Overview
The Era of AI Where You Can Do Much on Your Own
Over the past year, during the peak of AI advancements, I participated in several AI projects and realized that it has become an era where individuals, not just companies, can achieve a lot. This led me to wonder if I could leverage my diverse skills as a product designer in ways other than developing digital products. Based on various ideas, I have experimented with several initiatives over the past year.
AI Designer Sensei
Designer & Instructor Sanghyo as an AI Mentor
Through lectures, mentoring, and community activities, I receive various questions related to designer careers. These questions range from abstract to specific tips, with some recurring frequently. Moreover, there were times when I couldn’t answer all the questions.
To address this in a more accessible way, I created and distributed an AI Designer Sensei chatbot. I trained GPTs with simple prompts and pre-organized data from articles and authored books. This chatbot not only provides advice on Figma and FigJam but also offers guidance and counseling on the overall design career.
Wanted UX writer
Making an AI Intern Based on Our Knowledge as Designers
Wanted design system includes not only a UI system but also a documented UX writing guideline based on brand principles and case studies.
However, when product designers are quickly creating screens, it is often impractical to consistently apply UX writing principles and generate unified copy. To solve this, leveraging my experience creating the AI Designer Sensei with GPTs, I developed a UX Writing Bot by training it on internal documents. This chatbot can suggest various alternatives when designers ask about copy based on screenshots.
It took only one hour to create, and now all Wanted members can receive consistent feedback and alternatives based on UX writing principles.
ai.doodle.design
Applying My Strengths as a Designer to Social Media Content
After spending several weeks on thorough research and consideration, I decided to strategically create and grow my first Instagram account based on the following principles:
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Achieve 10,000 followers by this summer.
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Utilize my various strengths.
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Differentiate from existing influencers.
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Invest time without compromising my primary job.
To achieve this, I treated the SNS account as a mini product, studied related content, and considered various examples before selecting the category of “AI Graphic Designer.” I chose this category because I could quickly test and develop a unique graphic style and anticipated that content creation would not be time-consuming.
Tryouts
The Struggle Period: 50 to 300 Followers
No matter what strategy I had, it was just a hypothesis. Like any product, creating, being exposed, and satisfying actual users was quite challenging. Despite creating content in English to target a global audience, most of my followers were acquaintances at first, leading the algorithm to focus on Korean users, only with minimal new user inflow.
After various attempts, I decided to focus more on the value I could provide to users. One of the efforts was creating customized phone wallpapers for my followers.
Tryouts
Innovating both Content Quality and Efficiency
While chatting casually with friends, I mentioned the idea of creating phone wallpapers, which received a very positive response. Encouraged by the feedback, I expanded my content to include poster designs, enhancing visual quality. Through this process, I experimented with various digital tools I hadn’t used before, such as CapCut, MidJourney, and Photoshop, improving my visual design and content creation skills.
To prevent burnout from long upload times, I optimized my workflow using MidJourney, Figma, and Photoshop, reducing the time to create a single piece of content (Reels) to about 1-2 hours.
The Artworks Based on Various Requests
Artworks with Schemas
Utilizing Design, Aesthetic, and Efficiency Skills as a Professional Designer
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Engaging Users: Users naturally develop a desire to own an artwork as they witness the creation process of an attractive piece.
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Automated DM Solution: After integrating the ManyChat automation solution, I designed a flow that automatically sends application responses and detailed application guides through a simple keyword-based prompt (Doodle).
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Building Rapport: This individual interaction with users helps establish the Doodle Instagram account, increases content engagement, and builds rapport with the audience.
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Efficient Selection Process: Considering the realistic time constraints, I introduced a lottery system for selection. The key factors here are regular updates, relatable stories, and a variety of categories. To maintain follower interest, I consistently create and upload content at least three times a week.
Insights
Understanding Characteristics of Threads & Instagram
Surprisingly, it was Threads, not Instagram, that first gained traction. The success of text-based content was unrelated to the originally designed flow. However, through accumulated references and various attempts while creating content, I began to clearly identify content points over time. I particularly focused on how to captivate users within the first 1-3 seconds as most of the users will churn afterwards.
Importance of Strategy and Consistent Attempts
The four instances of sudden content influx always occurred unexpectedly. When a large amount of traffic came in, the pre-planned efficiency and automation cycles successfully operated. Few massive influxes, in turn, synergized with the other content accumulated over time.
Value First, Tech Later
The Custom Poster Giveaway Scheme
The scheme of providing high-quality custom posters through a lottery worked better than expected. Communication via DM revealed that even if they didn’t win, the followers valued the fact that the creator personally provided entry opportunities and related information.
While modern solutions like ManyChat, MidJourney, and Figma enabled this content cycle much efficient, most users are not interested in these tools. However, by transparently communicating the production process, I expect increased trust and higher user engagement.
Results
Small, yet Significant Achievements
In the three months since creating the Instagram account, I uploaded around 100 pieces of content and verified the successful operation of the planned cycle in real-time. The achievements are as follows:
- Total reached · 300K
- Followers · 4.2K
- Most played · 140K
- Requests · 3K
- Most likes · 4.4K
- Paid work inquiries · 20+