About this talk
In this talk, Swin Nikolaf discusses the evolving relationship between user experience and artificial intelligence. The speaker explores how AI is transforming interfaces from static designs into dynamic, predictive partners that adapt to user needs, goals, and emotional states. Nikolaf identifies five key trends that redefine digital product design, including the shift from static to predictive interfaces, the expansion of conversational interactions beyond basic chatbots, and the changing role of designers toward creating adaptive systems. He emphasizes the importance of accessibility, making it a default consideration rather than an afterthought, and underscores the necessity of trust and transparency in AI-driven interfaces. Through these insights, he highlights the potential for a more inclusive and human-centric digital experience shaped by AI.
Full transcript
Hello everyone. Uh as presented, I'm Swin Nikolaf and I lead the team responsible uh for shaping the user experience uh and AI innovation in the flagship uh developer products at Progress and before this in Intelleric. So since uh 2008 um I've worked across the entire journey of innovation um turning ideas into uh experiments um bringing them uh into into the validation phase uh and then uh shipping
them to to to market. Beyond my role uh at progress I'm also very passionate of uh uh giving back to to to the community. uh so uh through through teaching through uh through lecturing through academy and u uh and university and also uh helping uh the mentoring the young uh UX specialists and IT innovators uh to grow. So um I'm really excited to be here uh with
you today and have uh maybe an open discussion at the end with a question and answers of uh uh what is the the the future of user experience and how the AI is shaping the the paradigms that we've been accustomed with. So now we are entering a new era of u uh human to computer interaction. Um for decades the digital systems were built in a way uh
that uh we have to learn their logic and we have to obey their rules. uh we have to memorize menus, adapt to rigid flows uh and uh master the quirks of uh software and technology dictated the rules and the users complied. So AI is beginning to invert this equation. Instead of asking humans to adapt to the interface, uh now the AI enables the interface to adapt to
the human needs. And this is not an incremental upgrade. uh this is a profound shift uh in a way that uh we experience the digital world uh and uh the digital properties today. Uh this is a design force reshaping uh what the behavior and ultimately the experience with uh with the technology uh is going to be. So as we look forward the future um I see five
major trends and major shifts that uh redefine what it means to design and to use u digital product. So starting with the first prediction um this is the shift from static interfaces to predictive partners. For much of the digital age interfaces were static. They did the same thing regardless of uh who you were uh where you were or what your uh intended and AI disrupt this uh
it now can uh make us uh uh have interfaces that can draw on streams of uh context uh be it location activity uh intent and this is thing that is anticipated in real time. Uh so the result is not just uh personalization or hyperpersonalization if we uh want to to be on the hype side uh but anticipation. So instead of apps and menus uh you interact with
fluid AI generated interface that reorganizes itself and have this ability to shape in real time based on your context on your goals uh on your intent and even on your emotional state. So imagine you're sitting at your desk on a Monday morning and instead of static desktop with uh cluttered applications, your workspace uh reshapes itself uh into a timeline of your uh priorities. Uh so emails are
clustered by intent. uh projects are um condensed uh into milestone via u dashboards and you have a visual map of your critical decisions. Now you switch from deep work to team call and your interface morphs into collaborative canvas uh that uh surface only the relevant information uh files people decision that's uh tied to this specific uh conversation. The UI also detects your cognitive state. So if you
are fatigued uh it trims away the complexity. So it offers just enough data and even switches from textheavy interaction and panels to visual conversational or audio first modes depending on uh what helps you think more clearly and over time this experience builds a dynamic memory of your preferences and rhythms. uh so you can uh feel it less like a tool and uh more like a cognitive uh
partner. So the the UI knows when to stay quiet, when to to nudge uh and when to to do things on your behalf in the in the background. And these systems, they stop being passive canvases. They become active partners meeting us in our moments not just waiting for for our input. And here lies also the the challenge the first challenge. Um when does helpfulness cross intr uh
intrusiveness? Uh so prediction without permission uh erodess trust and the future belongs to the interfaces that uh anticipate while remaining transparent and offer control back to the user at every every step. We go to the second prediction and this is u beyond chat bots the rise of uh the true uh conversations. What a lovely title. So when most people think of u chat bots today uh and
they imagine that this is uh uh just a text input uh that is in the corner of the screen uh and it's uh often clumsy sometimes helpful but uh rarely transformative to be uh to be frank. So uh these conversations um as a design paradigm are about to to to expand and u shift beyond this um this narrow form. Multimodel interfaces that includes voice, gesture, touch and
text uh would make the technology far more fluid uh and uh we can start a task by speaking, refine it with text input uh and then just confirm it with a single simple swipe. So equally important is the shift from this rigid command form to a natural dialogue. For decades the users have to learn commands uh syntax. So they have to memorize everything uh uh that is
needed for a current workflow uh to be successful uh in in their experience and uh achieve their goals. So tomorrow computer will learn to speak and these methods for a reason that go beyond efficiency. So uh natural conversations uh would uh lower the barrier for uh for entry and adoption of products in inviting more people to engage with complex systems. And for somebody that is um intimidated
u by technology, the ability to have this natural expression and conversation uh is extremely liberating. Those conversations will no longer uh they'll no longer be u just a feature of the interface. They will become the the And we come to to the third prediction. What happens to to the designer role? Probably how many of you are designers in the room? Let's raise your hands. I see a
couple lovely. Yeah. And with this shift uh and AI augmentation of uh uh of the technology, I think that today uh it's even more uh relevant to say that everybody is a designer. Uh so we experienced this shift um from from pixels to systems. Uh and I want to talk about the evolution of the designer also. So the designers uh have long been treated as u um
creators of u of artifacts, masters of artifacts. So they worked with uh with screens, with layouts, with coalates, with typography. Uh and each decision that they make was uh explicit. Uh each element was was intentional. Uh so the interface now becomes adaptive and generative and the designer role uh expands. So instead of defining every screen instead of uh uh have having every detail and every part of
the experience uh planted up front designers will have to to to be uh more um system builders and u definers of this uh uh systemic behaviors. they'll have to write uh rules, set guard rails, establish principles uh that determine how an AIdriven UI would evolve on the fly. So we are talking about um generative uh interfaces that will be created on the fly depending on uh the
conditions that are set for for specific goal. So uh currently what we what we see is that uh people are uh goal driven intent driven they don't want to to learn uh cumbersome process and go through uh a cumbersome workflow to to complete something uh they want to state the intent and be presented with the result. But this also requires a skill set change. uh and designers
uh are expected to shift from these roles of uh craftsmen uh to be more um orchestrators of uh of systems. So um they'll need to think more in terms of u what is the uh the ethical problem they want have to think about uh uh what uh uh now product managers are uh thinking and being responsible for and also uh they have to step into the shoes
of the the business owners. Uh so it's not just about the look and feel. It's not just about uh a static interaction. is how the system responds and behaves and this basically is a new design frontier and the most forward thinking teams will embrace this shift uh and uh have AI as a co-designer role in their in their team uh shift shifting their identity from uh builders
and makers of fix screens uh to curators of living system and also This is something that u may scare some these expectations for for the designer role. So the reality is that basically the whole landscape of uh u building and delivering digital um uh digital experience today is uh is shifting for every role. Uh so not only designers affected by this, it's the whole whole canvas of
uh uh of functions. Uh so designers uh being expected to know more uh uh about uh the business about the process uh about how systems uh behave not only on the technological side but uh in the in the experience side and also be connected with uh with GTM roles uh how something is marketed how something is and how the users is consuming the whole spectrum of of
this. So this is the just the whole canvas. Um they expected to be more generalists in a form not not craftsman. going to the fourth prediction. Um this is the accessibility uh accessibility as default uh not uh as an exception. One of the most hopeful transformation that AI is bringing uh in realms of uh um user experience uh is uh in the uh field. So uh for
far too long accessibility was considered uh as an afterthought. It was u just bolted uh on the experience to meet compliance standards. uh and uh it was uh not uh uh thought uh from uh from from the from the start when you uh establish what the products would uh uh product form would would be. So AI has the power to to change this fundamentally and adaptive interfaces
uh can now adjust in real time to serve uh different uh users uh uh unique needs. So um someone with low vision can be presented for example uh with high contrast uh or voice assisted u um interface uh and u a non-native speaker uh might experience uh uh real-time translations or real time uh overlays u and for those uh with motor impairment impairments uh they could uh
um have entire highly adaptive gesture recognition uh pattern that will allow them to u to work the the quirks of uh of the software that uh that we have today. And the brilliance of AI it's that uh it removes this um um binary u segment uh in accessibility. It's not u just uh accessible versus not not accessible today. uh it's the whole spectrum of u uh of
accessibility and the interfaces uh they flex with every uh user needs uh with uh every decision that they make. So the adaptation is uh on a on a grander scale. Um and here also lies the business truth. uh when uh our interface is more inclusive and adaptive uh also it's uh it's more competitive this is a competitive advantage for uh for the product and last but not
least is the trust and transparency as I mentioned in uh in the the first part of the of the presentation. So this is the new UX currency. Um as AI grows uh more um intelligent uh and u is doing things on our behalf uh also it grows more opaque. So uh the decisions that uh agents are uh are making uh uh the processes and the footprint of
uh the user interface that is uh uh shrinken and you are presented just with the results. Uh this uh could result also uh in um very uh how to say uh not so trustworthy uh environment for for for the users. Uh so when this opacity uh uh is presented to the interface, it can uh breeds mistrust. Uh and uh when users cannot see why uh something behaves
in a way it does uh or uh something uh is um is working u in the background and has uh uh extremely complex uh uh logic and uh and steps behind it. Uh frustration grows uh and suspicion sets um sets in. So um are those interfaces working in our uh best interests or are they just nudging us towards somebody else's um else's agenda? The future of AI
experience will hinge on this trust and transparency lever and interfaces will need to explain themselves um why uh this option is uh is chosen, why the recommendation is made. uh why a task flows in a certain way instead of another and all the overrides need to be uh extremely obvious uh and not not buried. Uh so for for this to happen uh all the controls uh need
to be uh to be visible. Uh and uh even in this age of automation uh we'll have to to just gauge uh what we are sacrificing uh in our uh productivity uh boost and uh what is crucial for us uh uh to uh to choose from and u and curate. So transparency is not just a nice to have. It's theation of of the user experience. Without it,
uh the intelligence becomes manipulation and with it intelligence becomes um a partner. So what's the path forward? Taking together those five trends. So predictive u u interfaces, conversational um interactions, system oriented uh design, adaptive accessibility and transparent trust. They all point to a common truth. Um the AI is transforming the user experience as we know it from something that humans have to learn and adapt to into
something that learns from humans. And this is both exhilarating and daunting. Um, exhilarating because u uh it unlocks a more natural, more inclusive and adaptive digital experience and doubting because it demands a new disciplines, new ethics and uh new humility from those of us that are creating those uh uh systems and digital experiences. So the responsibility is um is ours and uh we must ensure that um
those AIdriven interfaces are serving the human needs. They respect the human values and uh they preserve human agency. The most successful experiences will be not those that are uh extremely efficient and uh elegant. Uh there will be those that um make us uh uh feel seen, understood and respected. And in the end, the measure of progress uh will not be how smart our interfaces would become, but
uh how human they'll allow us to to remain. So, thank you all and uh if you have any questions if there are any questions in the room I glad to answer them otherwise since we are a bit off starting from the the keynotes uh you can grab a coffee and enjoy the rest of the conference. Thank you.
