Tool Curiosity

Brett Akop is an Industrial Designer. Over the past few years he's worked with Vizcom, Gravity Sketch, and Decibel to prototype new workflows. Recently (naturally), AI has been at the top of his agenda. So far, he's only seen AI wrappers that make the models more appropriate for designers — that speed up the processes that would traditionally take a bit longer. He points to Weavy, Flora and Vizcom that seamlessly fit into existing workflows. It's an obvious place to start: using AI to make existing tools quicker to use, or new tools that make existing processes quicker to execute. Given that they're ingrained in most designers' daily processes, we're likely to continue to see iterations on these familiar formats — decoupling from an entrenched system takes time, effort and money.

These early, reactionary methods of applying AI to the design process, however, seem somewhat one-dimensional.

In a podcast episode with Lex Fridman, OpenClaw founder Peter Steinberger described an approach to using AI that was richer and more complex. For better results, he advised people to have empathy for AI, and to consider "the way the agent sees the world." In his Germanic English he explained how he: "spent an ungodly time over the year to play and to learn and to build little things. And every step of the way, I got better. The agents got better. My understanding of how everything works got better."

Reminiscent of how people might describe the relationship between a traditional craftsperson and their tools, empathy is the ultimate in understanding. It alludes to tool and human working in synchronicity, where a deep knowledge of how a tool behaves results in getting the best from it. Perhaps then, empathy is needed for designers to fully realise the potential of AI — to meld AI to the character of their individual process. Because if this new technology removes the barriers to coding, it also removes the barriers to building software, meaning that designers could build bespoke applications to meet the unique needs of their own processes.

Brett built on the metaphor of a traditional craftsperson and their tools when he talked about why he believes this represents the future for industrial design: "If you're designing a very unique chair and you need a very specific jig to do this one specific type of joinery, you might spend 3 days working on a tool to do that process and make it scalable." He argues that AI-aided design software will be the same. The designer will work with AI to code apps that perform specific tasks, unique to their processes of working or design style. Durrell Bishop is already experimenting in this way. Recently, he has been instructing AI to make "strange 3D CAD apps to explore alternative ways of making form."

Jason Mesut has been working in and thinking about UX for more than 25 years. He thinks that sometimes software built for creatives isn't creative enough. "Maybe you want to use other senses to describe what you're trying to achieve. Perhaps a sound could describe a colour."

Maybe it's too soon to redefine the novel term "Vibe Coding", but design applications could help designers describe and envision the vibe they're trying to create. A perfect starting challenge for anyone investigating bespoke AI tool generation: applications that speak to the "feeling" of the design process, as much as to the functional and physical attributes of what is being designed.

If this future materialises, we will most likely witness a fragmentation of the design software industry, with a plethora of new apps demanding to be investigated and adopted. Potentially cementing AI in the process of industrial design, let's hope for unique and exciting new tools that disrupt workflow software, whilst enriching design workflows.