In an environment of UX staff reductions, a focus on tangible design skills and tool expertise, quarterly profits, and angst over what AI means for the future of everyone’s jobs, what place does “theory” have?

As designers and researchers we engage in theory every day by hypothesizing: “If we design it like this, then we will have outcome X.” The bigger the problem you’re trying to solve, the more important it becomes to have a theoretical framework about why you’re doing what you’re doing. The breathless parade of AI releases present the biggest challenges (and potential opportunities) in many years. As designers we should have a posture on how to shape how AI is used and its impacts.

Much as the mid-century modernists developed coherent frameworks for understanding the relationship between form, function, and human needs, using novel technologies coming out of World War II, we must now articulate theories that help us make sense of this new landscape where intelligence itself has become a design material.

Join UX researcher/strategist Adam Richardson and UX design leader Uday Gajendar for an exploration of how we might develop the theoretical foundations designers need to thoughtfully shape AI interactions.