Video recording of our talk:

 

Added in April 2022, the following video from Rebecca Evanhoe offers her thoughts on the ideas presented by Carol and Duane.

Resources

Artificial intelligence (AI) is emerging in every industry and as it does, members of our practice may respond with mixtures of awe, confusion, concern and inspiration. In our work, we seek to expand collaboration between the human and machine, placing the machine in a role of enabling human outcomes and understanding. While sometimes we hear people describe AI as an “emerging intelligence” it is, in truth, the emergent collaboration with humans that fosters positive personal, societal, and environmental outcomes. This collaboration places Information Architects (IAs) in a central role for developing valuable AI capabilities.

In this talk we introduce three scenarios as an approachable entry point to explore the relationship between AI systems and the people engaged with them. The scenarios demonstrate that AI systems and their human counterparts both bring unique strengths and weaknesses to the relationship, and as they are both (somewhat) autonomous entities, their interactions require coordination and negotiation. With these scenarios as introduction, we draw on our range of experiences to outline a framework that IAs can take away to help them think about the key issues in design for AI systems. The framework encompasses items that are common across various types of design for AI, as well as items that are unique to particular tools, projects and contexts.

Presented virtually at the Information Architecture Conference April 28-30, 2021, with a talk on April 30.

The speakers

    • Carol Smith is a Senior Research Scientist in Human-Machine Interaction at Carnegie Mellon University’s Software Engineering Institute and an adjunct instructor for CMU’s Human-Computer Interaction Institute (HCII).
    • Duane Degler is a partner in Design for Context, a Washington DC/Baltimore-based usable design consultancy. He specializes in the design of sophisticated interactive applications and search experiences, with an eye to making rich data resources usable and relevant.

There is also a reflection video on Conversation Design, summarizing the role of conversational AI and needs for design and Information Architecture. This additional video was prepared in advance of the 2022 workshop held at the Information Architecture Conference (presented virtually on April 19-20, 2022).

    • Rebecca Evanhoe is an author, teacher, and conversation designer. With degrees in chemistry and fiction writing, she’s passionate about how interdisciplinary thinking can combine arts, humanities, sciences, and tech. She teaches conversational UX design as a visiting assistant professor at Pratt Institute, and co-authored Conversation with Things: UX Design for Chat and Voice (Rosenfeld Media, 2021).