How I utilize AI tools as a product designer
From research synthesis to building iPhone apps
As a product designer I’ve been fascinated with tools like ChatGPT and Claude AI. These tools have introduced new workflows into my life. AI tools have helped me become more productive and help me do new things and it has been amazing. The following are some use cases I wanted to share.
Note: For the following examples I have been using ChatGPT GPT-4 and Claude AI Opus
Research synthesis
It can be time consuming to work on summarizing research call recordings and do share outs with the team. ChatGPT has helped me save a lot of time summarizing the research and putting together the main takeaways so I can share those with my team. I’ll still review the summaries and make adjustments to make sure it resonates with how I thought about the research but it’s been helpful to get this assist from AI tools.
I wrote a bit more about my experience using ChatGPT for research here:
Building iPhone apps
As a product designer I have many ideas ranging from specific interactions all the way to fully functioning apps.
ChatGPT has helped me build these interactions as well as functioning apps using SwiftUI. Building prototypes is fun but to actually put the functioning app on your phone and play with the app is such an awesome feeling. I think ChatGPT will not only help people learn to code but it will provide the initial inspiration to continue to learn coding. I have many examples to share but I will share a couple.
I wanted to explore a different way to unlock an app. I had an idea to unlock with app with your signature. To prototype this interaction with something like Figma wouldn’t feel as realistic so it was awesome to get this running in Xcode:
I also wrote a bit about this experiment here:
I recently had a need to convert numbers to the metric system and I know many of these apps exist on the app store but I thought it would be fun to design and build my own simple version:
I had an idea where it would be fun to build a simple app where it generates random circles and you can draw on the screen. As a designer it was fun to build a design tool even if it was a very simple example:
What’s interesting to me is that there are times when I don’t start in Figma. I noticed at times I jump straight into Xcode to start building out my ideas which felt great because the things I build in Xcode could directly be shipped to people’s phones.
Note: Xcode is Apple’s app to build apps for Apple’s ecosystem.
Building Figma plugins
I use Figma often and I’ve always had Figma plugin ideas to help assist my workflow. ChatGPT has been helpful in providing the code to run the Figma plugins. For example I run a lot of online workshops and I constantly have to create rows and columns of artboards (frames) for the workshops so I decided to make this Figma artboard generator plugin:
I’ve always been fascinated with gradient generators to help provide ideas and I decided to build my own with the help of ChatGPT:
Copywriting
If you need ideas and suggestions for copy within your interfaces, ChatGPT can help you with copy ideas and variations of ideas you already have. You can also provide requirements such as the length of the copy, the number of words and specific details such as the type of personality you are going for. ChatGPT will help you generate many ideas based on your specifications.
I wrote a detailed post about my copywriting process with ChatGPT here:
Concise and detailed placeholder content
The other day I was building a prototype and I wanted actual placeholder content around the topic of prototyping. I asked ChatGPT to generate a bunch of paragraphs around this topic. Here is the prototype:
You can also build a Figma plugin that generates placeholder content. So if you’re reading all these examples it’s interesting that you can combine different ideas.
Design feedback
The other day I was designing a chart builder and I told ChatGPT specific things about the chart builder and I asked ChatGPT to critique how I was planning to design the chart builder. ChatGPT provided interesting feedback that I found helpful. You can even paste in charts you design and get feedback on ways to improve the chart design.
Simulating alternative viewpoints
Perhaps you have a potential design solution in mind and you wanted to get some alternative viewpoints on how the design solution might not be effective. You can ask ChatGPT to provide those viewpoints.
Learning new things
These days if I want to learn something new I like to ask ChatGPT. I still think it’s important to read books on various topics but it’s great to also utilize ChatGPT to help you learn new things.
You can also ask ChatGPT to quiz you on a specific topic to test your knowledge on a given topic.
A new workflow for designing charts
My previous workflow was usually starting in Figma and designing charts with placeholder data. My new workflow when I need to design charts is telling ChatGPT the type of story I want to tell with the data, asking for realistic fake data and then asking it to generate a few different charts that help tell the story of the data in a clear and digestible format. From there I’ll take the charts ChatGPT generates and paste the charts into Figm and design the charts that fits the visual aesthetic that matches the rest of my designs. ChatGPT can also provide the data in a table format that becomes useful if a table needs to be included in your designs.
I wrote about my chart design workflow here:
Thank you so much for reading!