Design Thinking for a User-Centered Approach to Artificial Intelligence

This is a commentary on Michael Lissack's two-part article "Understanding is a Design Problem: Cognizing from a Designerly Thinking Perspective." Artificial intelligence benefits us by enabling safer cars, more efficient homes, smarter investments, and personalized recommendations on everything from news to clothing. Machines do not act on their own. Our consumption and production decisions, whether active or passive, influence the algorithms that have become the touchstone of modern life. As such, we bear the responsibility of exercising our agency to think critically about the information served to us. User research can help by ensuring that new designs are both usable and useful and, throughout this process, the design thinking framework helps us take a step back and remain open minded, consider alternative points of view, watch for bias, recognize adjacent possibilities, and innovate. By engaging in this uniquely human thinking, we remain engaged, relevant, and active participants in shaping our present and future.