Everything changes but you – design in the AI-era

Talk from UX Scotland, June 2025.

Transcript

1. 1 EVERYTHING CHANGES BUT YOU - DESIGN IN THE AI-ERA BEN HOLLIDAY, CHIEF DESIGN OFFICER
3. HELLO UX SCOTLAND
4. CHANGE New technologies and ideas reshape places and the industries that we work in
5. Who are you, and why are you here?
9. PERMACRISIS Recognising the state of change in 2025
10. “In government, it’s just so much easier to tear things down than it is to build things up." – Lindsay Young, Former 18F director
11. “We need organisations that reflect the world they’re part of. A world where everything – from the global economy, to the services and systems we interact with everyday – runs on software and technology. You simply can’t be a modern service organisation without technology as part of your DNA.”
12. THE AI-ERA New technologies and ideas reshape places and the industries that we work in
13. “The idea that technology alone can solve social and political problems in a dangerous delusion, but the idea that they can be solved without technology is also wrongheaded.” – Mustafa Suleyman
15. “Government processes that affect people’s liberty, health, and livelihoods require human attention and accountability […] shunting consequential tasks to black-box machines trained on always-biased historical data is not a viable solution for any kind of just and accountable outcome.”
16. THEY WERE CARELESS PEOPLE… Meaning a failure to give sufficient attention to avoiding harm or errors; negligence. “
17. 19 THE WORLD NEEDS GOOD DESIGN
19. …THE WORLD HAS ENOUGH AVERAGE
21. IT’S THE HUMAN PART THAT MAKES IT INTERESTING Hannah Fry “
22. Creativity is about having a point of view. It’s how we learn to look at the world and respond to it. That’s what makes us human.
23. URL …IT’S WHAT WE DO WHEN NO ONE SEES. Jony Ive, Interview May 2025 “
24. ‘Jobsian’ principles still stand. They’re about care
25. 27 OUR SHARED PHILOSOPHY DIVERSE REACH AND THINKING Good design should extend the reach of organisations and work for everyone PEOPLE FOCUSED Good design creates positive outcomes for the places and organisations we work with VISUAL AND CREATIVE Good design clearly communicates ideas and concepts and is creative — making collaboration with others engaging and enjoyable. IDEAS AND CHANGE MADE REAL Good design is something people can experience, feel and interact with directly IMPACT FOCUSSED Good design creates structure, and builds the evidence and confidence needed to make progress 1 2 3 5 4 BOLD AND AMBITIOUS Good design is about what can be made possible — changing the existing order of things 6
26. Good design is imagination and inspiration
27. “…just magical. I joined it today, 136 cyclists along the way – a phenomenal way to start your school day.” cyclinguk.org/real-life-stories/noss-bike-train
29. YOU ARE HERE
30. YOU ARE HERE OR THEY ARE HERE
31. 33 youngminds.org.uk
32. Good design is the structure needed for the work
33. xx”. A BAD PLAN IS ONE THAT APPLIES NEITHER EXPERIMENTATION NOR EXPERIENCE. – Bent Flyvbjerg “
34. The hard work in transforming our human systems is consensus building and simplifying delivery complexity
35. Good design is strategic in going further and deeper
36. 38 • Focusing on service outcomes while recognising whole systems • Working with service patterns when you can’t design every experience or journey • Underpinning work with user-focused technology decisions
37. Good design is not losing sight of what makes us human
38. IN OUR SYSTEMS, HUMAN IS WHAT CONNECTS AND MAKES PEOPLE SEEN
39. “Life is not just information. Life is everything information cannot capture – that's why we live it." – Umair Haque, British Economist and Author
40. In Arenas de San Pedro… “…talk is not about relaying information, it is a way of seeing others and being with them. Conversations are conversational; often repetitive, almost ritual.”
41. …IMAGINE A WORLD IN WHICH SOMEBODY IS RECORDING THEIR ENTIRE DAY-TO-DAY EXISTENCE ON OTTER… - Sam Liang, Otter.AI CEO “
42. “So many things right now […] come from a deep-seated fear of the annoying, complicated, difficult emotional work of being a human who’s engaging with other humans…” – Celeste Ng, American novelist “So many things right now […] come from a deep-seated fear of the annoying, complicated, difficult emotional work of being a human who’s engaging with other humans…” – Celeste Ng, American Novelist
43. 45 WHAT CAN YOU DO?
44. Design is how we sense, and then how we respond
45. WE ONLY SEE WHAT WE LOOK AT. TO LOOK IS AN ACT OF CHOICE. – John Berger “
47. “Matisse survived for 20 years and developed a method of cutting out shapes from coloured paper and having people stick them on large wall mounted sheets of paper for him.”
48. We need more people who are prepared to see and respond to the world in ways that are unique to them and others.
50. KEEP GOING Design is about finding ways to make meaningful progress. One day at a time
51. THANK YOU BEN HOLLIDAY, CHIEF DESIGN OFFICER