There has been so much talk about AI and how it will affect the website design industry. Should website designers be nervous about this? In my opinion, not yet.
You see, website designers have already had access to thousands of pre-made templates. Yet still, I never use them. I do however look at some templates while trying to find inspiration for a new site. Sometimes the client will send some URL’s to sites they’d like to model after, but most times, I’m on my own with finding the right design for them.
The templates are nicely done, but they are never quite right for the client. They are either offering more than the client needs, or less. The flow of information and the style of presentation is never spot on. Most times not even close. So that leads me to believe, AI will be no different. It will generate a nice design, but is it right for the client? Probably not.
With regards to my own work, AI has been helpful with some of the light lifting, such as generating some quick text for a section of a website. Sometimes clients have a hard time creating new content for a section of their website. Now that AI is built into the design software I use, I can ask it to create this text for me, which it does in a matter of seconds. It’s not perfect, and the client will have to edit it slightly, but it gets the ball rolling, and the client is usually happy to just tweak a sentence or two.
In conclusion, the website design process starts long before any code is generated. The client and I have talks about the nature of their business and their goals for their website. Then we get into color schemes and branding based on their logo and company concepts. There are so many decisions that are made along the way, and they all build on each other. It will be a very long time before AI is able to duplicate this kind of human factor.
AI is now able to drive our cars for us. But who is actually comfortable with that?! Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.