Extractive, Predictive, and Generative AI
Role: Head of Design / Strategist / Product Design / Product Vision / Art Direction
As a big fan of such films as Blade Runner, Iron Man, Knight Rider, Robocop, Minority Report, and the list goes on… Sci-Fi and Marvel Universe have been captivating my imagination since childhood.
So when the founders of Augment AI reached out to me and invited me to join them in building the future of human productivity, it sparked my vision of the AI future, and how this technology can help us be better at almost everything we do.
Inventing the future.
The beginning…
I knew nothing about AI, apart from Jarvis from Iron Man, and Samantha from Her, but that did not stop me from diving deep into learning and research… complex challenges are where I thrive.
I spent the first several months reading through all of the previous research and studies done by the founders, and other research papers on AI, learning the differences between the different types of AI, what are Neural Networks, Large Language Models (LLMs), the differences between Structured and Unstructured Data, Data presentation in the UI of an AI product, limitations, and so much more.
Human & Technology Relationship Study
What does one need to know when creating a personal AI assistant, that is designed to boost productivity, improve efficiency, and enhance human life?
Answer the following questions; a. Why would anyone need an AI assistant? b. What would that assistant, be assisting with? and c. When would people need such assistance?
To answer these questions, I have initiated a week-long study with about a dozen people who fit our target user demographic, and my goal was essentially to understand what is their relationship with technology, how they work, what do they do at what time, how is their day flow look like, how do they utilize technology daily, which things they find helpful, which they don’t, etc.
With this study we managed to a. answer the main questions we had, which led to a better understanding of which problems we should be solving with our product, why there is a wide need for our product, and how our AI should be behaving throughout the day.
One of the unintentional discoveries we made during the study, was that the majority of people had a very specific issue with different productivity tools they were using, that is, the annoyance of these tools abstracting their view, and persistently being in their faces.
A Dot is Born!
Value not annoyance.
Unintrusive solution of a simple dot that does not persist on your screen or overlap at all times over your viewpoint and does not obstruct any content. Augment agent simply observe your behavior and interaction with other apps on your computer, and only appear when it has useful information and/or action to provide the user or recommend.
Contextual awareness.
Context is everything. While we designed a first-of-its-kind AI solution that appears only when it can offer information, help, recommendations, or other useful functions, it is contextually aware and knows exactly which app are you in, what type of interactions are you experiencing, is it an email, conference call, messaging app, calendar, etc.
First of its kind, unintrusive, contextually aware, extractive and predictive AI assistant.
Release / Learn / Iterate / Repeat
Simple solution, endless intelligence!
Memory recollection | Automatic Meeting Transcriber | Copywriter | Summarizer | Explainer | And more…
What we discovered:
By addressing the annoyance issue of intrusive and obscuring other productivity tools, and assistants, we overshot our efforts and designed too good of an unintrusive AI assistant.
Sizing issue - barely noticeable among the chaos of busy screens
Memorability issue - people forgot Augment was running
How we fixed it
We began a journey of iteration, from size increases to the introduction of product branding to add recognition and to dot behavioral changes, eventually achieving our goal of visibility and memorability.
Sizing - drastically increased the dot size over 4 tests and iterations
Visibility - In addition to size increases, we added a brand icon to increase recognition
Memorability - we switched to persistent visibility, but with strategic locations on screen with the ability to freely move the dot around the screen for user convenience.
Augment Dot Evolution
From 12x12, to 22x22, to 25x25, to 48x48
Building Team, building Augment
When I joined Augment, I knew that I was joining as their solo design team, the first hire they made as soon as they raised their pre-seed funding, I made that choice, after years of practically no hands-on design work, I rolled up my sleeves and got to work, along the way through regular communication and deeper introduction into the design process, how different design roles impact the product roadmap, and what can be achieved within shorter period, I got a small budget, but small budget is all I needed…
The first hire was a UX Designer that has been communicating with the founders some time prior, after vetting his talent, experience and abilities, he was hired, fast followed was a connection we got from the University of Washington, majoring in Human Centered Design & Engineering, she was looking for internship, and it was a great opportunity for both our needs and her desire to learn on the job, and so we hired our first UX Research Intern, through mentoring and coaching I saw an amazing growth in her abilities, confidence, and expertise, eventually I hired her as our full-time UX Researcher.
About 6 months in, we hired a contractor UX Writer and then proceeded to hire a Senior Product Designer as a contractor to be dedicated to developing our first Design System and UI Kit.
Within the first 15 months, I have built a diverse team covering UX Research, UX Writing, and Product Design.
Alongside building a research powerhouse on a small budget of $35,000/year covering constant and continues User Research, Usability Testing, and Qualitative and Quantitative Research.
Impact:
2,000+ users and over 15,000 users on a waiting list.
What’s next…
Augment Mobile Assistant
Developed a 19-week roadmap to a fully functional and fully designed iOS AI application to incapsulate some of the main Augment functionalities and AI smarts to be available in the pocket of all our users.
“I worked with Yan for around six months at Augment. He is an exceptional design leader with a keen eye for the bigger picture. His designs are visually impressive, and he brings everybody together into one cohesive story.
Yan stands out for his generosity in mentorship. He creates a collaborative environment and is always willing to share insights. Yan combines technical expertise with a pragmatic and approachable leadership style, making him an invaluable asset.”
Matthew Kirk | Head of AI @ Augment AI