Create groundbreaking user experiences with Josh Clark and Veronika Kindred’s new book, Sentient Design: Crafting Intelligent Interfaces with AI

Artificial intelligence is impacting the way designers everywhere create experiences. But how can AI be used to benefit the user?

User experience designers, rejoice! In Sentient Design: Crafting Intelligent Interfaces with AI, Josh Clark and Veronika Kindred dive deep into this idea.

What is sentient design?

Sentient design describes the practice of creating digital experiences that crackle with awareness and agency, adapting to your users in the moment. These are intelligent interfaces: dashboards that design themselves, apps that manifest on demand, agents that just get it done, and much more.

Why write a book about sentient design?

Josh Clark and Veronika Kindred learned sentient design the hard way. But you don’t have to. Here’s what our authors have to say about it:

“Intelligent interfaces are emerging everywhere—digital whiteboards that turn sketches into applications, customer service agents that handle routine issues on their own, assistants that generate medical reports from a doctor’s spoken notes. Instead of using AI to wring savings by grinding out efficiencies, forward-looking teams are creating value through extraordinary new experiences.

This exploration has rippled across enterprise and startup alike, but the approach has been haphazard. There has been no map for this new territory, no uniform vocabulary, no framework for choosing what type of intelligent interface to create—or even what those types might be.

So, we started mapping. We named and identified new kinds of intelligent interfaces, and we organized their design patterns. Along the way, we discovered a broad expanse of experiences that goes far beyond chatbot clichés.

What began with a study of form led to something deeper: a practice for creating intelligent interfaces. This is Sentient Design. We created it because we needed it. We’re sharing it because we think you might need it too.”

P.S. To read chapter one of the book for free, go here »

How can I get started with sentient design?

First, you can pick up this book!

Josh and Veronika wrote this book as a guide to using AI as a design material. Because it’s not about tooling or replacing design tasks with AI. This book isn’t a framework filled with tips; it’s so much more. Sentient Design exists to give you (yes, you!) perspective and principles to create and deliver new products, with artificial intelligence in your toolkit.

Designers are at a crossroads right now. You can either stick with your tried-and-true tools, or embrace innovation and design experiences that truly come alive.

As Josh Clark said on the Rosenfeld Review podcast, “First we retool, then we reorganize to get our process around that. And then we invent.”

Listen to Josh and Veronika discuss what sentient design is, how it became so crucial, and why they wrote this book in this episode of the Rosenfeld Review podcast.

How is Sentient Design relevant to my design work?

Take it from John Maeda, author of How To Speak Machine and Laws of Simplicity and VP engineering at Microsoft CoreAI:

“I often say designers used to create obstacle courses for users, carefully crafted paths through menus and forms. Now, with AI, users just teleport to their goal. But the designer doesn’t disappear. The role transforms. You become creative director for systems that make real-time decisions, teaching principles rather than touching pixels.”

How does this impact my job? And what about when AI gets it wrong?

We get it; change is intense. That’s why Josh and Veronika answered questions just like these in the FAQ section of their book—available for free here!

Who would benefit from reading this book?

Sentient Design is for…

• Designers
• Product leaders
• Design-minded developers who want to create entirely new categories of experience with AI

This book helps you decide what to make and why it matters, giving you the patterns and process to conjure the next generation of AI-powered products.

Who are Josh Clark and Veronika Kindred?

Josh Clark is principal of Big Medium, a digital agency that helps complex organizations design for what’s next. Josh has over 30 years of experience in emerging technology, user experience, and design innovation. His projects include future-friendly interfaces for AI, connected devices, and websites for many of the world’s biggest companies.

Veronika Kindred is designer and researcher at Big Medium, where she defines and solves design problems alongside some of the world’s biggest companies. She travels internationally to lead Sentient Design workshops and speak to teams at startups and Fortune 100 companies alike.

Ready to dive in? Order your copy of Sentient Design: Crafting Intelligent Interfaces with AI today!