3 Design + AI roadmaps

In this edition, we’re excited to share our findings on AI tools for design, along with tips for hiring managers and those seeking work in the design industry.

We’ll explore:

1. Our top 3 picks for AI tools for UX/UI design and the most-used plugins for them. Get the Design roadmap.
2. Adobe Photoshop’s AI features and what works and what doesn’t work with their new AI features. Get the Adobe Photoshop roadmap.
3. Adobe Illustrator’s AI features and what works and doesn’t work with their new AI features. Get the Adobe Illustrator roadmap.
4. Tips for hiring managers and job hunters. Scroll down to see tips!

Design: UX and UI + AI roadmap

The Design roadmap features tools that help professional UX and UI designers integrate AI into their workflow. We focus on Figma, FigJam, and Miro AI capabilities as they relate to common design tasks, including defining, designing, and testing.

Want the UX and UI + AI roadmap? Get it here.

Design: Adobe Photoshop + AI roadmap

How does Adobe’s Firefly AI engine perform within Photoshop and help our design team perform common tasks within our design flow? We examine real-world tasks including image editing and conceptual image generation to find out where its strengths and weaknesses lie.

Want the Adobe Photoshop + AI roadmap? Get it here.

As an experiment, we opened an image created by ChatGPT-4 to see if we could edit it in Photoshop. The original image had two people walking on a path. We wanted to see if we could get Photoshop to add more people. See a sample of the results below. (More examples in the roadmap linked above.)

Design: Adobe Illustrator + AI roadmap

This is a foundational vector-based tool we rely on for icon and visual image creation. We review common tasks from concept generation to replicating existing “styles” within Illustrator to discover if the tool can help us save time in design workflows.

Want the Adobe Illustrator + AI roadmap? Get it here.

We tried an experiment with Adobe Illustrator and asked it to create consistent elements when starting with an existing Illustrator vector image (vs. an imported jpeg image.)

Hiring headquarters: tips for managers

Building an AI-savvy team

In speaking with hiring managers, we’re seeing a notable emphasis on hiring talent with AI knowledge. We recognize managers are sometimes limited by the constraints of their organization. Often times a company is pushing for AI innovation from their design teams, but their ability to use AI tools internally is being held up in security. This requires hiring managers and their teams to invest time in their own efforts to educate themselves in AI tools and contribute to the innovation of product ideas.

If you’re a manager, here are some ways to think about hiring AI savvy creative professionals to enhance your teams’ readiness and advocacy in adopting AI tools and practices. Consider these topics an opportunity to open up dialogue about AI with the candidates you’re interviewing. It will help to educate you as well as provide you with an understanding of the candidate’s depth of real knowledge in the AI space. We've also included some ideas and inspiration for job descriptors to help you ask for what you need when posting your job.?

• First, determine and communicate if you require someone who is adept at designing for AI product experiences, or if you’re seeking someone who’s worked with AI tools to complete their design work. This is a key factor when hiring and will require different attributes. In addition, determine whether you’re seeking someone with hands-on experience, or simply the overall temperament and curiosity that would make them an AI advocate for your team.
• Ask a candidate how they obtained their AI knowledge. Did they come up with a learning plan? Did they attend a bootcamp or a program to help ramp up? This conversation should shed light on their approach to learning and how thorough their education is. It will also help you understand how methodical they are when pursuing continued growth and education, which is a key attribute in identifying an ongoing advocate for AI implementation and adoption in your team.
• Ask about the candidate’s math and statistics background, understanding of data structures, data science and patterns, and if they have any exposure to programming. We shouldn’t expect creative professionals to be experts in these areas, however this should open up the dialogue around their general interest and curiosity about AI. The more technical understanding the candidate has, the more interest and pursuit to understand the science, the more valuable they are when asked to adopt new tools and features.

Writing job descriptions that attract AI-savvy candidates

We see a lot of job descriptions that say things like “AI experience preferred” or “Experience using AI tools.” This is extremely vague and given the amount of AI tools out there, it really doesn’t narrow down the pool. We recommend more specifics.

For example:

AI knowledge and understanding:

• Awareness of different AI technologies and their applications:?Familiarity with machine learning,?natural language processing,?computer vision,?and other relevant areas is crucial.
• Understanding of AI limitations and biases:?Knowing the potential pitfalls of AI and designing experiences that mitigate them is essential.
• Ability to translate AI capabilities into user-centric features:?You should be able to identify how AI can improve user experience and translate those insights into concrete design decisions.

AI technical skills:

• Familiarity with AI-powered design tools and platforms:?Understanding and utilizing tools like user testing platforms with AI-powered analytics or design tools incorporating AI elements.
• Coding fundamentals:?Basic understanding of code will be helpful,?especially for collaborating with engineers and understanding how AI features are implemented.

Candidate corner: tips for job seekers

If you haven’t taken the leap into your AI exploration yet, we’re excited you’re here! We see this era in our industry as a transformation, and if you’re not jumping in, you’ll most likely get left behind. AI technology promises to reshape our lives in ways we have yet to fully comprehend.

We advocate that you invest yourself in learning the practices of AI to continue to grow in your career as a designer. It's all new, and we’re seeing daily offerings of bootcamps, online programs, etc. Our roadmaps will be a starting point to help you understand and explore what’s out there, but it's only the beginning. We encourage you to create your own learning program or identify one that works for you.

What to include in your resume and portfolio

If you’re applying for roles that list AI requirements, you should be outlining how you utilized AI in previous roles in your resume and listing out specific tools you were working in.?Additionally, if you incorporated AI into your process, you should consider calling that out in your portfolio examples or outlining how AI impacted your process in your case studies. One key thing to remember: be truthful about what you have experience in and be open about the soft skills you have that make you a great candidate for AI roles.

Soft skills

• Being aware of and addressing potential ethical issues in AI-powered design, such as bias, fairness, and privacy concerns.
• Grasping the fundamentals of AI, including its ability to personalize experiences, automate tasks, and analyze user data.

Examples of listing previous AI experience

• Creating interfaces that explain how AI works and why it makes certain decisions, fostering user trust and comfort.
• Integrating AI-generated insights from user interactions, sentiment analysis, and behavioral data into the design process.
• Designing systems that learn and adapt based on user interactions, incorporating AI feedback loops to refine future iterations.
• Striking a balance between AI-driven automation and human-centered control, ensuring designs empower users and don't overly rely on algorithmic decision-making.

Questions?

Wow—we covered a lot of material here! If you have questions or would like to share your insights, feel free to email us at [email protected].

In case you missed our first week of our March newsletter where we introduced our month of Design +AI, you can find it here: Welcome to our month of Design + AI.

Try this!

Fire up an AI image generator and try this prompt:

A 1950s poster-style image of a graphic designer's workspace using typical colors from the 1950s.

We tried the prompt in ChatGPT4, Midjourney, and Leonardo. Which image do you think turned out the best? Can you spot any inconsistencies in the 1950s time period?