Welcome back. Calling all Config attendees: There’s only one surefire way to avoid being square…and it’s attending our Unofficial Config After Party on Thursday, June 27.

I’m stoked to host this event with Jesse Showalter, Grace Ling, and Matt D. Smith. There won’t be any stuffy or formal activities—just good music, finger foods, free drinks, and great conversation. After a hectic schedule at Config, it’ll be great to unwind and get to know some fellow designers (especially those who read this newsletter, though I’ll try to stay unbiased).

​Grab your ticket before early bird pricing ends—they’re going fast!

—Tommy (@DesignerTom)

The Wireframe:

• Everything you need start designing for AI
• The everyday ethics for AI
• Should you pay attention to AI hardware?

A Beginner’s Guide to Designing for AI

Designers: It’s time to get AI literate.

More and more of us are being asked to use AI tools or create AI products or features. It’s why I’ve already explored AI themes in this newsletter—like big companies’ mental models for AI users and the state of new AI UX tools. And it’s also why we’re going to keep digging into the intersection of AI and UX. Today? It’s back to basics. Because before you can effectively design for or with AI, you need to grasp the fundamentals. Let’s get started →

What is AI, really?

It’s a lot more than ChatGPT. AI refers to any machine designed to mimic human intelligence using algorithms to analyze data, learn from it, and make decisions or predictions.

The truth is, you don’t need to know exactly how AI works (I’ll let you in on a secret: Most AI devs don’t even know how it works). But you do need to know how users experience AI products. A few ways to do that:

• Take this crash course on AI for non-experts.
• Stay up-to-date with the major players: Bookmark The Hugging Face LLM Leaderboard, which indexes performance of the biggest AI models.
• Check out the latest innovations in AI products by swiping through these two great AI tool aggregators.

How to build your AI x UX foundation

Before you start prototyping fancy AI flows, get grounded in the core UX principles:

1) Get a grasp on AI’s characteristics. AI isn't a cold, robotic utility—it's an entity with a persona. One of the biggest AI design challenges? Engineering a relationship with that persona. As IBM shares in its Design for AI fundamentals, we can understand this relationship through Knapp’s Relational Development Model:

2) Transparency is key. AI is a black box—users of AI tools need to understand what's happening under the hood with explicable design. Being upfront about an AI's confidence levels, errors, potential biases, etc. builds crucial trust. This is how Microsoft frames it:

3) Know how to fail seamlessly. AI will make mistakes. How your interface handles those failures is make-or-break. “Don’t be afraid to say when you don’t have an answer. It’s okay for an AI to fail, as long as you design for it,” says Lennart Ziburski, designer of the UX of AI (one of my favorite resources).

Those are just a few of the fundamentals. The deeper you go, the more unique challenges emerge for responsible, intuitive AI design. But that's why this space is so exciting, right?

Follow AI thought leaders

The best way to stay ahead of the curve? Learn from the pros on the cutting-edge of new AI tools and breakthroughs. A few of my favorites:

• ​Matt Wolfe breaks down AI tools and news in his thorough videos and newsletter.
• ​Ben’s Bites makes killer AI courses, case studies, tutorials, and a newsletter.
• ​Ioana Teleanu is an AI UX Designer at Miro who just started a newsletter about AI design.

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​I want to know: Are you currently designing an AI product or feature? If so, what resources have been most helpful to you—and what do you still want to learn? Hit reply and let me know.

TOGETHER WITH FRAMER​

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• Apply to Framer’s Partner Program and earn commission on referrals

Ready to build your design business? Start creating today.

News, Tools, and Resources: Beginner's guide to UX for AI

• AI design is rooted in ethics. Check out IBM’s guide to the everyday ethics for AI.
• Miro just acquired generative AI design tool UIzard.
• In one of the cringiest launches I’ve ever seen, Canva announced its new AI features.
• Maven just released its top 100 courses list featuring some killer AI courses like this one and this one.
• ISO AI design inspiration? Check out this designer’s 10-day journey of designing AI.
• The AI trends you should be keeping tabs on this year.
• How can UX designers best take advantage of AI? This report has the answer.

Got a great tool, podcast episode, idea, or something else? Hit reply and tell me what’s up.

Ask DesignerTom: The future of AI hardware

Got a question for me? I want to hear from you: Submit your biggest design questions here.​

Question: “I’ve been seeing a lot of physical AI products launch…and flop. Do you think there’s a future for AI hardware, and if so, should UX designers be keeping tabs on that space?” —Ben S.

Answer: Absolutely.

It’s no secret: This year was underwhelming for consumer AI gadgets (looking at you, Humane Pin and Rabbit R1). But it’s only a matter of time before a breakthrough product hits the market—I’m keeping tabs on Limitless's Pendant (slick form factor + focus on data privacy = recipe for success, IMO).

As AI moves from the cloud to IRL, new UX challenges are bound to arise. How do you design intuitive physical interactions with an AI device? What kinds of multimodal interactions—gesture controls, blending the digital and physical—will designers soon have to solve for?

The consumer AI hardware game is still nascent. But the pioneers, the companies swinging for radical new AI form factors and experiences? Pay attention—their work today shapes how we bring AI into the real world tomorrow.

The UX Tools Job Board

• GoFundMe is looking for a Senior Product Designer for its affiliate company Classy, a giving platform that connects nonprofits with supporters.
• Concert junkie? Join SeatGeek as a Lead Product Designer.
• Google is hiring an Interaction Designer on its Payments team to craft UX that makes payments simple and secure.

Hiring for a design role, or know someone who is? Submit it here to hit the inboxes of 75k+ talented designers.

Thanks for reading! Don’t forget to snag your ticket for the Unofficial Config After Party! Can’t wait to see you there.

See you next week!

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