Thinking AI & design forward together!
A companywide networking workshop on integrating generative AI & design.
Client
Robert Bosch GmbH
Services
Industry
Automotive
Consumer Goods
Industrial and Building Technology
AI: job killer or opportunity?
Some can't get enough of it, others probably can't hear it anymore, but AI is here to stay. However you feel about it, AI will have a significant impact on our work as designers. In order to understand how this influence will manifest itself, we entered into a close exchange with other companies. As a result, Robert Bosch GmbH invited us to moderate a workshop at their Designers Network Day.
Bosch wanted to find out what impact AI will have on the company in the future. We developed a workshop to answer these questions from a designer's perspective and taking into account our expertise.
The Workshop: AI-powered design
The workshop was attended by 50 designers divided into six groups. The task of each group was to select a Bosch product and rethink it in terms of integrating AI. Since every good product is based on intensive user research, we came up with a little trick. With the help of two very special tools, we enabled the workshop participants to generate AI-based personas and thus create a concrete basis for the development of their product. Curtain up for Leanscope and the Person-a-Mat!
AI-powered personas with LeanScope
We have already introduced LeanScope.ai in another project. The AI-supported management tool enables the creation of true-to-life initial profiles of a wide range of users based on OpenAI's GPT and DALL-E 2. In addition to socio-demographic information, motivations and frustrations are also generated. Typical roles and tasks are automatically assigned to the personas and related to each other. They were the basis of our workshop!
Make personas tangible!
With the Person-a-Mat.
The Person-a-Mat acted as an analogue interface to generate the LeanScope personas and print them out at the same time, and of course we didn't take it too seriously to create personas with a device as bulky as a ticket machine, equipped with a touch terminal and a physical poster printer. The device nevertheless became the highlight of the workshop, as it brought a fun gamification element and the participants could work directly and easily with the printed personas in their groups!
Bringing AI and sustainability together
In the six working groups, participants were asked to rethink the Bosch product with their personas in mind. There was an added twist: we adapted all the personas to have a need for sustainability. Creating a sustainable user experience was therefore also a strong focus of the workshop, but the ultimate goal was not to develop a new product. Instead, we wanted to answer questions about how AI could support the design of such a product and make it more sustainable.
Working together to create new visions of work!
When it comes to transformative topics like AI, companies can often remain conservative. Scepticism is certainly appropriate, but the will to change is always sensible. This workshop shows what happens when you take away people's fear of change.
The designers at Bosch are motivated to pull together, move the company forward and break new ground.Bosch did not want to tell its designers what their work should look like. Instead, they were asked to answer the question of how AI would affect their future.
This allowed fears of change and new ideas to be discussed openly, and it is this kind of courage and transparency that we need to face an uncertain future with confidence. We are delighted to have been able to take a step in this direction with the designers from Bosch!
Markus Andert
Senior Manager User Experience (BMC/UXC)
Robert Bosch GmbH
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