As artificial intelligence (AI) and headless technologies proliferate in modern web development, exciting innovations are fostering more creative possibilities than ever before.
These innovations were fully demonstrated with the participation of WP Engine CMO Sachin Puri. DD.NYC With Anjelika Kour, Founder and Managing Director B reel Adrià Montiel, Product Design Lead for Online Events The Crafted Future: The Future of Design.
Partners since 2018, WP Engine and webby award annual collaboration Created in code A program that tells the story behind the Webby award-winning site. These extraordinary sites, how they were built, and the digital notable leaders behind them are featured in a special section of Webby’s site, with handpicked leaders sharing the latest in online trends. It will also be featured in our annual online panel event series, Craft Future, discussed. .
The Future of Design was the third in the series and was hosted by The Webby Awards Chief Production Officer Steve Marchese. The panel discussion focused on the current state of web design and how AI and Agile technologies will change the future of design work.
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In the fast-paced digital world, designers and developers must rapidly create and deliver sites that excite and engage users, keeping in mind the growing need for omnichannel experiences.
This challenge started a debate. When asked how the work of today’s designers and developers has changed in recent years, panelists had a lot to say.
‘The turning point of the Internet can be defined as the moment when the Internet moves from a pure information tool to a unique platform that changes the way we work and interact,’ said Montiel.
“The job of designers and developers has changed significantly in recent years due to the increased demand for products and services. increased interest,” he added.
Other panelists agreed that the demand and pace of their work has expanded significantly in recent years, but also expressed enthusiasm to dive into the technological advances that accompany rapid digital transformation.
“I think it’s a really exciting time,” Puri said. “We’ve become truly multi-platform.
“It used to be all TVs, TVs moved to PCs, and PCs moved to smartphones. Now we are talking about IoT. We are talking about AR, VR, the Metaverse. These technologies are still budding. It was easier to ignore when it was up-and-coming, but customers are now omnichannel with at least two screens at any given time, making it difficult for marketers to have strategies across different platforms. has become much more important.”
Designed for today’s Internet
Panelists also commented on what it means to design for today’s Internet.
Kour shared his thoughts on new tools and how they are impacting the workflows of today’s developers and designers.
“When the pandemic hit, we all had to collaborate in our own new way. Digital only. It’s a paradigm shift,” she said.
“These tools do not replace creatives. Rather, they help creatives realize their vision for the future.”
Questions surrounding the emergence of headless site architectures piqued Puri’s interest. Puri detailed how headless sites are already improving the workflow between development and design.
“With Headless, the customer is multi-channel, so from a design perspective, the ability to think about developing, designing, creating once and then using it in many ways is an important key skill set. .”He said.
“That’s the beauty of a decoupling architecture. Designers and creatives leverage the power of the front end to deliver what customers need, while maintaining the flexibility and knowledge base they’ve built,” he said. Added.
Puri goes on to explain how decoupling (headless) architectures will help web designers in the future, even as AI takes on a larger role, creating a widely extensible canvas on which web designers can build. Offers.
“From my point of view, multi-channel functionality is something designers naturally start developing,” he said. “AI can help shape that design, but we need that power and flexibility from the development side without losing our creativity, so headless is a vehicle for building.”
AI powers creative design
As the line of questions moves away from headless development and dives deeper into AI, panelists shared how AI is already permeating the design process and how AI empowers designers to create new projects faster and more creatively. We looked to the future to give
“One of my colleagues always says, ‘It’s easier to edit than to start from scratch.’ So it’s the first starting point for the first draft, and you can build from there.” says Puri.
“With AI, you get this live partner that you can brainstorm ideas with. Aspects are what I would say we need to take heartily and embrace.”
Puri also provided direct advice on how AI can help the design and development process, and identified five key areas where AI can (and should) be applied.
- automation: If you do it more than once, automate it (resizing images, changing backgrounds, etc.).
- Co-creation: It’s not AI, it’s not us, it’s AI and we together
- Analysis and Q&A: Example: Monitoring Live Performance Impact and ADA Requirements During Design
- Creativity: Augment with AI to expand your ideas further (e.g. personalization)
- Designer and developer experience: For example, if you have an idea, you can talk to the AI (voice-to-text) and code it while on the treadmill or hiking.
looking to the future
After the discussion, the panel was asked what changes and challenges they foresee as these new tools and technologies continue to be incorporated into modern design and development workflows.
Panelists’ responses ranged from identifying emerging challenges facing designers to optimistic outlook for boosting creativity across channels.
The question of AI ethics has risen to the fore as concerns grow from builders and tech experts who believe that recent advances are starting to overtake ordinary people’s ability to discern AI from reality.This prompted even more 1,000 signatories Sign open letter This will require all AI labs to pause development for at least six months, giving government agencies time to pass regulations that can reduce the risk of AI-powered misinformation online.
“But the final part where we all evolve is the ethical side,” Puri said. mosquito?
“It’s going to be an interesting space. Advertising has already been completely transformed 10 years ago, and digital experiences built with AI will continue to disrupt these traditional processes.”
Kour shared his final thoughts in hopes that these new tools will help designers further personalize the experience for their users.
“When designers come up with new ideas, they often come up with not one, but multiple ideas,” she said. “And sometimes they attach to versions that clients don’t support.
“And with the idea of personalization,” she continued.I think that’s the beauty of multi-channel environments and personalization [capabilities] Within all those channels. ”
We would like to thank everyone who participated in this event. We also hope that the insights shared during the discussion will get you excited about using new technologies such as headless development and AI in your next project.