UX Questions

Should I use Chat GPT for UX work? UX Question #32

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Ronnie from New Mexico asks: Should I use Chat GPT for UX work?

I love that question. Thanks for asking, Ronnie. This is UX Question number 32 and I am Ben Judy.

Chat GPT, as you probably know, is software that can respond to text prompts in a human-like manner. You ask a question or tell it to write something, and it uses an artificial intelligence language model trained on a massive amount of text data to generate a response.

It is the fastest growing computer application—ever. The adoption curve on Chat GPT is unprecedented.

UX researchers and designers are using it in all sorts of ways: to generate and translate copy for websites and applications, to create user flows, to generate information architecture. It’s useful for competitor analysis and brainstorming ideas.

Should you do this?

The benefits are obvious. You can save time and mental energy.

You can spend hours writing a usability testing plan for your product. Or, ask AI to write the plan, and it’s done instantly.

What could possibly go wrong?

Well, here are four things to consider.

One, you shouldn’t enter proprietary company data or client information into a network outside of your company’s or client’s control. Whatever you say to Chat GPT is now known by the neural network. Be sure you know if you’re interacting with AI inside or outside of your organization’s IT security fence.

When the inevitable robot uprising happens, Chat GPT is going to remember everything you ever said to it.

Second thing to consider: Chat GPT can be dead wrong. It will confidently tell you things that are factually untrue or logically incorrect. You cannot trust it to be right.

Third, AI tools aren’t very good at detecting or understanding human emotions. So much of UX work is about observing emotions, and for now at least, humans are much better at this. I mentioned this in episode 24, Will AI replace UX designers?

Fourth thing to consider is the ethics of using AI generated content when your customers or users assume that content was generated by a human. Is that a problem? As I mentioned in episode 23, “What are the top UX trends for 2023?” I think this issue of authorship will only become a bigger problem.

I suppose I should give you a disclaimer: less than five percent of this episode was written by artificial intelligence. I did use it to help me brainstorm, but the thoughts and opinions expressed here are mostly my own.

Keep asking your questions about UX. Next time, I’ll answer the question: Why do UX designers become product managers?

Or maybe I won’t answer it. Maybe AI will answer it. Who can say?

I, for one, welcome our new AI overlords!

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