AI Generates Design Concepts for Inspiration

A recent post on LinkedIn (https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/aniekpong-d-effiong-099513142_businessintelligence-dashboarddesign-artificialintelligence-activity-7012802728842129408-3MyU?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop) by Aniekpong D. Effiong highlights the use of an AI (MidJourney) to generate design concepts for a dashboard. Aniekpong rightly describes the effect of the AI's work as inspirational. and not as a replacement for the work of the designer. The key word here is inspiration. These are not designs and they are not actual implementations. There are systems that build dashboards automatically, but that's different--those systems have already decided on a design for the dashboard when they were built. Here, the AI is used to generate possible design concepts. In the past, design concepts were time-consuming and expensive to generate; they had to be detailed enough to communicate the concept, even though fictional. Multiple designers were often employed so that designs would vary more. The client's response to a set of design concepts is usually, "These are great. We like the colors of this one, but the style of this other one, and the content ordering of this other one over here." Then the designer goes back to work. Design concepts are seldom if ever used as they originally produced. Using an AI to generate new design concepts in seconds and for pennies, is very cost effective and time saving.

There is a second major benefit, as at least one commentor on the original post noted: it's hard for designers to start with a blank canvas. A set of ideas or concepts, no matter how good or bad helps the design get started and build some momentum toward a design. It's a bit like brainstorming where ideas are generated and thrown out to the group. The group is often told that there are no bad ideas, and of course this is wrong. There are many bad ideas, but in brainstorming they should be stated, so they can become fodder for further ideas, which may also be bad, but eventually good ideas emerge. An AI generating complete, visualizable ideas in seconds can accelerate the design process, making designers more productive for their clients.