NINEIDEA：在科技飞速发展的当下，AI 以惊人的速度渗透进工业设计领域，能够瞬间生成 1000 种甚至更多的设计方案。这一现象不禁让许多人产生疑问：工业设计已死？人类工业设计核心竞争力的价值究竟还体现在何处？
诚然，AI 生成设计方案的速度与数量上有着无可比拟的优势。它能基于海量的数据进行分析整合，快速产出各种创意构想。然而，工业设计远非仅仅是方案的堆砌，「用户共情」与「场景化落地」这两个关键环节，是 AI 目前难以企及的，而这恰恰是人类设计师的核心竞争力所在。
「用户共情」要求设计师深入理解用户的情感、需求与渴望。比如在设计一款老年群体使用的智能手环时，人类设计师可以通过与老年人及其家属的面对面交流、观察他们的日常生活习惯，感受到老年人对健康监测功能的迫切需求，以及他们可能因视力、手指灵活度下降而对操作便捷性的特殊要求。这种基于情感共鸣和亲身感知所获得的洞察，是 AI 难以复制的。AI 虽能分析数据得出用户的一般性需求，但无法像人类设计师那样，真正走进用户的内心世界，捕捉那些微妙而又关键的情感诉求，从而设计出真正触动人心的产品。
「场景化落地」同样是人类设计师的强项。以户外探险装备设计为例，人类设计师凭借自身丰富的生活经验与对不同场景的认知，能够充分考虑到产品在极端天气、复杂地形等实际使用场景下的性能与适应性。在设计一款登山背包时，设计师会依据登山过程中可能遇到的背负重物长时间行走、遭遇风雨等场景，从背包的材质选择、背负系统的设计，到各个口袋的布局等方面进行全方位考量，确保产品不仅在理论上可行，更能在实际场景中为用户提供便利与支持。AI 虽然可以模拟一些场景，但缺乏对现实世界复杂多变情况的切身体会，在将设计从虚拟概念转化为实际可用产品的过程中，难以像人类设计师一样精准把握每个细节。
尽管 AI 在工业设计领域展现出强大的能力，但人类设计师所具备的「用户共情」与「场景化落地」能力，是无可替代的。这两种能力赋予了产品灵魂与生命力，使其不仅仅是一件物品，更是能与用户产生情感连接、完美融入生活场景的存在。在 AI 时代，人类设计师应充分发挥自身核心竞争力，与 AI 形成互补，共同推动工业设计行业迈向新的高度。
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Is industrial design dead? When AI can generate 1000 solutions, where is the core competitiveness of human industrial design?
NINEIDEA: With the rapid development of science and technology, AI has infiltrated into the field of industrial design at an astonishing speed, and can generate 1000 or more design schemes in an instant. This phenomenon has raised many questions: is industrial design dead? Where is the value of the core competitiveness of human industrial design still reflected?
Undoubtedly, AI has unparalleled advantages in terms of the speed and quantity of generating design solutions. It can analyze and integrate massive amounts of data to quickly generate various creative ideas. However, industrial design is not just about piling up solutions. The two key links of “user empathy” and “scenario based implementation” are currently difficult for AI to achieve, and these are precisely the core competitiveness of human designers.
User empathy requires designers to have a deep understanding of users’ emotions, needs, and desires. For example, when designing a smart bracelet for the elderly, human designers can communicate face-to-face with the elderly and their families, observe their daily habits, and feel the urgent need for health monitoring functions among the elderly, as well as their special requirements for operational convenience due to decreased vision and finger flexibility. This kind of insight based on emotional resonance and personal perception is difficult for AI to replicate. Although AI can analyze data to derive general user needs, it cannot truly enter the user’s inner world like human designers, capture subtle and critical emotional appeals, and design products that truly touch people’s hearts.
‘Scene based implementation’ is also a strength of human designers. Taking outdoor adventure equipment design as an example, human designers, with their rich life experience and understanding of different scenarios, can fully consider the performance and adaptability of products in practical use scenarios such as extreme weather and complex terrain. When designing a hiking backpack, designers will consider various scenarios such as carrying heavy objects for long periods of time, encountering wind and rain during the climbing process, and comprehensively consider the material selection of the backpack, the design of the carrying system, and the layout of each pocket to ensure that the product is not only theoretically feasible, but also provides convenience and support for users in practical scenarios.
Although AI can simulate some scenarios, it lacks a firsthand experience of the complex and ever-changing situations in the real world. In the process of transforming design from virtual concepts into practical usable products, it is difficult for AI to accurately grasp every detail like human designers.
Although AI has demonstrated powerful capabilities in the field of industrial design, the “user empathy” and “scenario based implementation” abilities possessed by human designers are irreplaceable. These two abilities endow the product with soul and vitality, making it not just an object, but also an existence that can create emotional connections with users and perfectly integrate into life scenarios. In the era of AI, human designers should fully leverage their core competitiveness, complement AI, and jointly promote the industrial design industry to new heights.
@NINEIDEA九号创新 www.nineidea.com
