When Shaza revealed in our Slack channel her upcoming talk on AI/UX at Ørsted on April 25th, I was beaming with excitement as the notion of AI/UX sparked a curiosity tinged with a hint of apprehension in me. Would this innovative frontier replace our roles, or augment them? Eager to unravel the mystery, I eagerly anticipated Shaza’s insights.

Stepping into the Ørsted Malaysia office feels like entering a fresh, modern space. Sunlight pours through expansive windows, illuminating a space furnished with sleek Nordic design, the space feels inviting and innovative in its clean lines. Zen and Nuriy from the UX team greeted Shaza and me with a warm welcome, a palpable energy buzzed through the air with a mix of focus and friendly collaboration. It’s clear this is a place where people from over 17 nationalities are passionate about Ørsted’s mission in renewable energy, and that gets us excited to be part of it!

Shaza started the talk with the myth of Prometheus, the Greek titan who is best known for defying the Olympian gods by stealing fire from them and giving it to humanity. The fire he gave wasn’t just warmth, but the spark of progress in technology and knowledge, and the fire that brought us to this talk today, is AI.

A little soul-searching before AI tooling

To design for a relationship with AI, we need to know ourselves first.” – IBM, Design for AI

Stampede has been a long advocate of the use of thoughtful design and technology to create positive change. Our current exploration, “To AI or not to AI?”, began with deep reflection, because as with any true improvement, the journey starts with a clear understanding of why. We found asking ourselves repeatedly, “Will doing this help us create a better world?” and if it does, “What does a better world look like to us?”, while we are on our way to creating a better world, “Are we being thoughtful with how we do it?”

Our curiosity is insatiable, like a researcher chasing down a breakthrough.

Our early journey in injecting AI into our design process

The real value will come from using AI to enhance human creativity and innovation, supporting human needs and potentials.” — Ginni Rometty

The design process, from user discovery and problem definition all the way through prototyping and testing, offers numerous opportunities for optimization. In Stampede, we view this process through the lens of “Drag vs. Lift”. Drag represents actions or practices that slow us down, reduce efficiency, or stifle creativity. Conversely, Lift refers to actions that boost productivity, spark innovation, and streamline workflows.

We looked for drags in two primary areas: Research and Design Delivery. Our strategy was to over-index on pains in the design process that are also causing business pains. Ideally, these drags would require less effort to address yet deliver significant impact. For each pain point, we then explore potential AI solutions that could act as our co-pilots in the design process.

An example of Drag is the endless design iteration cycle, which can significantly delay the product’s time-to-market. While iterations are crucial for building confidence, there is a tipping point. We use the Rule of 70% in our process, suggesting to aim for 70% confidence to make timely decisions, balancing accuracy with speed. But how do we do this?

Stampede’s UX researchers help PMs achieve the critical 70% confidence mark faster by using AI co-pilot that automatically records, transcribes and analyze user feedback from testing sessions, accelerating actionable insights and propelling product development. We also employ advanced user behavior models to help forecast future trends and predict user reactions to different design options, empowering product teams to proactively anticipate user needs and deliver solutions that resonate. This is how UX researchers in Stampede become key partners in this fast-paced decision-making process.

AI is definitely changing the game in our processes, like how we conduct user research differently now with AI-assisted proto-persona, or how we design surveys differently now with AI to role play as respondents, and it’s only going to be more exciting from here! Surprisingly the one that sparked the most conversation during the talk was, how do we design accessibility differently now with AI?

Transforming the digital experience of seniors

The crowd started stirring into accessibility topics when Shaza mentioned about how frustrating it can be for our parents to use apps that seem like a breeze to us. Technology can be a real barrier for the senior community and often it’s because we, the younger generation, design it without fully comprehend their needs. We might think an interface is clear and simple, but for someone with declining eyesight and dexterity, it could be a confusing jumble. This is where AI enters as an accessibility game-changer, it can help us realize blind spots by analyzing user behavior patterns and identify areas where seniors might struggle with an app. It can assist us in designing appropriate copywriting tone, creating a designing language that resonate with their physical and emotional needs. By leveraging AI in our process, we can move beyond designing for our current selves and create technology that truly empowers everyone, regardless of age or ability, creating a better world for our senior community (and perhaps our older selves might benefit from it!)

Intersectionality is the dawn of AI-ready teams

Lunchtime buzzed with discussions about future-ready designers with the Ørsted team. We shared Stampede’s “design onigiri” illustration, visualizing the roles of UX, UI, and product designers. Imagine a designer with business acumen and a product manager fluent in user research, these overlapping skills don’t clash, instead, they spark a powerful synergy that this intersectionality creates a shared perspective, supercharging collaborations that will move the industry forward.

Fun fact: The “design onigiri” was inspired by Shaza’s recent trip to Japan. The Ørsted team saw an opportunity to suggest a Malaysian twist – a ‘nasi campur’ version, which is really awesome, talk about global design inspiration!

And it’s a wrap!

A huge thank you to Ørsted’s UX team, especially Zen Cheong and Nuriy Arisa and your fantastic design team, for your incredible hospitality and for creating a space where we learn alongside fellow designers. It’s collaborations like these that fuel our mission at Stampede to create better worlds, one thoughtful innovation at a time 🚀

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Why is finding inspiration an essential process of design?

Finding inspiration is the process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, especially to do something creative.

In UI/UX design, it helps the designers build a moodboard, a group of design inspirations that the designers will use as a reference for colours, UI components and sometimes even interactions.

These inspirations are essential so that it helps the designer to come up with something special and unique for a problem they are trying to solve

What are the limitations of finding inspiration on the Internet?

Finding inspiration for UI design seems very easy these days as information is readily available on the Internet. However, inspiration on the Internet can sometimes be limiting.

Based on my observations and experience, searching for inspirations you don’t know is hard. It’s almost always the things you already know or are interested in. This bias can limit the designers from finding something out of the box.

Inspiration platforms such as Dribbble and Behance, accessible to the public, are too aesthetically focused and not functional if applied to UI/UX design.

Moreover, some problems can’t be found easily online, especially issues from large corporations with specific users and goals that might not be available online compared to B2C applications.

So, what other ways can the designers gather more interesting inspirations?

Most of the time, designers will gather inspiration during a project which is quite reactive. Inspiration is all around us in our daily lives, and we need to train our senses to detect them proactively and, most importantly, record them for future reference.

Experience kiosk interface design

Places like public transport stations and your country’s city centres can help designers to be inspired with a lot of applicable inspirations. The reason is that you experience how people use and interact with services, tools and apps.

I like to explore the usability of kiosk UI in public transport stations, fast food chains, and tourist spots whenever I use them in my country and other places. I like to observe how locals and tourists use it, such as:

1. How they interact with it, whether they need clarification or some help from others to use the interface
2. Who are the users? Are they locals or tourists?
3. How do they pay for the fare? Is it through e-wallets, credit cards or physical banknotes

These user interfaces and interactions can serve as good inspirations for design later on, especially for service design.

These user interfaces and interactions can serve as good inspirations for design later on, especially for service design.

It might help designers build user journey maps and determine a better interaction for specific users, as many people of different ages and life experiences use these public systems.

Skincare shops

I also like seeing the packaging designs from skincare shops like Innisfree, body shop, and loccitane.

The package design contains a lot of lovely illustrations created by talented illustrators in Malaysia and from other countries.

They act as colour inspiration that you can touch and feel compared to Dribbble, Behance’s digital version. You can learn how colours are paired to achieve harmony, which UI designers can use in the digital world. Though, of course, you should follow only some things.

Books

Before, user interface designs were a thing now. One of the best inspirations for designers to gather are from books, especially for designers that don’t design for digital screens.

I love flipping through design books as not only do they look nice physically, but they also have some excellent documentation on how things are designed.

I’m always very into grid, typography and signage design in train stations, so I bought some design books that talk about them, such as how and why they were implemented in such a way.

Based on the image above. You might think these books are for graphic and type designers, which is true. It is also usable for UI designers on the digital screen; the theory is still the same. They are just applied on a different medium with particular requirements that UI designers need to consider.

Some books are written in other languages but I mainly needed the visual inspiration and if I needed to read it, I’ll use Google Lens to translate it through my phone’s camera.

Interfaces from movies and games

Interfaces from movies and video games, especially futuristic ones, usually have UIs that WOW audiences and gamers. That WOW factor is one of the best things designers can capture and apply to their designs.

However, these inspirations also have their limitations. It might not be suitable for normal public users, but it might be possible for heavy engineering applications or high-tech projects if you are working on one.

There is one way to overcome this limitation (it doesn’t apply to all of the sci-fi movies) is that choose sci-fi that is more realistic such as The Martian which isn’t too far away into the future and it is more realistic.

You can find these inspirations here:

• Territory Studio
• Gmunk

Journaling your inspiration

Finally, make it a habit to observe the interactions between this UI and interactions and take note of it. You don’t have to write it down in a pocket notebook. Using your phone’s camera is a great way to capture and save the information to your computer.

These are the ways that I found helpful as a UI/UX designer to train myself to capture inspiration even when I’m not actively designing something so that I can use them whenever I need them. It saves time and teaches the designer to be sensitive to potential solutions that are already available but need to be more straightforward.

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What is Mind Mapping?

Mind mapping is a thinking method that helps solve, expand upon, or structure ideas of a specific topic. It involves using visuals like diagrams to branch out from an original point to the next related one. This process keeps repeating until all the information is presented as a whole with every point showing its associations.

During a mind mapping session, individuals are free to let their minds wander to create on-the-fly connections, link ideas and elaborate on these ideas into more details. The best part about this method is that you don’t need to have any formal training and there isn’t a clear rule on how it should be done. Everyone involved will have different ideas and no two people will have the exact same thoughts.

…let your mind free to make any type of association possible

Why Mind Map?

Mind mapping can be used in a variety of tasks such as generating ideas, memorising a chapter in a textbook, planning for a project, organising facts and problem solving. By illustrating your mind map, you are able to see everything as one large picture made up of individuals points.

One of the best parts about starting a mind map is that your bare minimum requirements are:

• A place to draw the mind map like some paper or a white board
• Writing materials such as pencils, pens or markers
• Yourself! Or if you’d like to collaborate, a group

How Do I Mind Map?

Banana.

Did you think of the colour yellow? Perhaps another fruit or a sundae? Congratulations, you have taken your first step in mind mapping (it’s that simple).

First and foremost, you’ll need to understand what you’re trying to map. Start by writing down the topic at the center of your drawing area. From the top of your head, think about all the associated things you can figure out about your topic and write these just around the core.

At this point, let your mind free to make any type of association possible. Once you’ve got a number of these written, connect all these points to the main one. Each of these sub-points that you’ve written down can branch into more and more ideas, and don’t let a linear branch determine your mind mapping. Keep expanding as much as you can and you’ll get something that looks like this.

An example of how a mind map looks like. Results can be appropriate or down-right ridiculous but this is where unexpected or new ideas appear.

With all of these points written down, you’ll be surprised on how much you’ve expanded your core topic. With all this information, you can use it to generate new ideas for a fruit marketing campaign or the many uses of bananas.

Wrapping it Up

By all means, mind maps are nothing new and great thinkers have been using this technique in their brilliant work for a long time. While is it not the only method to form ideas, it is certainly one of the best ones humankind has figured out and implemented.

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Nowadays, there are quite a number of font icons provider out there. To name a few, they are Font Awesome, IcoMoon and Typeicons. Most of them provided different icon packs.

Out of all font icons available, I’ll easily pick Fontello as my favourite in the pack.

Why Fontello?

I found out that out of all font icons out there, Fontello provides most of the icons from other providers such Fontalico, Font Awesome, Entypo, etc. This gives me a lot of icons variations for use, and I am not the one who believes in the saying do not be spoiled by choice.

With Fontello service, I can even use my own icon as well. What I need to do is just create a svg format icon and drag it on the section provided. Easy peasy.

Another part of Fontello that I love is that the ability to choose just the icons you need. 

Other font icon providers come with CSS that include all icons. Whilst using Fontello, I just need to choose only the icon(s) that I will need to use.

Let’s also say if I need to add new icons in the future, I just need to import config.json (this comes with the file that you’ve downloaded from Fontello) on Fontello and it will highlight the icon that I have chosen on particular project.

Best of all, Fontello is also highly customisable. You can easily change class for your icons and use your own font name with Fontello, as shown in these examples – changing class name followed by changing font name.

What do you think? Do you also prefer Fontello over other font icons or are there some font icons out there that caught your fancy? I am interested to hear all about it. Comments below!

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