Transforming content design with AI: a comprehensive guide

Introduction

As content designers, we’re living in a time of change. Much like in the 1990s, when our profession transitioned from physical paper to pixels and code, this decade marks the shift from manual writing to AI-powered text generation. The change is inevitable and we want to be ready.

 

So how can we use various AI tools to our benefit? And in what ways is AI impacting the content design practice? This article will provide the answers.

 

AI has been compared to many things already, but the metaphor that I like the most is that of a creative co-pilot. Just like a co-pilot assists the pilot in navigating and making crucial decisions during a flight, AI is a valuable partner to content designers, providing intelligent insights, streamlining processes, and smoothing out the overall design journey.

 

No, it shouldn’t entirely take over your writing, but it should enhance your skills, enabling you to complete more work quickly and at a higher quality.

Let’s dive in.

How AI changes the content design landscape

 

AI technology is revolutionizing the landscape of content design and UX writing in a similar way the internet did 30 years ago. But how exactly? Here are a few areas where its transformative power is already plainly seen.

 

1. 1. Generated content. With the help of generative AI, we can now automate tedious tasks and streamline our workflows. For example, AI can generate the first draft of an in-product copy and save us both time and effort. For the first time in history we don’t need to work with dummy text, but rather we can use AI-generated text and then iterate on that. As Yael Ben-David puts it in her article on Medium, “Generative AI is a great tool for drafting that first version which may have little in common with the real thing, but is a necessary first step.” So AI can significantly cut down the time of producing the first draft of your copy. AI may not be able to reduce the total time it takes to produce a final copy, but it can certainly make that first step easier.
   2. Accessibility coach. AI models can flag possible accessibility or inclusivity issues, acting as feedback guides. True, AI may not catch every single issue, but it can catch most of the issues faster. This allows us to focus on solving problems rather than searching for them.
   3. Creativity booster. AI technology can enhance our creativity by helping us see challenges from new perspectives. For example, imagine you are a content designer working for a travel agency. With the help of AI, you can use generative models to create personalized travel itineraries for different types of travellers. AI can help generate diverse and interesting content, such as destination recommendations, hotel suggestions, and activity ideas based on the traveller’s preferences, budget, and travel dates. This saves you the time you’d spend manually researching and curating each itinerary. It also allows you to provide tailored and engaging content to each customer, and thus deliver a better experience.

• Research and testing. AI tools can revolutionize UX content research and testing by making complex processes such as persona development and competitor analysis significantly easier. For instance, machine learning algorithms can analyze vast amounts of data to identify common user behavior patterns, which can then be used to refine user personas. Also, AI can automate competitor analysis by tracking and comparing relevant metrics across different platforms. The use of AI not only streamlines research methodologies but also enhances the accuracy and effectiveness of UX content strategies.

How AI empowers content designers

The human element is crucial to making the most out of generative AI. The process is quite straightforward. After we generate content using a model, we need to evaluate and edit it carefully. Different outputs from alternative prompts can be combined into a single one. Rather than blindly accepting what the AI churns out, we connect the dots ourselves.

Generative AI models are incredibly diverse. They can process different types of content, such as images, longer text formats, emails, social media content, voice recordings, program code, and structured data. They can generate new content, translations, answers to questions, sentiment analysis, summaries, and even videos. The potential application in business is endless.

AI in content design is already significantly upending the workflow of businesses and professionals who create content daily. Here are some:

1. Increased efficiency. Whether we’re working on new designs for the onboarding flow, writing a social media post or polishing a deep-dive for our company blog, we can use large language and image AI models to speed up the first part of the process — drafting. Doing so will save us a ton of time, especially if we need to produce a lot of content quickly.
2. Enhanced creativity. Do you ever feel stuck staring at a blank page? It happens to all of us. AI can help us connect the dots and see the challenge we’re working on in a new light. AI can learn from a large amount of data and thus can identify unobvious patterns. By using AI, we can create more diverse and interesting content that appeals to a wider customer base.
3. Better user experience. Because of its ability to learn from large datasets, AI models can create personalized content based on the preferences of individual users. Such customization creates content that is more appealing to a niche audience. Specialized content then becomes popular in the target group and stands a better chance of being shared and reposted.

Incorporating AI into our workflows

Content design workflows increasingly rely on generative AI. AI finds its way primarily by automating mundane tasks, expediting content creation, and offering valuable insights through data analysis. It can amplify productivity and enhance the overall efficiency of workflows.

 

Here’s one example. Imagine you’re a content designer whose job is to create a large volume of content on social media platforms within tight deadlines. Generative AI tools can assist you by automatically generating ideas for social media posts, captions, and hashtags based on specific parameters and brand guidelines. This saves your time and sparks creativity by providing new perspectives and ideas.

 

Additionally, generative AI can optimize content for different platforms, adjusting the length, structure, and visual elements to ensure a much more consistent user experience. By incorporating generative AI, content design teams can increase efficiency, improve creativity, and deliver engaging and tailored content to their target audience.

 

As we enter 2024, let’s aim to refine our skills in crafting improved prompts, repurposing them for clarity, and ensuring they’re accessible to non-writers. Let’s plan to focus on enhancing our team’s confidence in AI, whether we collaborate with writers, designers, or translators. We can also keep an eye on ways to leverage AI for more sophisticated content by regularly updating our dynamic content design guidelines.

 

AI Tools for Content Designers and UX Writers

UX writing is all about creating copy that assists the user in navigating an interface and accomplishing their tasks effortlessly. The copy should captivate the user and reflect the brand’s voice. What AI tools are there to help? Let’s now look at the top 6 AI tools for content design in 2023 and explore how they can benefit our content design practice.

 

1. ChatGPT 
   1. Used for: Generating human-like text responses in conversations
   2. About: ChatGPT is an AI-powered tool that uses natural language processing to facilitate lifelike interactions with a chatbot. It can assist you with a range of tasks, like writing emails, essays, and code, and is ideal for roles such as customer support bots and personal assistants. Basic version GPT3.5 is free with a more advanced version 4.0 being available to paying customers. 
2. Phrasee.

1. Used for: Generating, optimising, and testing customer-facing copy at scale.
2. About: Phrasee is a powerful content design tool that uses generative AI to produce brand-aligned content. It contains a built-in approval process that ensures that all copy is stakeholder-approved before it goes live. Phrasee optimizes copy through automated experimentation and testing to ensure the best messaging for every user touchpoint.

1. Lokalise.
   1. Used for: Translating and localising website and app copy.
   2. About: Localisation is the process of adapting your content to a foreign audience so that it’s culturally on-point. That’s where Lokalise steps in. It is an excellent tool for ensuring that translation and localisation are built into the design process right from the start. It offers integrations with popular design tools like Sketch, Figma or Adobe XD, allowing you to preview translated content directly in your prototypes.
2. Acrolinx.
   1. Used for: Content governance, maintaining consistency and quality of content across all touchpoints.
   2. About: Acrolinx is a comprehensive content management platform that ensures consistency in all your content. With it, you can improve your content and optimize it based on specific goals and metrics. You can evaluate your existing content, create content guidelines using data-driven insights, establish goals for different content types, maintain consistency and accuracy across all channels, and use detailed analytics to continuously measure and optimize your UX/UI content.
3. Frontitude.
   1. Used for: Writing and improving product copy directly in Figma.
   2. About: Frontitude’s UX Writing Assistant is an AI-powered Figma plugin that provides product copy suggestions directly within your designs. The main benefit is that the tool also uses the immediate design context to come up with suitable suggestions, factoring in the size and space available within each design element to determine the copy length. It’s a great tool for speeding up the copy-creation process.
4. Uizard’s text assistant.
   1. Used for: Generating copy and/or placeholder text for your UI mockups.
   2. About: Uizard is a widely-used design tool that allows you to quickly create wireframes and prototypes. What you may not know is that it also offers an AI-powered writing assistant. This assistant can help you add appropriate placeholder copy to your designs. You can directly incorporate the suggested text into your mockups or use it as a starting point to create your own.

Conclusion

That’s a wrap!

 

Remember that AI in content design is not your enemy. Rather, it is a powerful tool that can help you navigate the field more confidently and become even more successful and efficient at your job.

 

So explore various AI tools and look for ways you can incorporate them into your everyday workflow.

 

As you gain skills, you’ll be amazed at how much AI can enhance your creativity, streamline your workflows, and deliver exceptional results.

 

Don’t know where to start? Join our 8-week certification program AI Design Academy and master basic generative AI tools.

 

💡 This 8-week program will give you:

• A solid foundation in prompt engineering
• An extensive library of AI use cases for product design
• Experience in no-code design
• An original AI product piece for your portfolio
• A certificate in AI design 

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