What I learned this week (20/03/2026)

This week in class, we covered and discussed the evolution and advancement of design within UI/UX design, over the last number of years. Going from designing screens, all the way to designing entire systems.

With AI being such a massive player in the game, it’s impact within the community is massive. AI has the ability to effect who can design, who and what we can design also.

Dan Saffer, Professor of practice at CMU HCI Institute.

• AI for AI: The orchestration layer (AI that can manage other AI)
• AI OS: The intelligent operating system (Your device can configure themselves to what is asked of them)
• IOT 2.0: Agentic physical environments (Intent over commands)
• Temporal UI: Just in time assistance
• The AI collaborator: There is value in thinking

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“Automation is good until it isn’t”

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I really like about what was covered, that not just importance or the impact that AI has, but just how unreliable and limited AI can be. To back this, I found it really interesting how Kyle, the lecturer explained and showed off the difference between a novice and expert prompt with Figma make, to develop 15 different coffee website variants. Originally, I thought there would have been clear obvious differences, but surpassingly not, just about all of them were identical.

Task: Use one of the covered tools/ applications, such as Figma Make.

Design a smart home app dashboard component that allows the user to easily control key features of a smart home, such as lighting, temperature or home security.

The requirements for design is to create at least two “Smart” features, such as automation, personalisation, predictive actions, or voice control.

Explain how the interface supports the users needs and creates a seamless intelligent experience.