The future of products relies on using Design Thinking, Human-Centered Design, and AI. We center our strategies and solutions around understanding and meeting human needs, ensuring our innovations are meaningful and impactful.
The Three Phases Enhanced by AI
| 🔍 INSPIRATION | 💡 IDEATION | 🚀 IMPLEMENTATION |
|---|---|---|
| Design Challenge Questions: • How do I get started? • How do I conduct an interview? • How do I stay human-centered? | Design Challenge Questions: • How do I interpret what I’ve learned? • How do I turn insights into opportunities? • How do I make ideas? • How do I make a prototype? | Design Challenge Questions: • How do I make my concept real? • How do I assess if it’s working? • How do I plan for sustainability? |
| AI Enhancements: • Extra divergence with AI • Data-driven persona creation • Sentiment analysis • Predictive analytics • Automated surveys & interviews | AI Enhancements: • Insight extraction • Data visualization • Trend forecasting • Language processing • Idea generation • Pattern recognition • Enhanced brainstorming • Decision trees | AI Enhancements: • Rapid prototyping • Adaptive algorithms • User interaction prediction • Efficiency optimization • Automated user testing • Sentiment & feedback analysis • Performance analytics • Predictive user behavior modeling |
The IDEO Design Process + AI
The classic IDEO hexagon framework (Empathize → Define → Ideate → Prototype → Test) now integrates AI at every step:
- Empathize: AI enhances understanding through data analysis
- Define: AI helps crystallize insights into clear problem statements
- Ideate: AI expands creative possibilities and pattern recognition
- Prototype: AI enables rapid iteration and testing
- Test: AI provides comprehensive analytics and user behavior prediction
Key AI Guardrails
Practices of ethical AI throughout:
- Establish principles for data privacy and fairness
- Create and peer-review unbiased datasets
- Document AI’s explainability for stakeholders
- Include diverse perspectives in AI reviews
- Use auditing tools and provide user redressal
The convergence of human-centered design and AI creates extra divergence in inspiration and extra convergence in ideation, fundamentally enhancing how we create meaningful products.
About Carl Vellotti
Carl Vellotti is a senior product manager and content creator who specializes in AI-powered product development. Based in Seattle, he has extensive experience in product management roles at companies like Redfin and GoodRx, and currently runs “The Full Stack PM” where he creates content about AI, product management, and UX design. His focus areas include helping product teams “build amazing things with AI” and sharing resources about advanced product and LLM content.
Context: The Stanford Design Thinking Framework
This visual builds on the five core phases of design thinking, a human-centered problem-solving methodology originally developed and popularized by Stanford University’s d.school:
1. Empathize - Understanding user needs through research, interviews, and observation
2. Define - Synthesizing research insights into actionable problem statements
3. Ideate - Generating creative solutions through brainstorming and exploration
4. Prototype - Creating tangible representations of ideas for testing
5. Test - Validating solutions with real users and iterating based on feedback
This framework is non-linear and iterative, allowing teams to move back and forth between phases as new insights emerge.
AI’s Broader Impact on UX Design
Beyond the specific enhancements shown in the visual, AI is revolutionizing UX design in several key ways:
Enhanced Research and Data Analysis
AI tools can process vast amounts of user data to identify patterns, predict behaviors, and uncover insights that might be missed through traditional research methods. This particularly enhances the Empathize and Define phases by providing deeper user understanding.
Automated Testing and Validation
AI enables rapid A/B testing, automated user testing, and real-time feedback analysis. This transforms the Test phase by making validation faster and more comprehensive than traditional manual methods.
Accelerated Prototyping
AI-powered design tools can generate layouts, suggest components, and create prototypes based on natural language descriptions. Tools like UX Pilot, Figma AI plugins, and Galileo AI are making the Prototype phase significantly more efficient.
Predictive Design Insights
AI’s predictive analytics capabilities help designers anticipate user needs and behaviors, enabling proactive design decisions across all phases.
Personalization at Scale
AI enables hyper-personalized user experiences by analyzing individual user data and creating tailored interfaces and content.
Current State of AI in UX Workflows
Research indicates that AI integration in UX design is accelerating rapidly. A 2024 study found that AI tools are significantly enhancing both operational experience and subjective perceptions across most design tasks, particularly in:
- Work efficiency improvement
- Information retrieval and analysis
- Enhanced communication and decision-making
- Automated repetitive tasks
However, challenges remain around information authenticity, content copyright, and maintaining professional identity.
Why This Framework Matters
This visual reflects a broader recognition that AI is not replacing designers but augmenting their capabilities. The most successful UX professionals are those who embrace AI as a collaborative tool rather than viewing it as a threat. By understanding how AI impacts each phase of design thinking, teams can strategically integrate these tools to:
- Focus more time on creative and strategic work
- Make more data-driven design decisions
- Iterate and validate solutions faster
- Create more personalized user experiences
The comprehensive view of these transformations across the entire design thinking process makes this a valuable resource for understanding AI’s current and future role in UX design.
References
- Carl Vellotti Twitter Post
- Carl Vellotti LinkedIn
- 5 Stages in the Design Thinking Process - Interaction Design Foundation
- Stanford d.school Design Thinking Model
- The Stanford Design Thinking Process
- The 5 Phases of Design Thinking - AMA
- 5 Steps of the Design Thinking Process
- AI User Experience Design - Qualtrics
- The Impact of AI on UX Design
- How AI is Affecting UX Design - Coursera
- UX Pilot AI
- AI Tools for UX Designers
- AI Tools for Designers - UXPin
- AI in UX Design Research Paper
- AI Impact on UX - NIH Study
- Design Thinking - Nielsen Norman Group