will get you back up to speed basically quickly and clearly.

But before we dive into all that, I just want to share a quick personal note. If you're following me on Instagram, you might have noticed that I have been a little bit more quiet on Instagram and on LinkedIn recently. And I'm also taking a little break from client work for the past few weeks. And that's because I had a baby.

My daughter was born in early April and I've been honestly really like soaking up those very precious first weeks of motherhood.

For me, it's all about adjusting, I would say. It's a lot of learnings, a lot of things that I need to learn. Not sleeping much, of course. But honestly, I really love it so much. It's absolutely wonderful and I'm in heaven at the moment. Every one of you who has children can probably...

yeah, understand the feeling that I'm talking about. And yeah, that said, I'm slowly easing back into work. And while I'm still not taking on new client project just yet, I'm still uploading podcast episodes. So the podcast, of course, continues.

Because to be honest, I absolutely love sharing what's happening in our space and I also want to stay up to date and see what's happening. I want us all to stay ahead of the curve. And a quick heads up as well, also AI for Designers is going to open soon for the next round. So make sure to sign up for the waiting list in case that's interesting for you and I

Yeah, this year will be pretty, pretty exciting because I'm also going to host a few live workshops and a few events coming up in summer and in autumn. If you don't want to miss that, make sure to sign up for my newsletter because in my newsletter, I will drop links and resources and everything that's important in case you also want to join some live events or including early access invites, etc. Okay.

All right, I would say let's get into it. In this podcast episode, I'm going to share three big shifts in UX and AI that every designer should know about right now. So the very first big topic are AI agents. You might have heard the word agents somewhere popping up.

And I want to do a little deep dive on the topic. So first of all, what's going on? You heard about AI agents, but I am not talking about chatbots.

that are just giving you quick answers. We are talking about the actual digital, let's call them teammates, that can complete tasks, that can take action across tools and do things like browsing for you or filling out forms, even sending emails or summarizing maybe competitor data all on their own.

And this is super interesting, especially from a UX perspective. Our normal workflow would be the user does all these steps by its own and now there are agents who are doing the work for the user. But let's quickly break down what an AI agent actually is because I think it's very different from just using ChatGPT or another AI tool in a basic way.

Most of us are used to typing a prompt and getting a response. So imagine you're opening up ChatGPT, you write me a UX case study, summarize this article, and then you get a response and this is the summarized article or the description of the UX case study. And this is super helpful.

But it's still you doing all the thinking, all the guiding. And an AI agent does a step further. It doesn't just give you an answer. It actually figures out what steps I need to solve a problem.

And then it takes those steps for you. So instead of simply answering your prompt, an AI agent might decide what tools it needs to use. So maybe browsing, maybe summarization, maybe creating an image. It searches for information online. It maybe even opens apps or files and it generates content. It evaluates it and maybe even improves it.

And then it loops back to adjust if something doesn't work. So this is a little bit more like a digital teammate than a chatbot. You give it a goal and it figures out how to reach that goal. Almost like maybe like a junior designer, junior project manager or researcher.

So let's say you want to analyze competitor UX flows. This is like a basic chatbot might give you a few tips, but an AI agent

could really go out, visit competitor websites, take screenshots, summarize key flows, organize them into a deck and then send you a summary without you doing everything manually. So in short, an AI agent doesn't just do what you say, it figures out what needs to be done and does it for you. And this is really game changing.

And these agents are powered by tools like JetGPT's new agent system. Also Microsoft has a co-pilot studio or Cloud by Entropic. They all have agents. So a friend of mine built a custom GPT agent to run a weekly competitor review. So every Monday morning, it browses new product pages. It grabs screenshots, it compares any kind of changes and sends her a summary.

So what used to take maybe half a day can now be done in 10 minutes. And it's like having this extra helper on your side. Why does this matter? Why is that so interesting for us? You know, you probably heard about AI agents, but why should you take a closer look at it? These agents are really changing how we design. Instead of creating these static interfaces, we are now designing experiences that include AI as an active player.

either supporting users or acting on their behalf. And this is a huge change. And I think this is so important for us to understand that this is already happening. Unbelievable, right? So it's not input-output, but also thinking about what is the way to receive the important output and then choosing the right tools.

So we need to think about intent, about trust, about timing, about communication, things that go way beyond the buttons and layers. So the way how we design, how UX work is changing at the moment, 180 degrees. And let's close this chapter by what does it really mean for the future?

designers who learn how to shape AI behavior, not just visuals, will be in huge demand. So whether it's building agents or designing for systems that will use them, this is the next big skill set. So understanding that workflows are currently changing is super important. What I would highly recommend is to check out a few agents. There are also walkthroughs on LinkedIn,

youtube for example where you can check this out i'm also going to link a few agents maven for example or the one from chat gpt that you definitely should check out now the next

Big topic that I would like to talk about is everything around research. Research superpowers with tools like Notebook ML, for example. So how to use AI for research. This is a super important topic. Research is getting a major upgrade. And maybe before I'm diving into it, something that I definitely want to highlight is

When I'm saying that we are integrating AI into UX research more and more, it doesn't mean that we don't do research with real users anymore. This will be essential forever. You can't replace real users. This is super important. And integrating AI in UX research doesn't mean that you need to remove the users. This is not it. And this is super important. I definitely want to emphasize that. You can...

use AI basically as a helper, but you always need real users. Super important. I know there's a lot of discussion around it also with different tools are trying to replace user research with users. This is unfortunately not going to work. You always need real users and can use AI for hypothesis, for data, for analytical parts, for maybe secondary research, but you still need users.

Okay, one tool for me that I find absolutely fascinating is NotebookML by Google. Not sure if you had a chance to try it out. If not, please do it. It's one of the tools that I would recommend you to try out and play around with it.

This tool is basically a smart notebook you can talk to. You upload your documents, like it could be interviews, of course you need to remove sensitive data, it could be reports, it could be notes, and then you can ask questions. It summarizes these points, it even creates a podcast for you if you want.

You can ask, what are the main points mentioned across these interviews or which feature requests show up the most? And Notebook ML also summarizes, it connects the dots and really helps you to dive a little bit deeper and that's super fast.

I uploaded around 20 pages or so of user research, I removed the personal information, all the sensitive data from a project about Berlin supermarkets, it was like personas, interviews and quotes. And in just minutes, NotebookML pulled out the key insights, it grouped user needs and even pointed out things I hadn't noticed.

And it's like having almost like a second brain for analysis. And some of the things that you haven't backed up are just hypothesis that you still need to validate throughout the process. But this is the first step. This is just one, maybe one part of user research. We are seeing that more and more of these processes are automated.

Because research is about data, it's about a lot of information that someone needs to maybe consolidate and bring together, synthesize and really make sense of it. And this is a big problem. And I remember even the last 10, 15 years, research is great, but then really making sense of all the data is a struggle. It takes a lot of time and there AI is super helpful. This makes research scalable.

You don't need a big research team of maybe five people or so to get these deep insights. But with these tools, a single designer can do powerful analysis and make decisions that are truly user-centered. This is super important. So what does this mean for the future? Designers who can ask great questions and know how to work with AI tools to find real answers will lead better, faster, and smarter design processes because

They are already realizing that things are speeding up so fast. Research is an essential part. Research needs to become faster. How do you do that? By automating certain parts, by using AI tools, by basically combining the human part where you talk to real users with the analysis of AI. Point number three, and I think this is something that's absolutely fascinating for me.

I mean, I'm talking about automation for years, but now we are seeing this life. And people who laughed about like maybe two years ago or so about AI and how things will be automated are seeing like there are tools out there that are automating basically everything. You don't need to design. You just write a prompt and things basically are created on the go.

And this is something that really, really stood out to me when I came back from a few weeks of baby break, you know, where I didn't, yeah, had a chance to look up all the new tools and trends and everything. So I opened my MacBook. I was like, yeah, Googling a little bit, went through some newsletters that I subscribed to, had a look at threads and Twitter or X, sorry, LinkedIn, everything.

And for me, it was so fascinating to see how many new tools and features had popped up. So much has happened. And for me, it's a while to step away for a moment and then suddenly the design landscape has shifted again. So in this last part of a quarterly update, we're going to zoom in on some of the most exciting updates, like what's new in Candor, for example. We'll also talk about a tool like Lovable.

what they are doing and why all these matters for us as designers. And of course, as always, we are also going to zoom out a little bit and talk about what it means for our strategy, for our workflows and for the future of design. So let's break it down. We'll talk about tools. Canva, the design tool for non-designers, had a massive glow up.

there are new players entering the space that are totally worth exploring. So Canva has always been one of those tools that's

Yeah, super popular among non-designers especially. So people who don't come from a design background but still need to create visuals for social media, for maybe posters, for wedding invites even. And traditionally, professional designers have learned more or had leaned more towards tools like the Adobe Creative Suite, like Adobe Illustrator, InDesign, etc.,

But what I find really fascinating right now is how quickly platforms like Canva are evolving with AI and how powerful they've become with these AI features. These tools are now making it possible for absolutely anyone, even without a design background to create really polished on brand content in just minutes with prompts.

A few years ago, you would have needed to hire a designer to create social media templates and marketing assets or branded visuals. And first they had these templates that people could use, but now you can fully personalize the templates. You just enter a prompt and things are created on the go. With these AI-powered features, people can do it themselves just by writing these prompts.

And this shift isn't just happening in graphic design or branding with like the new Canva update, for example. I'm also going to link it below, so make sure to check it out. It's also expanding into web design, which is very interesting for us. It's expanding in app design and even full product mockups. So we talked about Canva. The interesting thing there are all the updates with Visual Suite 2.0.

And the magic write for your copy and the magic edit, the magic animate or even magic charts for turning descriptions into instant data visuals. Super interesting. But I also mentioned that this is moving also towards the web design area with tools. There are a lot of tools, but one tool that I find especially interesting is called lovable.dev.

Also check it out, we'll link it. This is a new tool that lets you build coded websites of full apps just by describing them in plain language. How does that look? How does that work? On the right side, you have your screen, basically your website, the app that you're designing. On the left side, you have your description area. It looks like ChatGPT basically where you enter what do you want to create.

For example, I want to create a dog walking website. Then it creates the website for you already hard-coded with all the different sections, one about the customer reviews, one about the section about the prices. And then I think what's pretty interesting for me is you click on a section, like a dev section, and then you can even enter, like, please change the color to orange. Please add a button here. Please...

I don't know, enter an icon and it all works on the go. It works within seconds. Absolutely fascinating. You don't need to know how to code, just need to know what you would like to have integrated there. You can try it out for free. This is not sponsored or anything. I would just highly recommend to have a look and explore it a little bit. I think it's absolutely fascinating. I will link it below, so make sure to check it out. Why does this matter? Why is that interesting for us?

We are shifting now from designing screens to designing systems and designing strategies. So you need to become a strategist, strategist designer. You need to understand what's going on. All these tools take care of the execution. Our focus moves to the why, the who, and how it all fits together. And for me, it's absolutely fascinating to see in

just to observe the speed in which all these things are happening while we are still designing pixel perfect screens at Figma. So the world is changing and designers will increasingly become these strategists, these facilitators and these system thinkers. And if you ever felt maybe limited by your tools, now is the time to explore these new ones.

We are unlocking a whole new level of creativity and speed. And this is something that we definitely need to look out for. So here's the big picture. AI agents are changing what it means to interact. Research tools like NotebookML, there are so many more. So this is not NotebookML, I think this is just a tool that I would highly recommend to check out. I think giving us inside superpowers.

And platforms like Canva, like Wix, like Lovable, like they are all, even Squarespace has integrated an AI, basically prompt integration. They are all letting us build faster than ever. What is in the center of all of this? It's still you, the designer, the one who knows how to ask the right questions, how to guide the process and make sure the experience actually works for real humans.

So please don't forget that design or user experience has never been more important than now because people can create stuff, but for them it's really difficult to validate if this is the right thing that they're building. Understanding what and where and how to place it makes sense of the bigger picture. So we need designers for that. Designers who are able to facilitate, who are asking questions, who are helping.

I really hope that this quality update sparked some thoughts or maybe some ideas.

If you would like to share some of your thoughts, feel free to write me a message either on LinkedIn or on Instagram. I'm always super happy to connect, hear your thoughts, you find interesting. Don't forget to sign up for my newsletter where I'm sharing regular resources, updates about workshops, about resources, behind the scenes stories on how I'm building things, even doing the baby naps.

And yes, I would say thanks for hanging out with me today. I really love doing this catch up. Now we'll be back soon with another episode. My daughter's currently sleeping in her crib. Super calm and quiet, but I'm sure she will wake up any second. So yes, thank you so much. Stay curious, stay kind. And as always, stay human, of course. Hear you in the future.

you