In 2024, where should designers go? Trends and essential skills for product designers in the era of AI

In 2023, it was truly felt how rapidly and astonishingly a new technology application can spread. After listening to some speeches, referring to annual reports and articles, I have summarized some thoughts and ideas to share with everyone.

Two trends and two skills designers should enhance:

Trends:

Market instability and team downsizing

Increased opportunities for Lean Startup + internal entrepreneurship within companies

Essential skills for designers:

Designers will need stronger business acumen.

While UI processes may become more automated in the future, skills such as UX research and UX design will become even more crucial than before.

Market instability and team downsizing

Since the wave of layoffs starting from the end of 2022, which continues intermittently to this day, there are various reasons including international situations, the easing of the pandemic, and the rise of AI technology.

With the advent of new technological waves brought by Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) and Large Language Models (LLM), large organizations have begun streamlining the work of designers, while also reducing the demand for designers in low-risk projects.

This means less internal mobility within companies or between jobs. This signifies fewer layers of management and the need for each designer to provide more value and take on more responsibility.

Opportunities for designers

However, on the other hand, more responsibility also means greater visibility for our work and hence more opportunities to demonstrate influence within the organization.

There will be more opportunities for Lean Startup + internal entrepreneurship within companies.

How can we respond more quickly to the rapidly changing times? For enterprises, there may be more opportunities for internal entrepreneurship, which also echoes the first point of teams becoming smaller and the importance of reducing costs and improving efficiency.

Large organizations may be divided into several smaller units, each becoming a profit center. Team members, by being directly involved in decision-making and having a clear understanding of how their work contributes to company revenue, will be more motivated and engaged.

Furthermore, due to the rapid pace of environmental changes, teams may also accelerate the cost of trial and error, such as transitioning from a two-week release cycle to a one-week release cycle, and so on.

Designers will increasingly need business acumen.

Not everywhere, but in some companies, the concepts of being “user-centered” and practicing “design thinking” are often merely brought up when convenient, rather than being truly implemented. Business objectives always drive decision-making.

A segment from “The State of UX” puts it quite realistically: “In a world where design is used to appease shareholders and boost stock prices, advocating for the interests of users might become an afterthought.”

Therefore, designers should possess more business knowledge. Business and design should complement each other, rather than one being subordinate to the other.

So, what constitutes business strategy and what doesn’t? I came across an excellent article and have excerpted some content to share with you (reference article: ‘Doing strategy’ as a product designer)

What business strategy is not:

Strategy is not about becoming a better designer. It’s not about:

• Designing the best user experience
• Making it easier
• Expanding your skills into other creative fields
• Taking on larger or more complex design projects
• Writing lengthy documents and attending more meetings

Business strategy is about:

In general, business strategy explains how a company attempts to outperform competitors.

This involves not only understanding users but also the business and market, and using all three to define product objectives and build the right product at the right time.

• Choosing what to do, what not to do
• Understanding what makes your company unique
• Understanding how the company makes money and loses money
• Balancing user experience with business requirements
• Being aware of risks in the ecosystem
• Understanding the company’s vision and connecting each project to it
• Understanding the gap between where we are today and where we want to be.

UI processes will become more automated in the future, but skills such as UX research and UX design will become even more crucial than before.

The advancement of AI has lowered the barrier to entry for design, allowing anyone to create fairly decent designs, resulting in more standardized UI. Take a look around at most digital products, and you’ll see many replicating successful cases from competitors, making them less impressive.

What does this mean? It means that creating the “most unique” and “most appropriate” interactions and experiences for your users is becoming increasingly important, finding entirely different ways of interaction for old forms. I believe UX research and UX design are truly at the core of creating product differentiation to some extent.

Design thinking is not dead; it still underpins the core of product creation!

To borrow a line from Steven in the “AI for better UX Practical Symposium”: “Design thinking is not dead; it still underpins the core of product creation,” which I strongly agree with.

While the methods of design may change with new technologies, the core of “human-centeredness” remains unchanged. In fact, in the rapidly advancing age of AI, I believe how far a designer can go largely depends on how grounded they are in understanding their users.

Reference:

• The State of UX in 2024：ENTER LATE-STAGE UX
• 2023 AI for Better UX Practical Symposium
• ‘Doing strategy’ as a product designer
• Product design is going down a weird path, but we can still save it

Feel free to drop by and say hello, where I’ll primarily be sharing various design knowledge and experiences! Instagram @emma_uiuxdesign. https://www.instagram.com/