How To Learn AI for Designers? - Journal

How To Learn AI for Designers?

Have you ever joined a meeting where you hear terms like clustering, classification, transformers, and you have no clue what they are? I think you are not alone in this.

The truth is, technology moves so quickly, so as a designer, or more precisely, problem solvers, there are much to catch up on and stay relevant, more so if you are in a tech agency or startup.

With Artificial Intelligence (AI) finding its way into every bit of what you create, it is inevitable for users to pick up AI at some point in their career.

But how should one start?

At XIMNET, the culture of group learning has been around for a long time now so, when AI becomes part of our work, we quickly decide to learn the subject together — whether you are a developer or a designer in the team. The journey took about a year for everyone to get onboard.

If you are looking for ways to embark on your journey in AI, here are the few steps we think can help you get on easier.

1. Take a crash course online — and enjoy it.

One of the best courses we have found for non-developer to learn AI is Elements of AI by The University of Helsinki. It covers all the fundamental ideas of AI through stories and examples which are easy to comprehend. Introduction of AI is a 6-week course with 25 exercises to complete.

BONUS: You will receive an official certificate upon completing the course for free!

2. If your role requires you to work with developers, go deeper.

Are you the bridge between business and technology? If yes, a good next step is to dive deeper into the subject by enrolling for AI for Everyone by Andrew Ng from Deep Learning AI.

Similar to the Introduction of AI course (minus the exercises), the objective of the 6-hour course is to enhance your knowledge of how AI is part of our everyday lives and what more can we do with it.

NOTE: AI for Everyone is also available on Coursera for free.

3. Explore design AI tools

Now that you have the fundamentals in place, it is time to play with all AI tools available out there! If Adobe Photoshop is one of your active tools, you will not miss the range of AI-powered features available in the software!

Dubbed as the world’s most advanced AI application for creatives, be sure to find out how the new features can help you achieve the outcomes that you imagined, faster. Enough about Adobe Photoshop for now.

Here are some other AI tools a designer should try:

XTOPIA Color Palette Generator
RemoveBG — the name should give it away
UIzard — AI-Powered Rapid Prototyping Tool
Microsoft AI, Sketch2Code — Turn UI sketches into HTML codes
Copy.ai — Copywriting with AI

There is no easy way to learn something new, but it can be fun once we pick up suitable materials to help us get started. We hope this short outline of our recommendations will be of good use if you are struggling to start.

contributor

Josephine Toh

Joe is the Agency Manager of XIMNET Malaysia since 2018. She is also the UX Lead for an web building platform, XTOPIA.IO.