The document discusses 10 theses on AI user experience design. The theses cover topics such as how user interfaces shape interactions, how system latency determines relationships of power, and how AI systems are inherently indistinguishable from magic. The document argues that explainable and interpretable systems will be important power tools as AI replaces traditional software. It also discusses how exploring combinatorial spaces can unlock creativity and how low-latency web experiences are the next frontier. The overall message is that language and design play a crucial role in mediating the relationship between humans and increasingly autonomous computer systems.

1. Theses on AI
User Experience Design
Sketching in Hardware 2020
Sept 25 2020
Aleksandar Bradic

2. UserExperience
isinevitably
mediated by
language*
Over the last decade, UX writing has emerged as an
independent field, intending to make new software products
more user-friendly. In the process, however, we have also
witnessed a fundamental role reversal between humans and
computers. The older generation of software tools has
presupposed the human as the subject, and a computer as an
object, a passive tool that sits idle waiting for the next
command. On the other hand, the new generation of Web
products place the user in the object's position and takes
a more active role in catering to the user's needs. The
language used in given products plays a crucial role in
facilitating this new relational dynamics.
THE LIMITS OF MY LANGUAGE ARE THE LIMITS OF MY WORLD
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3. USER EXPERIENCE IS INEVITABLY MEDIATED BY LANGUAGE SKETCHING IN HARDWARE 2020 // THESES ON AI UX DESIGN
HUMAN -> COMPUTER COMPUTER -> HUMAN

4. Systemlatency
determines
therelationship
ofpower*
Am I in love? --yes, since I am waiting. The other one
never waits. Sometimes I want to play the part of the one
who doesn't wait; I try to busy myself elsewhere, to arrive
late; but I always lose at this game. Whatever I do, I find
myself there, with nothing to do, punctual, even ahead of
time. The lover's fatal identity is precisely this: I am
the one who waits.
- Roland Barthes, A Lover's Discourse
THE OTHER ONE NEVER WAITS
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5. SKETCHING IN HARDWARE 2020 // THESES ON AI UX DESIGNSYSTEM LATENCY DETERMINES THE RELATIONSHIP OF POWER
CLOUD LATENCY VS. HUMAN STIMULUS RESPONSE TIME BENEVOLENT DECEPTION? // TURBOTAX FAKE PROGRESS BAR (2017)

6. Userinterfaces
shapethe
natureof
interactions*
WITHOUT COERCING US, THE INTERFACE CANNOT PROPERLY INTERFACE
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Any interface, because it is a specific summary, must
eliminate or make invisible a whole range of other equally
valid possible interactions. This is not in itself a nega-
tive aspect of interfaciality. Only because they reduce and
simplify complex systems can they make it possible for
people to use those systems at a systematic scale and
realize platform value from them. Without coercing us, the
interface cannot properly interface anything to us.
- Benjamin Bratton, The Stack: On Software and Sovereignty

7. USER INTERFACES SHAPE THE NATURE OF INTERACTIONS SKETCHING IN HARDWARE 2020 // THESES ON AI UX DESIGN
SKETCHING IN HARDWARE 2019 // DOM GLOVE

8. USER INTERFACES SHAPE THE NATURE OF INTERACTIONS SKETCHING IN HARDWARE 2020 // THESES ON AI UX DESIGN
SKETCHING IN HARDWARE 2020 // CAROUSEL PROJECT
CONCEPTS
DEVELOPMENT A COLLABORATION WITH GIOVANNI SALINAS AND VOJA ANTONIC

9. USER INTERFACES SHAPE THE NATURE OF INTERACTIONS SKETCHING IN HARDWARE 2020 // THESES ON AI UX DESIGN
CAROUSEL PROJECT REV 1
Limiting the interaction space to scrolling alone (at variable, hand-controlled speeds) imposes a new set of
constraints to any potential Web-based applications. Changes to the system are triggered in a low-latency
manner (< 20 milliseconds), and the user experience must be designed to respond accordingly.

10. AIisnotabout
algorithmsbut
aboutforgoing
control*
Though recent advances in Deep Neural Networks have cer-
tainly reignited public interest in Computer Vision, Natu-
ral Language Processing, and related fields, what we're
witnessing as an "AI hype" is a broader cultural paradigm
shift. At the heart of it is the notion of the surrender of
control from the user to the machine. After decades of
telling the "computer" what to do, the user is finally ready
to accept orders from it. In this new realm, our role is
reactive rather than proactive, push rather than pull.
BUT WHO WILL CONTROL THE CONTROLLERS?
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11. SKETCHING IN HARDWARE 2020 // THESES ON AI UX DESIGNAI IS NOT ABOUT ALGORITHMS BUT ABOUT FORGOING CONTROL

12. AS I REMEMBER, ADAM, IT WAS UPON THIS FASHION BEQUEATHED ME BY
WILL BUT POOR A THOUSAND CROWNS, AND, AS THOU SAYEST, CHARGED MY
BROTHER, ON HIS BLESSING, TO BREED ME WELL: AND THERE BEGINS MY
SADNESS. MY BROTHER JAQUES HE KEEPS AT SCHOOL, AND REPORT SPEAKS
GOLDENLY OF HIS PROFIT: FOR MY PART, HE KEEPS ME RUSTICALLY AT
HOME, OR, TO SPEAK MORE PROPERLY, STAYS ME HERE AT HOME UNKEPT;
FOR CALL YOU THAT KEEPING FOR A GENTLEMAN OF MY BIRTH, THAT DIF-
FERS NOT FROM THE STALLING OF AN OX? HIS HORSES ARE BRED BETTER;
FOR, BESIDES THAT THEY ARE FAIR WITH THEIR FEEDING, THEY ARE
TAUGHT THEIR MANAGE, AND TO THAT END RIDERS DEARLY HIRED: BUT I,
HIS BROTHER, GAIN NOTHING UNDER HIM BUT GROWTH; FOR THE WHICH HIS
ANIMALS ON HIS DUNGHILLS ARE AS MUCH BOUND TO HIM AS I. BESIDES
THIS NOTHING THAT HE SO PLENTIFULLY GIVES ME, THE SOMETHING THAT
NATURE GAVE ME HIS COUNTENANCE SEEMS TO TAKE FROM ME: HE LETS ME
FEED WITH HIS HINDS, BARS ME THE PLACE OF A BROTHER, AND, AS MUCH
AS IN HIM LIES, MINES MY GENTILITY WITH MY EDUCATION. THIS IS IT,
ADAM, THAT GRIEVES ME; AND THE SPIRIT OF MY FATHER, WHICH I THINK
IS WITHIN ME, BEGINS TO MUTINY AGAINST THIS SERVITUDE: I WILL NO
LONGER ENDURE IT, THOUGH YET I KNOW NO WISE REMEDY HOW TO AVOID
IT.AS I REMEMBER, ADAM, IT WAS UPON THIS FASHION BEQUEATHED ME BY
WILL BUT POOR A THOUSAND CROWNS, AND, AS THOU SAYEST, CHARGED MY
BROTHER, ON HIS BLESSING, TO BREED ME WELL: AND THERE BEGINS MY
SADNESS. MY BROTHER JAQUES HE KEEPS AT SCHOOL, AND REPORT SPEAKS
GOLDENLY OF HIS PROFIT: FOR MY PART, HE KEEPS ME RUSTICALLY AT
HOME, OR, TO SPEAK MORE PROPERLY, STAYS ME HERE AT HOME UNKEPT;
FOR CALL YOU THAT KEEPING FOR A GENTLEMAN OF MY BIRTH, THAT DIF-
FERS NOT FROM THE STALLING OF AN OX? HIS HORSES ARE BRED BETTER;
FOR, BESIDES THAT THEY ARE FAIR WITH THEIR FEEDING, THEY ARE
TAUGHT THEIR MANAGE, AND TO THAT END RIDERS DEARLY HIRED: BUT I,
HIS BROTHER, GAIN NOTHING UNDER HIM BUT GROWTH; FOR THE WHICH HIS
ANIMALS ON HIS DUNGHILLS ARE AS MUCH BOUND TO HIM AS I. BESIDES
THIS NOTHING THAT HE SO PLENTIFULLY GIVES ME, THE SOMETHING THAT
NATURE GAVE ME HIS COUNTENANCE SEEMS TO TAKE FROM ME: HE LETS ME
FEED WITH HIS HINDS, BARS ME THE PLACE OF A BROTHER, AND, AS MUCH
AS IN HIM LIES, MINES MY GENTILITY WITH MY EDUCATION. THIS IS IT,
AIblurs
thelinesof
intellectual
property*
A RANDOM WALK THROUGH THE LIBRARY OF BABEL
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Perceptions of AI anthropomorphicity can be manipulated by
changing the language used to talk about AI—as a tool
versus agent—with consequences for artists and AI
practitioners. Our findings shed light on what is at stake
when we anthropomorphize AI systems and offer an empirical
lens to reason about how to allocate credit and
responsibility to human stakeholders
- Epstein, Levine, Rand, Rahwan,
Who Gets Credit for AI-Generated Art?

13. SKETCHING IN HARDWARE 2020 // THESES ON AI UX DESIGNAI BLURS THE LINES OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
GPT-2 GENERATED CONTENT OFF-THE SHELF GENERATOR OUTPUT // INPUT: JSON-SERIALIZED ARTICLE CONTENT

14. AIsystems
areinherently
indistinguishable
frommagic*
As Arthur C. Clarke's third adage famously states,
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable
from magic," and AI systems are certainly no exception.
In fact, the history of computing can be seen as the
history of the invention of abstract signifiers such as the
"Web" or the "Cloud," which reveal almost nothing about
their underlying reality but allow reasoning about it at
the symbolic level.
Though these systems' essence might be inaccessible to the
users, we should still be able to reason about these
systems through their manifestations. To do this for
AI-enabled systems, we need to overcome the constraints
posed by the "personalization" of observations and allow
for a shared context for their evaluation.
OBSCURUM PER OBSCURIS
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15. AI SYSTEMS ARE INHERENTLY INDISTINGUISHABLE FROM MAGIC SKETCHING IN HARDWARE 2020 // THESES ON AI UX DESIGN
This project aims to create a UX environment for empirical evaluation of face
recognition algorithms, using a combination of a novel, wheel-based hardware
controller and a browser-based UI that enables near-real-time image reloads
and a live face recognition computation. The user interfaces with the system
by merely "scrolling down" the image dataset at a varying pace (speeding up or
scrolling down depending on the context) and observes the results of facial
recognition inference. In this manner, the user follows the algorithm through
its manifestation across a diverse dataset of images and draws independent
conclusions on the algorithm's potential biases.

16. Explainable
andinterpretable
systemsarethe
newpower tools*
As AI slowly replaces traditional software paradigms, the
interactions between the user and the system need to shift
from the specification of the actions to take to the
explanation of the action taken. UX design can play a
critical part in this process, enabling tools that
facilitate "conversations" between the user and the
algorithm, rather than mere one-directional actions.
Though "interactive" AI systems might not have a place in
consumer products, they're essential to the next-generation
of professional-oriented tools.
KNOWLEDGE KILLS ACTION? NOT ALWAYS.
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17. SKETCHING IN HARDWARE 2020 // THESES ON AI UX DESIGNEXPLAINABLE AND INTERPRETABLE SYSTEMS ARE THE NEW POWER TOOLS
Proof-of-concept part/netlist browser for navigating raw data entries in the context of model inference
predicted
labels
source
content
wheel scroll
seeks through
results

18. Low-latency
WebUser
Experiencesare
thenextfrontier*
While our senses can respond to external stimuli within a 15
to the 25-millisecond range, most of the Web experiences are
built on an assumption of a couple-of-seconds time-to-first
byte and an average page render time of 8 seconds. As edge
computing becomes more ubiquitous, there's a tremendous op-
portunity to reimagine all existing Web experiences in the
low-latency, continuous (rather than transactional) context.
Information retrieval experiences can significantly benefit
from this paradigm in an ongoing effort of tackling the
"filter bubble" issue in content discovery.
BRING REAL-TIME BACK TO COMPUTING
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19. SKETCHING IN HARDWARE 2020 // THESES ON AI UX DESIGNLOW-LATENCY WEB USER EXPERIENCES ARE THE NEXT FRONTIER
This project uses the wheel controller paradigm to reimagine an everyday activity such as search result browsing.
Instead of using pagination (which most users never do and instead only opt for clicking on results on the first page),
the tool encourages more holistic engagement with the entire space of search results. Using content prefetching allows
for the low-latency experience and enables the scanning of hundreds of search results within a few seconds.
wheel scroll
seeks through
results
current
position
active
result
active result
content preview
prev
next

20. Exploring
combinatorial
spacesunlocks
creativity*
Generative Models are perhaps the most exciting innovation
to come from the world of AI. The ability to offer an
algorithm an arbitrary dataset and have it synthesize
high-quality samples from the same probability distribution
might turn out to be a ubiquitous feature for creative
professionals. This is how we often approach the process of
creation anyway - referencing sources of inspiration,
making our own derivatives, keeping the good, throwing away
the bad ones, repeating. So why not build better digital
tools to help supercharge this process?
MANUAL REGULARIZATION FOR FUN & PROFIT
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21. SKETCHING IN HARDWARE 2020 // THESES ON AI UX DESIGNEXPLORING COMBINATORIAL SPACES UNLOCKS CREATIVITY
linear space similarity
space
This project aims at enabling exploration of the space of combinatorially-generated SVG canvases using a custom wheel-based hard-
ware controller. Users can navigate the space in linear order (listing through all generated images) or using a similarity distance
metric (keyboard shift toggles between the two modes). The user can also export the selected image as an SVG for further editing or
tune the generator parameters for further exploration.

22. Design
affectsthegap
betweenpeople
and technology*
Though the destiny of technology might be the creation of a
perfect digital embodiment of what we consider "real," for
the foreseeable future, the reality's digital image will
always be a constrained one. From UX language to the
physical interfaces we interact with, decisions that we make
all serve to set the boundaries of this digitally-mediated
reality sandbox. The gap remains between the two, however,
and it is up to designers to decide on its nature.
OVERCOMING ONTOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES
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23. SKETCHING IN HARDWARE 2020 // THESES ON AI UX DESIGN
/randomwalks
datainterfaces.io
THE ELEVENTH THESIS
“Philosophershave
hithertoonly
interpreted theworld
invariousways;
thepointisto
changeit”
Designers
understand
changed