Beyond UI Design: 15 Lesser-known AI tools for diverse product design activities
Happy Sunday! In this post you can find a curated list of powerful AI tools for product designers.
Product design is a multifaceted discipline that extends far beyond screen design. From physical prototyping to generative design and creative ideation, AI-powered tools are revolutionizing how designers approach their craft. While tools like Figma and Adobe XD dominate the digital design space, there’s a world of lesser-known AI tools tailored for diverse product design activities. Here’s a curated list of powerful AI tools that can elevate your product design process across industries like consumer goods, aerospace, and manufacturing.
1. Uizard
Task → Rapid prototyping and wireframing
Uizard is an AI-powered tool that transforms hand-drawn sketches or text prompts into digital wireframes and prototypes. It’s perfect for quickly iterating on ideas or creating low-fidelity mockups in minutes. The AI analyzes your input and generates editable designs, saving hours of manual work.
Why it’s powerful → It’s ideal for brainstorming sessions or when you need to visualize concepts quickly without diving into complex design tools.
2. Vizcom
Task → Physical product prototyping
Vizcom transforms hand-drawn sketches into 3D visualizations, making it an excellent tool for rapid concept development. It’s particularly useful for designers working on physical products, as it allows you to quickly iterate on ideas and visualize them in a realistic 3D space.
Why it’s powerful → It bridges the gap between sketching and 3D modeling, saving time and enabling faster decision-making.
3. Stable Diffusion
Task→ Creative ideation and concept generation
Stable Diffusion is an open-source AI tool that generates innovative product designs by analyzing existing data. It’s perfect for exploring new concepts and finding inspiration for your projects. Whether you’re designing consumer goods or fashion, Stable Diffusion can help you push the boundaries of creativity.
Why it’s powerful → It’s a versatile tool for generating unique and unexpected design ideas.
4. DALL·E & MidJourney
Task→Visual concept exploration
Both DALL·E and MidJourney are AI tools that generate creative visuals based on text prompts. They’re ideal for exploring early-stage product concepts, especially in industries like consumer goods and fashion. Use them to create mood boards, visualize ideas, or even generate marketing materials.
Why they’re powerful → They’re excellent for brainstorming and communicating abstract ideas visually.
5. Adobe Sensei
Task→ User research and content generation
Adobe Sensei is an AI-powered platform integrated into Adobe’s suite of tools. It assists with user research, content generation, and A/B testing, making it a valuable resource for both physical and digital product design. Use it to analyze user behavior, generate personalized content, or optimize your designs based on data-driven insights.
Why it’s powerful → It streamlines the research and testing phases, ensuring your designs are user-centric and effective.
6. Runway ML
Task→ Video and image editing for product visualization
Runway ML offers a suite of AI-powered tools for video and image editing. It’s perfect for creating dynamic product visuals or experimenting with AI-generated content. Whether you’re designing a product video or enhancing product images, Runway ML can help you achieve professional results.
Why it’s powerful → It’s a creative playground for designers looking to incorporate AI into their visual storytelling.
7. Let’s Enhance
Task → Image enhancement for product marketing
Let’s Enhance uses AI to upscale and improve the quality of images. It’s particularly useful for preparing product visuals for high-definition displays or marketing materials.
Why it’s powerful → It ensures your product images look crisp and professional, even when starting with low-resolution files.
8. Artbreeder
Task → Concept art and visual exploration
Artbreeder allows you to blend and evolve images using AI, making it a great tool for exploring abstract concepts or creating custom artwork for your product designs.
Why it’s powerful → It encourages experimentation and can help you discover unexpected design directions.
9. Patterned AI
Task → Custom pattern generation
Patterned AI generates unique, AI-driven patterns for use in product designs, textiles, or backgrounds. It’s perfect for creating visually appealing patterns quickly and efficiently.
Why it’s powerful → It’s a time-saving tool for designers working on products that require intricate patterns or textures.
10. Notion AI
Task → Content and documentation for product design
Notion AI helps you generate copy, brainstorm ideas, and organize your design documentation. It’s a great tool for creating user personas, writing UX copy, or drafting project briefs.
Why it’s powerful → It streamlines the content creation process, ensuring your designs are backed by clear and compelling copy.
11. Khroma
Task → Color palette generation
Khroma uses AI to learn your color preferences and generates endless palettes tailored to your taste. It’s a fantastic tool for creating harmonious color schemes that resonate with your brand or product.
Why it’s powerful → Unlike generic color tools, Khroma personalizes its suggestions, making it easier to find colors that align with your design vision.
13. Fontjoy
Task → Font pairing
Fontjoy uses machine learning to help you pair fonts that work well together. It’s a simple yet effective tool for creating typography combinations that are both aesthetically pleasing and functional.
Why it’s powerful → Typography is a critical part of product design, and Fontjoy takes the guesswork out of pairing fonts, ensuring your designs look polished and professional.
14. Remove.bg
Task → Background removal
Remove.bg uses AI to instantly remove backgrounds from images. It’s a lifesaver when you need clean, isolated assets for your designs.
Why it’s powerful → It’s fast, accurate, and eliminates the need for manual background removal in tools like Photoshop.
15. Lucidpic
Task → Generating AI-powered stock photos
Lucidpic creates realistic, AI-generated stock photos of people. You can customize features like age, ethnicity, and expression to fit your design needs.
Why it’s powerful → It’s a cost-effective and ethical alternative to traditional stock photo websites, especially for projects requiring diverse visuals.
These AI-powered tools are transforming the way designers approach product design, offering specialized solutions for ideation, prototyping, testing, and optimization. By integrating these platforms into your workflow, you can save time, boost creativity, and focus on delivering innovative and user-centric designs.
Which of these tools will you try first? And which other would you recommend to other product designers?
Stay curious! 🐈⬛
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Inés, if I want to create a personal brand look for myself " but I want it to have a certain feel/vibe that is unique to me, how should I go about it? - how would you?