Whaddayaknow? AI is sort of transforming the way designers approach the creation of websites, hopefully improving our output and making our work easier and more enjoyable. Below are five startling developments that showcase how AI could revolutionize web design in the not-too-distant future.
Personalization and Customization
We now have new tools to create a personalized web experience for each user. AI algorithms can be better at analyzing user behavior, browsing history, and demographics data than previous programs and even human strategists. This new approach might create more tailored experiences that cater to each user’s observed preferences, thus increasing user engagement and return visits. The challenge, as always, will be ensuring that serendipitous discovery and expansion of horizons don’t suffer as a consequence of tightly focused content. For example, Spotify’s Discover Weekly playlist is generated using AI that analyzes a user’s listening habits and suggests new songs.
Responsive Design
AI algorithms can automatically calculate and write the appropriate CSS to adjust font sizes, image resolutions, and layouts to ensure that a website looks and works seamlessly on any device regardless of the screen dimensions.
Automated Layout Design
Midjourney and similar tools are beginning to take stabs and web page and app screen layouts…and they are not too bad at it (or too good yet). But there is promise that these tools would at least partially automate the layout process. AI can analyze a website’s content and suggest layout options that are visually appealing and (eventually, hopefully) easy to navigate.
Design Assistance
Every new tool raises the bar for practitioners and lowers the barriers of entry into any design discipline, whether us “experts” like it or not. The Mac did it, Adobe did it, Sketch, Figma, SquareSpace, no-code platforms, etc. AI is no different but, arguably, it holds even more promise and also more challenges to the status quo. Just like Tome helps presumably creates presentation decks, there might soon be tools that enable even non-designers to create professional-looking websites by giving algorithmic assistance for the selection of color schemes, fonts, photography, and other design elements that work well together.
Faster Iteration & Testing
AI algorithms can analyze user behavior and provide feedback on what’s working and what’s not. This will further speed AB testing and the release of new features by allowing designers to make changes quickly and see their impact. This process saves time and ensures that the final product is as effective as possible.
AI tools are not quite there yet to tackle all of the above, but they are helping web designers be faster and more efficient than ever before — much like it did for copywriters and illustrators just a few months back.
Challenges remain, of course. Will the world need as many designers, copywriters, and illustrators as before? It’s hard to know. There are those who will tell you that your job is not at risk. Others spell doom for everyone’s career. We at Digit suspect that the reality is somewhere in between.
Many jobs will not go away completely, but people’s tasks will certainly change.
In the meantime, and while we prepare for what’s coming, we craft websites the traditional fashion: by hand. So hit us up if you need one!