Trust by Design: Building Credibility in AI with User-Centered principles

The current state of AI products for decision-making in the market is disheartening. As the hype fades, realization sets in that these tools are unreliable, and more likely to create extra work in the short term than reduce it. Products on the market often fail in complex real-life scenarios, are difficult to use, and untrustworthy. As technology creators at an inflection point in our industry, we have an opportunity to slow down and take time to reevaluate the processes used to build AI products so that we can move forward more thoughtfully while earning users’ respect and trust.

The goal of this paper is to contribute to the practical understanding of how to build better AI products for decision-making from a user experience (UX) design perspective. It details design principles,

• Center Users – Core Principle: Prioritize user needs at every stage of AI product development.
• Articulate Trustworthiness – Ensure transparency in AI product algorithms and operation.
• Exhibit Confidence – Demonstrate the reliability of AI product outputs.
• Illuminate Logic – Explain the reasoning behind AI product decisions.
• Facilitate Action – Enable users to act effectively on AI-generated insights.

Visual examples and practical strategies for applying these principles to the AI products you may be working on are included.

Together, we can impact the usability and trustworthiness of AI products for decision-making industry wide. We can increase the user-centricity of our products even if we only focus on one or two of these design principles to champion within our organizations. These principles support the creation of products that delight users and make their lives easier, while rebuilding the trust that is so critical to AI technology moving forward.

Zahra Langford

Zahra Langford is a user experience design leader with 15+ years championing end-to-end design of artificial intelligence (AI), healthcare, finance, and ecommerce products for SaaS B2B and B2C companies. She designed her first machine learning app in 2012 as Principal Interaction Designer at the Xerox Innovation Group. She is known for user empathy, curiosity, and measurable results. She currently works as the UX Program Manager and Designer at Rogue Credit Union. Zahra is also a small business owner; she is always experimenting with AI products to augment her workflows to understand customers and create nature-inspired fashion and home décor designs.