As AI makes it easier to generate polished renders with minimal effort, more people are celebrating the ease and speed of design. But beautiful images aren't design. They can seduce us into thinking an idea is fully baked, stopping us from asking the most important questions, the ones that uncover the insights that help us truly meet human needs.

In this episode, Michelle Lee, partner and managing director of IDEO San Francisco, shares the story she wrote with Danny DeRuntz, an executive design director at IDEO, on why the three Rs of prototyping—rough, rapid, and right—still hold.

Read along with the full story: https://www.ideo.com/journal/rough-rapid-and-right-in-the-age-of-ai

Related Resources:

Michelle Lee on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michellesklee/

Danny DeRuntz on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danny-deruntz-3200b419/

Meaningful resistance, by Michelle Lee and Takashi Wickes: https://www.ideo.com/journal/when-convenience-kills-the-magic

Playful thinking under pressure, with Cas Holman and Michelle Lee on IDEO U's Creative Confidence Podcast: https://www.ideo.com/creative-confidence-podcast/playful-thinking-under-pressure-q-and-a-with-cas-holman-and-michelle-lee

Work mentioned:

Prototyping Elmo's Monster Maker app for Sesame Workshop: https://www.ideo.com/case-study/bringing-beloved-childrens-characters-to-a-new-platform

A new way to vote, for the people of Los Angeles: https://www.ideo.com/case-study/a-new-way-to-vote-for-the-people-of-los-angeles

In This Episode

(00:00) Why a beautiful render doesn't always equal great design

(03:42) Rough: a strategic incompleteness, and how to get it from tools that default to polish

(05:53) Rapid: using AI's speed to get through more cycles

(08:22) Right: building discrete prototypes for discrete questions

(11:30) Maintaining joy and discovery: why designers still need to get their hands dirty

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Explore more stories at http://ideo.com/thinking. Subscribe to IDEO’s weekly newsletter for curated perspectives on design, business, and innovation: http://ideo.com/subscribe.

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