Config 2024: A new opportunity to make great software (Henry Modisett, perplexity.ai)

Summary

Henry, the design lead at Perplexity, shares his passion for creating impactful software that enhances human experience. He discusses the transformative potential of AI in software design, emphasizing thoughtful application to solve real problems. His team's creation, an 'answer engine,' exemplifies this by providing immediate, personalized information. Henry stresses the importance of speed, usefulness, and trustworthiness in design, advocating for simplicity and user-focused innovation.

Takeaways

• 😀 The potential of software is unmatched due to its ubiquity and ability to solve problems and bring joy.
• 🧩 Good software is a conduit for human experience and should be designed to benefit everyone.
• 🔄 Technological innovation is outpacing our ability to apply it, presenting opportunities to rethink processes and tools.
• 🤖 AI can significantly enhance how we solve problems, but it must be used thoughtfully to create real impact.
• 🎨 The collaboration between designers and engineers is evolving, focusing more on quality and less on handoffs.
• 🚀 Designers can now create more output with less ability, thanks to decentralized processes and new tools.
• 🔍 AI allows for the personalization of information, presenting concepts in ways tailored to individual learning preferences.
• 🎮 AI can make complex tasks simple, such as generating realistic images or creating dynamic experiences in video games.
• 🔧 The design challenge is to manage complexity while maintaining focus, hierarchy, and user engagement.
• 📊 AI compresses user-facing complexity into simple interface patterns, making sophisticated tasks more accessible.
• 🧩 The future of software design involves balancing simple interfaces with the ability to teach users about precision.
• ⚡ Speed, utility, trustworthiness, and reliability are essential principles for designing effective information products.

Q & A

What does the speaker love about making software?

The speaker loves making software because it can be truly valuable for people, solving problems, bringing joy, and making everything work effectively.

Why is good software considered a conduit for a human experience?

Good software is a conduit for a human experience because it enhances the way people interact with technology, making it more intuitive and impactful on their daily lives.

What is the special moment in software creation that the speaker refers to?

The special moment refers to the current era where technological innovation is outpacing our ability to apply it, leading to new AI experiments, demos, papers, and products every week.

What is the speaker's perspective on the role of design in the future of software creation?

The speaker believes that despite uncertainty, designers can focus more on the mission behind their work and the core problem they are trying to solve, emphasizing the application of technology rather than its novelty.

What is the name of the design team leader and what is his role?

The design team leader's name is Henry, and he leads the design team at Perplexity, where they built an 'answer engine' to provide immediate answers to any question.

What is the main goal of the 'answer engine' created by Perplexity?

The main goal of the 'answer engine' is to make it possible for users to ask any question in their own words and receive the correct answer immediately, making it feel simple and obvious.

How has the collaboration process between designers and engineers evolved according to the speaker?

The collaboration process has evolved from a handoff to a continuous conversation, with designers coding and using code generation tools, focusing more on the ongoing evaluation of quality rather than the build process.

What impact has the use of new tools and technologies had on the output of designers in the speaker's team?

The use of new tools and technologies has led to an explosion in the output of designers, as they can now write more code with less ability, prototype, explore, and rapidly find new ways to express themselves.

What is the speaker's view on the potential of AI in simplifying user-facing product complexity?

The speaker believes that AI can compress user-facing product complexity into simple interface patterns, allowing users to perform sophisticated tasks with simple actions, thus hiding the complexity behind the scenes.

What are the four principles that guide every decision in building Perplexity?

The four principles are: 1) Speed as the most important user experience, 2) Making the product useful and reliable every single time, 3) Establishing trust by showing sources for every piece of content, and 4) Consistency in delivering a fast, useful, and trustworthy experience.

How does the speaker define the role of design in improving the ways people acquire and share information?

The speaker defines the role of design as the pursuit of making all the things we interact with more valuable, focusing on improving retrieval, discovery, synthesis, and sharing of information to be faster, more intuitive, and more automated.