Empower Users with Christopher Noessel’s Newest Release, Designing Assistant Technology: AI That Makes People Smarter

Artificial intelligence is rapidly becoming part of how we work, create, and make decisions. But when it’s designed poorly, it doesn’t empower people, it erodes their skills. Instead of making users more capable, it can leave them overly dependent on systems they don’t fully understand.

Better understand your business’s challenges and how AI can help

In Designing Assistant Technology, Christopher Noessel provides a practical and timely framework for designing AI that truly supports people. Rather than replacing human judgment, this book shows how to build assistant technologies that enhance it, helping users stay skilled, confident, and in control.

In Noessel’s recent interview on The Rosenfeld Review podcast, he offers a compelling case for why designers are crucial in shaping responsible AI, and how a well-designed assistant can help without dumbing us down. He stresses that “dependence and over-reliance is a major risk with any assistant, but AI makes it more significant and troubling.”

Who should read Designing Assistant Technology?

This book is for the people building and guiding AI systems, including product leaders, designers, researchers, and anyone carefully considering how AI should fit into their work. It’s also for readers who want a more grounded perspective on AI’s impact, beyond hype or fear.

You’ll find practical guidance on how to approach AI design with intention: how to decide when AI should step in, how to keep users in control, and how to avoid the common pitfalls that lead to overreliance or poor outcomes. Along the way, Noessel offers patterns and frameworks you can apply immediately, whether you’re building something new or refining an existing product.

What readers are saying about Designing Assistant Technology

Josh Clark, Big Medium principal and co-author of Sentient Design, says, “An urgent wake-up call to design assistants that amplify judgement instead of replacing it—an unapologetic blend of pragmatism, optimism, politics, and conscience.”

Sheryl Cababa, Founder, Optimistic Design and Author of Closing the Loop: Systems Thinking for Designers, says, “Noessel’s book is a beacon of light: a practical primer with clear frameworks and enlightening examples to guide you in designing AI experiences.”

Meet the author: Christopher Noessel

Christopher Noessel has shaped interaction design for 30+ years, designing products and services across diverse domains. Back in the dot-com days, he directed information design at marchFIRST, establishing their interaction design Center of Excellence. Christopher’s publications include Make It So: Interaction Design Lessons from Science Fiction (2012, with Nathan Shedroff); the 4th Edition of About Face: The Essentials of Interaction Design (2014); Pair Design (2016, with Gretchen Anderson); and Designing Agentive Technology: AI That Works for People (2017).