While technology is driving a lot of the change, the role of designers (service designers, interaction designers, etc.) will become even more crucial in terms of solving real-world problems and addressing underlying human needs.
Next week, I head to New York to speak at IxDA. Without giving away all the details of the talk, I'm looking forward to sharing some insights that I've gathered over the last few months, here at Architech, about how Designers and Data Scientists can support each other for better collaboration and innovation.
Over the next couple of years, AI, machine learning, deep learning, and big data analytics will completely transform how we interact with technology and the world around us. While the transformation has already started with Uber testing self-driving cars), fast food chains aggressively pushing out self-service options, and Amazon teasing us with delivery drones, I believe that the thrust behind this transformation still lies ahead of us.
While technology is driving a lot of the change, I think the role of designers (service designers, interaction designers, etc.) will become even more crucial in terms of solving real-world problems and addressing underlying human needs.
Let's take chatbots and conversational interfaces as an example. There's a lot of talk these days about these types of interactions, I'd argue that the real challenge in terms of bringing these systems into the mainstream will only be solved when designers, technologists, and end-users engage in meaningful conversations & debate.
One final consideration is the role of privacy, and a movement towards what is known as privacy by design. It's one thing to explicitly send instructions or information to the Apples and Amazons of the world - but it's another to have these devices listening to everything we say. I'm not arguing that these interfaces don't offer tremendous benefits and potential, just that we need to be applying the best practices from the worlds of design thinking and human-centered design as we create them and let them into our lives.
I'm looking forward to sharing some more practical considerations about the intersection of AI and Design at IxDA in NYC, February 6-9, 2017.
