The Golden age of UX design is over, as mentioned by Michal Malewicz in this article:
But the new age of User Generated Experience is a logical evolution of this, based on new technologies like AI, XR, and Web3, for example.
In this article, I will try to awaken your imagination and give you the keys to this new UGX "sport car" or even spacecraft.
The Evolution of UX Methods: Lean Startup and Double Diamond
The Lean Startup and Double Diamond are two most popular methodologies used in UX design. Lean Startup methodology emphasizes the importance of building a minimum viable product (MVP) and using customer feedback to iterate and improve the product.
Double Diamond methodology, on the other hand, involves four phases: discover, define, develop, and deliver. With the integration of AI, XR, and Web3 technologies, these methodologies are evolving. For instance, AI can be used to automate and enhance various stages of these methodologies.
- In the discovery phase, AI can be used to analyze user data and identify patterns and trends.
- In the define phase, AI can help in segmenting users and personalizing user experiences.
- In the develop phase, AI can assist in prototyping and testing.
- While in the deliver phase, AI can help in personalizing and optimizing the user experience.
I’m going to simplify those steps down to Explore, Ideate & Create to be more concise.
Explore
From Persona Empathy Mapping to Digital Identity Data Mining.
As a UX designer, I use tools like Tally.so, Google Forms, or Typeform to gather information about everyone involved in the targeted product. This helps me build an Empathy Map and a Persona to find insights about how to improve the interaction between users and the product.
But today, we are approaching an era where almost everyone has their digital identity with footprints stored on private servers of Google, Apple, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft and many others. These GAFAM like companies are the true owners of our identity, and they know what we watch, what we eat, when we go to sleep, or even when we use the toilet to watch Instagram stories.
This is the kind of information that no UX designer can obtain with a form or a face-to-face interview.
Still, this information is private and completely belongs to GAFAM. If you need it, prepare yourself to pay them an astronomical amount of money, even though it's technically your own product, thanks to the general conditions that we agree to when submitting our first email and password.
However, most users are okay with this because they believe they have nothing to hide. So you can find all the information about them on their own social media.
But why search for information one by one when you can use AI to do it in seconds?
For example
I used Bardeen.ai to scrape information from a list of people who participated in my LinkedIn live. I obtained their points of interest from their descriptions in the form of a CSV file. Now, imagine what kind of technology we will have in a few years with connected AGIs. They will probably replace rigid forms with dynamic assistants that will empathize with users, who may not even know they're speaking with an AI, thinking they are speaking to Instagram support, for example.
Once we have this information in the form of tables, we can move on to the second important step of UX:
Ideate
From Brainstorming to Data-based AI Ideation
In my example, I exported the table as a CSV and then imported it to a free ChatGPT alternative called Perplexity.ai. Perplexity offers a free but limited amount of file uploads with ChatGPT4 and internet browsing.
I asked Perplexity to analyze those leads and brainstorm a brand for a web marketing agency that fits them right.
Perplexity came up with a bunch of names and descriptions that were okay, but I wanted to try Bing too to see the difference. So I just copied the results of the analysis and put them into Bing with a similar request.
Those suggestions were also on the same level, and in addition, Bing was able to generate images that can be a good start, but definitely not an end. At that time, it was DALL·E2, so the images were not precise enough.
I tried to use the same prompt in Ideogram, and this time the results were really good from my point of view. However, we all have our own preferences, and images from Ideogram can't be sold as a logo for intellectual property. This is why we need a Stable Diffusion operator, also called Synthograph.
Create
From Generative logo to Generative UI
In 2011, MIT announced their Generative logo concept, and a bunch of other companies also followed this trend. However, it didn't become mainstream because of the difficulty in creating such a thing. Only designers who were comfortable with JavaScript code were able to do so, which made it really expensive.
But today, we have ComfyUI that uses .json files as project files where we store the workflow to generate images. It also works with APIs, which means that anyone can create their own image generator bot with a specific setup. For example, I made a workflow to generate logos for my marketing partner Digiverso, and technically, I can embed this .json file into their site and generate a new logo each time I refresh the page. Of course, I needed a good graphics card for that, but this technology is evolving so fast that even the new smartphones with the latest Snapdragon can generate images in less than a second.
Now, imagine your user connects to your site with Google, and the site understands who you are and generates images, icons, colors, text, and even videos based on your digital footprint. You play Baldur's Gate 3 and watch a lot of let's plays? There is a UI like in the game and content that is written in the same tone as the narrator.
You prefer Web3?
You connect with your MetaMask, and the site detects that you have a Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT and reshapes the whole platform in YugaLabs style.
We can develop even further with XR technology. In 2-3 years, when we have actually good AR glasses, we will no longer visit 2D websites. Instead, we will more likely visit spatial spaces or just contact 3D NPCs/Assistants/AI Secretaries and have a natural conversation with your preferred tone and 3D style. Imagine asking your Cyberpunk Pokemon to order a pizza or your waifu to plan your trip in Japan.
What about MVPs ?
It’s sooo simple to create an MVP for free today using well known tools like 
Voiceflow for AI Assistance or Printify for Print on demand products.
You can see an example of this kind of MVP by visiting Metamodern.Company, A Decentralized Autonomous Company assisted by AI that we’ve created to solve any problem. Any.