Bachelor’s Thesis – The Future of Design Systems

Artificial intelligence (AI) is considered as a groundbreaking technology and is attracting increasing interest in science, business and the media. AI has existed as an independent research discipline since the 1950s, but due to increasing computing power, new algorithms and growing data volumes, AI systems have become established in a number of applications in recent years. AI is also playing an increasingly important role in design processes. Among other possibilities, AI has the potential to enable new design techniques and speed up processes through automation. Airbnb presented an early prototype back in 2017 – it is an AI that can recognise and assign all components of Airbnb's design system and convert rough design sketches into source code. This thesis deals with the research question of the influence artificial intelligence will have on design systems. First, in a theoretical section, a basic understanding of both AI in design and design systems is created and the current status is identified. On the basis of the research, a prototype for a future scenario in the context of design systems and AI is presented.

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TagFinder

During my studies, I learned to always question the status quo. For example, the "End of File" course was about developing a new operating concept for organizing and managing different file formats. The "Tagfinder" prototype was created in collaboration with Jonathan Schmitz and Philipp Daub. Existing structures and paradigms were broken up and the usual hierarchical organization of files was replaced by a flat hierarchy in the form of tags. Our design is based on the assumption that an advanced artificial intelligence is integrated that can recognize content and context and automatically links the files with tags to avoid manual tagging. Projects like the Tagfinder have made it clear to me that innovation is part of design. Design is more than just aesthetics, it is a mindset full of openness. As a designer, I want to try new things and adapt quickly to change.

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Design Fiction: A new Health System

Back as early as my second semester, I attended a course that dealt with artificial intelligence in order to explore possible future scenarios. The result was a poster that describes a scenario in which the network "The Mobile Helpers" exists. Among others, it consists of psychotherapists and psychiatrists who take measures for patients using an AI-based early warning system that predicts illnesses or acute situations. A part of the course was the independent organization of a workshop. This workshop was about making the interaction with an AI more human-like by giving it more personality. I am very grateful that I had a lot of freedom during my studies and was also able to realize several fictional projects that are not focused on the present, but on the future.

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