AI UI/UX Design

Design principles for conversational user interfaces (CUI) and AI-specific UX patterns

Core principles of AI UX

    flowchart TD
    A["AI UX Principles"] --> B["Transparency<br/>Make it clear it's AI"]
    A --> C["Sense of control<br/>User stays in the driver's seat"]
    A --> D["Error recovery<br/>Easy to correct mistakes"]
    A --> E["Progressive disclosure<br/>Staged complexity"]

    style A fill:#16A34A,stroke:#15803D,color:#fff
    style B fill:#2563EB,stroke:#1D4ED8,color:#fff
    style C fill:#7C3AED,stroke:#6D28D9,color:#fff
    style D fill:#EA580C,stroke:#C2410C,color:#fff
    style E fill:#0891B2,stroke:#0E7490,color:#fff
  

Designing conversational user interfaces (CUI)

Streaming responses

Use streaming so users don’t feel like they’re waiting around while the AI “thinks.”

# Claude API streaming example
with anthropic.messages.stream(
    model="claude-sonnet-4-6",
    max_tokens=1024,
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": prompt}]
) as stream:
    for text in stream.text_stream:
        print(text, end="", flush=True)

Managing loading states

AI-specific UX patterns

1. Indicating uncertainty

Make it clear to users when the AI isn’t confident in its answer.

✅ "Based on what I could verify, it's ~. Please check the official site for the latest information."
❌ "It's ~." (stating uncertain information as if it were certain)

2. Editable AI output

Let users edit or regenerate AI output themselves.

[AI-generated text]
  ↓ buttons
[Edit] [Regenerate] [View other version]

3. Showing sources

In RAG-based systems, show where an answer’s information came from.

Answer: "Returns are accepted within 30 days of purchase."
Source: [Customer Service Policy v3.2] (click to view the original)

Anti-patterns to avoid

• AI washing: dressing up non-AI features as if they were AI
• Over-anthropomorphization: portraying AI as human-like in a way that induces excessive trust
• Forced conversation: forcing a simple search into a chat interface unnecessarily
• Opaque AI: hiding what information the AI based its answer on