Interested in AI and Design? Listen to the interview with Ambition’s own Johan Salo, as he’s visiting the PinMeTo podcast with Bernardo Candeias!

Johan has been in the digital design industry for more than 15 years. From interactive installations to cutting-edge AI projects, his journey is as intriguing as instructive.

Highlights from the episode:
– AI Origins & Evolution: A fresh look at AI’s history and current impact.
– AI & Design: How AI tools aid designers in creative processes.
– Ethical AI: An exploration of initiatives to make AI more transparent.
– Surviving the AI Wave: Practical advice for creatives to utilize AI.

Read more

#ai#design#ethicalai

Georgiy Chernyavsky

The Figma Express: Staying on top of your tools, is it worth it?

We asked Georgiy Chernyavsky, the lead for the UI Design and Prototyping with Figma track at Ambition Empower, to reflect on the rapid evolution of design tools. Here, he’s sharing his insights on the significance of staying updated in this fast-paced industry.

Times change, and tools for designers’ craft change with them. New pieces of software emerge, and designers adapt, learn new things, and change their workflows (hopefully for the better). Sometimes, it becomes difficult to keep up with the pace. Then why should designers bother? Would it not make more sense to develop generic, tool-agnostic workflows and standards that will make switching between tools and adopting new software capabilities easy? Well, there is a compelling reason for us designers to always stay on top of all things tooling: efficiency.

A decade ago, knowing how to use a particular piece of design software well was considered a great competitive benefit for a design practitioner. Today, I’d say it is not only expected for designers to know design tools (almost) perfectly but also adopt new features and new tools in general as they are released. And those new features, at times, can be life-changing. 

Think of the latest 2023 Figma big release. Variables, smart prototyping, Developer Mode. All those things seriously questioned how we were previously used to designing with Figma. Then, should we disrupt our existing workflows and use the new techniques? Well, yes, because they make us achieve the same results but faster (or achieve more in the same amount of time, depending on which measurement you like more). 

New design tool capabilities generally make us more efficient. For example, a tool like Microsoft PowerPoint can produce UI designs of as high quality as Figma. However, constructing a UI design for a web app page in PowerPoint would take an incredibly long time. On top of that, it would take even greater effort to communicate those PowerPoint designs to colleagues. 

Away from slightly comic comparisons to more realistic. Think of how different prototyping with Figma became with the introduction of the Smart Animate feature. Suddenly, design prototypes became more realistic and better fit for usability testing and animation specifications. 

The usability testing part here refers to the increased quality of the designs – better prototypes are more immersive and realistic for the research participants and can bring more realistic results. As for animation specification – being able to demo precisely how transitions and micro-interactions should work helped save an enormous amount of time on communication between designers and engineers. 

My point is that with each new time-saving Figma feature and technique we learn, we become quicker and nimbler in our design iterations. 

As for the universal workflows and standards I briefly mentioned above, those are also important. Such things are, e.g., design file lifecycle, design team file space structure, and standardized design file content – all of these help designers stay tool-agnostic and make it easier to move to other tools. On top of that, these standards help others around you – navigating, onboarding, and collaborating.

So, how do you stay on top of things that are constantly evolving? I spend at least a few hours each week looking out for design tooling and methodology news. At Mastercard, besides product and UI design, I am focused on bringing in the best practices around the design process and tooling. A larger part of this focus happens to be on Figma – I help define standards, collaboration flows, and best practices so that we are successful and efficient in our collaboration.

I’d encourage any design practitioner to join me in the UI Design and Prototyping track at Ambition Empower, both to stay on top of their tools, and to become an expert who helps and educates others. This will help you and your colleagues and improve your collaboration greatly. We all know a chain is only as strong as its weakest link.

🍁 October on the Inclusive Design track! Accessibility Review – Understanding how others see, hear, and interact with your content

Accessibility is an umbrella term for many things. It contains multitudes of different experiences, obstacles, and coping mechanisms. During October we will explore how you can work to uncover all these different perspectives and gain a better understanding of how different people can perceive your content. We’ll go through how people experience assistive technologies like screen readers, eye tracking, zoom and switches, and try some of these tools hands-on.

Ambition Empower is a subscription service where thought leaders within UX, service design, and product design help you and your team to grow. It is optimized for your busy life, allowing members to spend as little as one hour per week and still stay ahead of the competition. If you’re not already one of the 400+ members – join now!

Find out more about Per Axbom’s Inclusive Design & Digital Ethics track, and join Ambition Empower here:
https://lnkd.in/ezqXw6Ss

#inclusivedesign#accessibility#a11y#ux#ui

🍁 October on the Behavioral Design track… Learn how to make strategic decisions about Behavioral Design and how to build it into your product

Join Susan Weinschenk – author of 8 books on behavioral design and understanding customers – and get specific about how to decide and build strategies for behavioral design in different design methods (Agile, User-Centered Design, etc.) How well do these different methods handle behavioral design?

Ambition Empower is a subscription service where thought leaders within UX, service design, and product design help you and your team to grow. It is optimized for busy organizations, allowing members to spend as little as one hour per week and still stay ahead of the competition. If you’re not already one of the 400+ members – join now!

Find out more about Susan Weinschenk’s Behavioral Design track, and join Ambition Empower here:
https://lnkd.in/e7cz2EtY

#behavioraldesign#ux#cx#strategy

🍁 Almost October! Time for UX and Service Designers to master LLMs (Large Language Models) and Generative AI!

Join Pontus Wärnestål at Ambition Empower before October 1st and decode the mystery of large language models and their power. See how AI models interpret and generate text, driving revolutionary changes in communication.

This next topic on the AI & Design track provides a comprehensive understanding of Large Language Models and Generative AI, their development, potential applications, and their implications in various industries. You’ll learn the skills required to design for these sophisticated AI technologies.

Ambition Empower is a subscription service where thought leaders within UX, service design, and product design help you and your team to grow. It is optimized for busy organizations, allowing members to spend as little as one hour per week and still stay ahead of the competition. If you’re not already one of the 400+ members, join now!

Find out more about Pontus’ AI & Design track, and join Ambition Empower here:
https://lnkd.in/dPkacH2R

#ai#servicedesign#ux#llm

A Stellar Evening in Malmö: Drinks, networking, and Kim Goodwin’s leadership challenges ✨

Yesterday evening, we gathered for the second of our three Autumn Afterworks. Malmö’s vibrant UX and Design community came together at the beautiful Spegeln in the spirit of learning and sharing. And what an evening it was!

Just as in Stockholm, Kim Goodwin dove deep into her most challenging leadership experiences and helped everyone reflect on their own leadership styles and what to work on. Once again, the night was a celebration of leadership, innovation, and collaboration.

A warm and heartfelt THANK YOU from the entire team to all our distinguished guests!

Stay tuned! Our final rendezvous awaits in Gothenburg!

#malmö#design#product#leadership#ux

🤝 Improving Collaboration: The science behind and techniques for achieving effective collaboration

When we do Design Research, we are usually collaborating with others. We tend to use the same collaboration techniques over and over. That might be good, but there may be different techniques to use than we are used to. In this topic, we’ll look at different techniques that might help you improve collaboration.

Find out more about Susan Weinschenk’s Design Research track, and join Ambition Empower here:
https://lnkd.in/eKzwrNht

The fun starts September 4!

#designresearch#collaboration

💜 Foundational concepts: What leaders do (and how)

There are many ways to be a leader and many ways to describe what leaders do. Let’s kick off this autumn at the Design and Product Leadership track with some shared definitions, a discussion of what science can tell us about leadership, and a model we’ll use to contextualize what we’ll get into during the fall.

Find out more about Kim Goodwin’s Design and Product Leadership track, and join Ambition Empower here:
https://lnkd.in/g97YkDjw

The fun starts September 4!

#designleadership#productleadership#leadership

📊 Models, diagrams, and visualizations: How we communicate information in service design

The first topic of the fall on the Service Design track at Ambition Empower is all about visualization.

As service designers we use visual models and information visualizations to understand and communicate complicated concepts across a system or service. Diagrams and visualizations are powerful, so use them with care…

Find out more about the Service Design track, and join Ambition Empower here:
https://lnkd.in/etiTgEns

The fun starts September 4!

#servicedesign#communication#visuialization

🤝 Collaboration between Product and UX: Managing the gray area – strategies for getting product and UX working together

The first topic of the fall on the Product Management for UX People track at Ambition Empower is all about collaboration.

There’s a gray area between product and UX on most teams. It’s rare for practitioners or even team leads to fully agree on who is responsible for what and who has the final say when (if ever). Let’s go through some strategies for getting product and UX working together!

Find out more about Christian Crumlish‘s Product Management for UX People track, and join Ambition Empower here:
https://lnkd.in/eaRkPxhz

The fun starts September 4!

#productmanagement#ux#collaboration