AI as Design Material
Project type: Design Hackathon Project
Role: UX/UI Designer
Tools: Figma, AI Brainstorming Kit, OpenAI API
Overview
During the course Human–AI Interaction Design, my team and I explored how AI can function both as a tool within the design process and as a design material in itself. The context: a two-day hackathon with a brief to help Stockholm Stads to visualize environmental data from the Baltic Sea and propose improvement measures through an AI assistant.
AI as a Tool
From the start, we integrated AI into how we worked, not just what we were building. A large language model helped us collect, structure, and analyze environmental datasets, and supported early ideation and wireframing. This let us move through lo-fi exploration faster than a traditional sprint would allow, keeping more time for the decisions that actually required design judgment.
AI as a Material
The deeper challenge was designing with AI as the medium itself. We fed the model curated datasets, enabling it to generate context-aware responses based on what the user was looking at. Rather than asking users to type queries, we designed a system where the selected tab or dataset implicitly defined the AI's prompt. The user directed the conversation through navigation, not language.
The Results
The final prototype visualized Baltic Sea environmental data through an interactive interface, with an AI assistant surfacing context-specific insights triggered entirely through the user's interaction. The project was awarded first place in the hackathon, evaluated by course instructors and industry professionals.