Understand before you build
AI made building fast and cheap. That makes something else more important: understanding the problem and explaining why we made each design decision.
I've been thinking about how fast designers can design and build things now. With AI, the time between an idea and something that works is getting shorter and shorter. I can try different solutions, make prototypes, and change them much faster than before.
This is really cool. But when building is fast and cheap, something else becomes more important: how we make decisions. Why did we choose this flow? Why this solution? Now we need to explain our design decisions clearly.
To be honest, this is not always easy for me. Sometimes I feel I lost some of my creativity because of AI. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed with so much information and so many new models. Learning about AI is part of my job, but it's tiring.
I also noticed something in my own work. I made many designs that didn't solve the real problem, because I didn't understand the problem well. I had a lot of designs, but not the right one. That's why I think we need to understand first, and build after.
Questions I ask before opening any tool
- What is the real problem?
- How does it affect the business?
- Is it worth the time to solve it?
- What are the limitations?
- What does the client need, and what do they want? (Sometimes it's not the same thing.)
And not everything needs to start with AI. Think about how you solved problems before: writing, drawing on paper, talking to users, doing research. These skills are still important.
Today anyone can build things quickly. The difference is in making good decisions. So think critically, understand the problem, and then build.