Interaction 16

Machine learning software is changing the daily practices of designing user experiences. It used to take multiple steps to find, open and review an upcoming flight confirmation, where now it shows up immediately as a notification that pulls information directly from an email. How are designers creating user flows and journeys for the invisible actions machines take to generate a desired experience? How are designers influencing these data-driven decisions so that they are considering the user’s needs and emotions? At Airbnb, we are exploring new design languages and processes that help to illustrate key data-driven moments in a user’s flow. These visualizations give greater visibility to the broader product team and help us to make informed decisions for the user experience. The design team is combining traditional methods of wireframes and user flows with new methodologies to elucidate how an explicit trigger kicks off implicit ones that end in a result we believe is right. Data decisions are inherent in our user’s journey and how we tell stories about the vision of our product. This talk will cover some basic principles of designing with machine learning in mind and thought-starters for how the audience might start to create new processes of their own.