AI is most useful when you give it a specific job inside a clear design process. A quick first draft is valuable if it helps you ask better questions, compare options, or test sooner. Treat generated output as material to inspect.
1. Clarify the brief
Provide the user goal, known constraints, and verified evidence. Ask the model to list assumptions, missing information, and competing interpretations. Review that list with your product partner before treating it as a design brief.
2. Explore distinct approaches
Ask for three genuinely different interaction models and the tradeoffs of each. For appointment booking, those might be time-first, provider-first, and guided matching. Judge them against user needs and technical constraints. More options do not automatically mean better options.
3. Make a focused prototype
Use a design or coding assistant to draft one task flow with realistic content. Specify success, empty, loading, and error states. Keep the prototype small enough to inspect. Check every interaction before putting it in front of a participant.
4. Test with real people
Write neutral tasks and observe relevant participants. Generated personas and simulated interviews can help you think of questions; they do not establish what your actual users need or how they behave.
5. Review, document, and improve
Keep a decision log with the evidence, options considered, choice made, and open questions. Check accessibility, content accuracy, and edge cases. Share what you learned with engineering and product management.
A prompt to adapt
Before sharing project material
Use tools approved for your work. Remove unnecessary personal and confidential details, confirm consent and data handling requirements, and work with synthetic examples where possible. You remain responsible for what you submit and use.
Further reading: NN/g: Using AI for UX Work.
Try it yourself
Use a fictional booking product. Ask AI for three approaches, choose one using explicit criteria, and write the question you would test with a real participant.