A chatbot dispensing weight loss advice to people with eating disorders? Ranking resumes based solely on what race and ethnicities the names on them are associated with? These are just two real-life examples of the harmful results of failing to apply responsible design when creating generative AI (genAI)-powered experiences. In contrast, when designed well, genAI-powered experiences can do immense good — for example, Be My AI, which enables people who are blind or of low vision to get immediate visual assistance by taking a picture of an object and getting an AI-generated description of it. The decisions that teams make when designing experiences that include genAI can steer outcomes one way or the other.

Answer Essential Questions To Design Better With GenAI

Design leaders should guide their organization through the process of answering 12 key questions as they explore opportunities, plan experiences, and evolve their practices and teams. For example, ask:

  • Which of our ideas are good use cases for genAI? Just because you can use genAI doesn’t mean that you should. Conduct experience research using discovery methods such as contextual inquiry that are particularly effective for identifying unmet customer needs or problems for which AI can solve. Evaluate the impact of ideas, not just their desirability, viability, and feasibility. Facilitate a session to arrive at an understanding of the impact that AI might have on individuals, communities, and society — both how it might help but also any potential harms to mitigate.
  • Are we applying established genAI design patterns in the user interface? While genAI design patterns are evolving, best practices have emerged. For example, learn from Salesforce’s “Human at the Helm” research on what aspects of an experience build trust in AI and the corresponding interaction design patterns. Start with published patterns like these, but tailor them to your specific brand, design, and content standards.
  • Do all of our designers need to become genAI experts? Every designer should have a basic understanding of how AI works so that they can 1) use it well as a tool for designing experiences and 2) incorporate it as an ingredient in the experiences they design. But organizations also benefit from having designers with deep genAI expertise to help upskill team members, operationalize best practices for working with genAI, and collaborate with developers on technical issues that impact the user experience.

Next Steps

If you’re a Forrester client, read my new report, Design GenAI-Powered Experiences Responsibly, to learn about the rest of the 12 questions that teams should ask when creating genAI-powered experiences. Then, if you’d like to ask me questions or discuss how to apply this research in your organization, you can set up a conversation with me. You can also follow or connect with me on LinkedIn if you’d like.