"Designing for a Better World" – this was the central theme of the eighth WUD Leipzig, where renowned speakers demonstrated how technology and design can shape a better future. While our news article highlighted the event’s atmosphere and key moments, this professional review delves deeper into the insights from the talks and workshops. Unconventional perspectives from UX practice ran throughout the day, offering fresh approaches to sustainable solutions. Artificial Intelligence (AI), an omnipresent topic, also took centre stage and was explored from various angles.
Keynote: All Creatives Are Dying Out – GenAI Wins
Richard Bretschneider’s keynote explored how AI is transforming creative processes and its implications for professions in the music industry. He began with the premise that art is rooted not in tools or technology, but in the unique perspectives of the people who create it. But what happens when AI takes over an increasing share of the creative process?
Richard demonstrated how quickly AI can now tackle creative tasks. Using ChatGPT and AI-driven music tools, he produced a fully composed song in just 90 seconds. While impressed by the outcome, he posed a critical question: if the creative process – the essence of art – is replaced by AI, is there still room for individuality?
Rather than predicting the demise of creativity, Richard highlighted how AI can solve specific problems in the music industry: simulating choirs through voice cloning, using hand gestures to intuitively control complex synthesisers, or enhancing guitars to produce drum sounds. His conclusion: AI is not a substitute for creativity but a tool. It is up to the users to decide consciously whether to use technology as a support or a replacement.
AI as a Partner in the Design and Development Process
Danny Hucke and Tina Marschner from IT Sonix shared insights in their talk “Replace Me If You Can,” discussing how AI tools can support design and development processes. They posed the question: can AI complement or even replace human expertise to accelerate the development of functional prototypes?
In an experiment, they developed a mood-tracking journal – a minimalist tool with both design and backend components. Using specialised tools such as Locofy, Gemini, and GitHub Copilot Workspace, they created an end-to-end product. These tools enabled rapid prototyping and creative approaches but required constant oversight and clear direction.
The key takeaway: AI tools enhance productivity and open up new possibilities but are not “one-click solutions.” Each tool has specific requirements, making human expertise indispensable.
Building on their presentation, Danny and Tina conducted an interactive workshop focused on the Locofy and Lovable tools. Participants worked in pairs on tasks such as dashboards or contact forms, learning to use targeted and iterative prompts to achieve more precise results. Discussions highlighted use cases like rapid prototyping and user flow testing while also identifying limitations, such as inefficient code. The workshop underscored the high potential of AI-driven prototyping but emphasised the need for a clear methodological approach to effectively integrate results into development processes.
From Chatbots to Friends: Design Principles for Conversational AI
Dominique Winter from Produktwerker discussed in his talk, “From Chatbots to Friends: Design Principles for Conversational AI,” how relationship design can turn conversational AIs into emotional and responsible companions. Like traditional UX design, the focus here is on user experience. However, the goal is not just to create a good experience but one that leaves a lasting positive impression, Dominique explained. Memorable experiences lead users to appreciate products in the long term and keep coming back.
An intriguing idea was that humans and AI “educate” each other. Conversational AIs learn from feedback and interactions, requiring clear values and principles to prevent unwanted developments. At the same time, the “personality” of the AI influences user behaviour.
Dominique emphasised the responsibility to design systems that foster respect, empathy, and fairness. He concluded by stating that we shape the world of tomorrow not only through ourselves but also through the products and principles we create.
Human Factors as the Key to Fair and Safe Traffic Systems
Oliver Singler, a researcher at Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, highlighted the critical role of Human Factors in designing safe and equitable traffic systems. This discipline examines the interaction between people and technology to create user-friendly, safe, and efficient systems. In traffic, this is particularly relevant as over 80% of accidents are attributed to human error. Despite innovations like emergency braking systems, accident rates have plateaued – indicating that technical solutions alone are insufficient.
Oliver stressed the need to design systems that encourage intuitive behaviour and reduce cognitive load. Research combines objective methods such as psychophysiological measurements for stress responses (e.g., pupil size or heart rate) and behavioural analyses (e.g., braking and steering manoeuvres) with subjective evaluations, such as questionnaires.
As a concrete application, he cited the development of maps for autonomous vehicles that protect vulnerable road users and eye-tracking analyses to predict cyclists’ movements.
Oliver concluded by emphasising the importance of Human Factors across disciplines. Addressing human needs is essential in creating safe and sustainable systems in virtually all fields – from medicine to software development. He urged greater integration of these principles to tackle future challenges through a holistic, human-centred approach.
Outlook
In summary, the WUD Leipzig 2024 showcased the diversity and depth of current developments in UX design. From AI as a creative partner to designing conversational AIs and the pivotal role of Human Factors in traffic systems – every presentation underlined the need to keep humans at the centre. It became clear that technology should not replace human abilities but serve as a tool to expand them and create sustainable, safe solutions.
A recurring theme across all contributions was the responsibility of designers and developers to create products and systems that are not only functional but also ethical and inclusive. The emphasis was on making conscious decisions about how to use technology and which principles to integrate into our work.
In the second part of our review, we will pick up exactly where we left off. We will explore the interplay between brain and body and how incorporating context can lead to more inclusive designs for the future. We will also discuss women’s safety in smart cities and examine how e-commerce websites influence women’s body image. Finally, we will summarise the key insights from our UX Writing workshop and highlight its importance for effective, user-centric design.
