[Weekly Retro] Simplicity in AI-driven products
#196 - Nov.2024
Happy Friday!
💡 Here is a quick idea before you head off to the weekend:
Making a product easy to understand is one of the principles of good design. When a product is easy to use and predictable, users feel comfortable with it.
This can be a challenge for AI-driven products.
The "surprises" of this type of technology can be exciting, but they also make design harder: people need to trust that a product will do what they think it will. In simple words: if customers do not trust your product, they will not come back to use it.
When designing for AI, think about:
- Education: How to teach users the basics of how AI works.
- Context: Show the main factors behind AI decisions.
- Transparency: Explain how data is used, how bias is handled, and any ethical issues.
Design for trust.
🤔 Idea that kept me thinking
This is a paper written by Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page, founders of Google, back in 1998. Technically speaking, this paper offers very interesting insights on the ideas that drove the design of Google search engine.
What kept me thinking is this part: "Furthermore, advertising income often provides an incentive to provide poor quality search results...In general, it could be argued from the consumer point of view that the better the search engine is, the fewer advertisements will be needed for the consumer to find what they want."
It's amazing to think how much this mental model changed...
👨🏻💻 Interesting links
Werner Vogels
🖋️ Quote of the week
“The greatest challenge to any thinker is stating the problem in a way that will allow for a solution” – Bertrand Russell
