Artificial Intelligence are the words on everyone’s lips in the tech world right now, and for good reason. The AI rollout has now truly gone mainstream as tech giants such as Google, Facebook, and other major organisations across the globe are looking to AI to automate and streamline their offerings. And with it set to change the landscape of what is possible on our computers and mobile devices, it is only natural to ask – “should I look to AI to design my next website?”
Automation in Web Design
Web design is all about creative problem solving. You start with a person or organisation and try to build a web presence that reflects their goals and brand identity. There are lots of steps that go into creating a website, and some of these can be automated. In fact, automation in web design is nothing new. WordPress, the software on which 45% of the worlds website’s sit, (including our websites here at Sprint Digital) automates many repeatable steps in the web design process, allowing web designers to spend more time on the complex creative problems, and less on standard setup tasks.
Where does AI fit in?
Where regular automation in web design allows us to speed up individual set tasks, AI goes beyond that. It offers the ability to tackle complex multistep problems using a variety of ideas and logical steps. It can also be used for creative purposes, to generate its own ideas and ways of doing things, which is a huge departure from automations of the past. It’s worth noting that AI’s ability to create and learn is based off of the information it has access to. So, it isn’t true idea generation in a human sense, but more like very advanced machine learning.
Some examples of tasks that web design AI tools can do (to varying levels of quality) are:
- Generate colour palettes and branding ideas.
- Generate website content – imagery and text.
- Generate standard page layouts and templates.
- Setup website environments.
- Write standard code.
- Create webpages.
- Populate pages with content.
The Limits of AI
While the above list is impressive and speaks to the level of power and usability of AI tools, these tools are not as advanced and do not have the same breath of knowledge and flexibility that a website designer will have. They can’t fully understand a client’s needs in the same way that a person can, and they aren’t as good at creating unique ways to tackle problems and improve designs.
AI can create a website for you, but the quality of that website will be limited, and will be directly related to the quality of the AI software you are using, as well as the quality and specificity of the instructions you give it.
One of the drawbacks of AI is that while it is very good for straightforward tasks and can understand some level of nuance and creativity, the more complex your needs are the worse it will manage. Often the website you end up with will be extremely generic and lacking any real individuality, because the bulk of AI’s creativity comes from its knowledge of existing websites, rather than unique idea generation.
Another major issue with AI is that unlike standard software, it can make mistakes and not realise it. Non-AI software has very specific processes and will produce error messages or crash when asked to do something beyond its capabilities. AI does not have the same limitations, but this means it also doesn’t have the same level of safeguarding. This can lead to mistakes being made with no error messages to catch these problems. Mistakes can then go unnoticed until deep into the website build, at which point they can be hard to fix because you don’t know how the site was made – only the AI does.
How Can AI be used to compliment Web Design?
While relying on AI to create websites in their entirety is usually not a good idea (except for extremely basic websites), AI certainly can be a useful tool for website designers and digital content creators.
AI can be used early in the design process to generate ideas for layouts, branding, colour palettes, graphic elements and visual inspiration. This can save you and your website designer time and help you find a visual design which suits your needs. AI can also be used to generate content ideas for blogs, formatting existing content and providing inspiration for taglines and headings that you might use in your site.
It is worth being aware of the copywrite laws surrounding the use of AI generated images and graphics on live sites however, as doing so can land you in hot water.
So, Can AI Design Your Website?
In summary, yes AI can be used to design websites, and it certainly has a place in the web design world, but AI is a long way away from replacing a skilled and knowledgeable web designer. Websites are a reflection of the people and organisations that they are built to represent. So, it makes sense that the best person to bring your website to life is just that – a person!
At Sprint Digital our Website Design and Digital Marketing teams both use AI tools regularly to generate ideas, speed up workflows, and help us create the perfect web presence for you or your organisation.
If you are looking to upgrade your online presence, please don’t hesitate to get in touch and arrange a consultation.
