AI-driven design test. McStar’s employee app created with AI tools.
PXDX Studio
An interface design studio that focuses on creating comprehensive digital products. The studio develops highly tailored, original websites, web and mobile apps, and custom e-commerce solutions. The team specializes in customization, creating new patterns, user paths, 3D branding, and motion design.
Since artificial intelligence is so popular and makes everyone’s job easier, we decided to see if it would also work for us and whether it is worth investing in it further.
Our test product is a web application for the employees of the McStar’s restaurant, which operates throughout the galaxy. We wanted the brand to be a combination of McDonald’s and Star Wars (we were curious about how AI would handle globally recognized brands). The main features of the application include a list of tasks and daily schedules, earned points, earnings display, customer reviews, and employee promo codes. To make it less conventional, we included a feature for ordering taxi for employees finishing their shifts in the brief. We focused on the dashboard view and the application’s aesthetics.
We tested AI tools in terms of creativity, work speed, designer involvement, and the quality of the final product.
LOGO by Tailor Brands
The Tailor Brands platform allows you to create marketing materials and logo design, business card, website, and social media graphic generation. User generates logo through description and selects aesthetic preferences. User can later edit the logo, change color schemes, proportions, or add an symbol. Unfortunately, the tool did not surprise us with its propositions and wasn’t particularly helpful. Testing took about 75 minutes, and after 16th proposal, we decided that the logo would be our own design. The question of copyright was also unclear because we found a McDonald’s logo in the platform’s icon database that we could use in our project. It’s worth reading the Terms of Use and User Agreements when using new platforms.
Creativity: 3/10
Work speed: 8/10
Designer involvement: 10/10
Product quality: 5/10
GRAPHICS by Midjourney Alpha
We had the opportunity to test the new Midjourney Alpha version as one of the first users, and the result with this tool seems the most promising. Midjourney is software that creates graphics using prompts. It has features for changing the aspect ratio or changing the resolution of the selected graphic. In the new alpha version, the platform’s design is simplified, which will undoubtedly increase the audience and further popularize the product. A few simple commands allowed us to create high-quality graphics for our brand. From experience, we already know what keywords work and how to combine them to achieve the desired effect, so generating took less than 35 minutes. The algorithm allows for abstract creations, recognizes major brands, and handles creation in the specified color palette, light type, or composition.
The issues for Midjourney are still hands, sometimes details in the background, graphical presentation of texts, and mirror reflections. Regarding the last point, in the reflection of Darth Vader’s mask, a chameleon appeared that is not actually present in the graphic 🙂 Therefore, we often correct the generated graphics further in Photoshop. We wondered whether we could skip the designer’s involvement since Midjourney performs well on its own with our commands. However, doubts were dispelled when we asked a layperson to generate graphics. Our tester was unable to properly evaluate and select graphics in terms of correct composition, value and consistency with the brand. Besides high-quality graphics, an essential element is their value and emotions they evoke. This is where the designer’s experience is necessary.
Creativity: 9/10
Work speed: 8/10
Designer involvement: 8/10
Product quality: 8/10
UI DESIGN by Uizard
Uizard is a popular platform that uses artificial intelligence to generate native mobile applications directly or based on a sketch. The tool is meant to automate the design process, create prototypes, and iterate. Uizard also has an option for generating designs using descriptions and tags, but we were not entirely satisfied with the generated flow. The application generated very similar designs each time, even with parameter changes. It also skipped the function of ordering a taxi for employees every time. It’s hard to judge the designer’s work time with the generated screens because there were a lot of corrections. It would have been easier to use available templates or ready-made components. But it’s still worth to follow Uizard, as it will undoubtedly surprise with new features and possibilities in the near future.
Creativity: 3/10
Work speed: 4/10
Designer involvement: 9/10
Product quality: 4/10
UX DESIGN, TEXTS AND SUPPORT by ChatGPT
ChatGPT helped us create the brief and headers in the application. It can also assist in testing prototypes, creating documentation, and solving UX issues. We also use it daily for content writing based on our data or user interface messages. For our experiment, it generated several layout ideas for the dashboard. We were inspired by one of its proposals for the information architecture.
Moreover, ChatGPT knew all the planets in the Star Wars galaxy and helped us understand the interplanetary distances. Thanks to it, we knew how taxis would move between restaurants – using hyperspace technology 🙂 ChatGPT’s data availability is quite surprising. However, it’s essential to verify the information with other sources!
Creativity: 7/10
Work speed: 10/10
Designer involvement: 2/10
Product quality: 9/10
BRIGHT AND DARK SIDE OF AI
Preparing several presentation slides took us about 6 hours. The final product quality is satisfactory. We certainly saved time generating graphics for the brand with Midjourney. We could also reduce the time by using ready-made components when designing the UI, instead of using AI generator. AI tools can speed up work by automating simple tasks, but it’s definitely too early to fully trust them. You must be cautious about the risk of bugs or unexpected behavior from algorithms, which can lead to issues in user paths. The effectiveness of AI programs largely depends on the quality and quantity of available data. In the absence of sufficient data, results may be inaccurate or irrelevant. In some cases, over-reliance on artificial intelligence may limit our creativity and lead to standard and less innovative solutions. Ultimately, the goal is to create good, unique products tailored to the client’s and user’s needs.
