Summary: AI image generation users often follow a similar creative process: ideate, generate, refine, and export.
Understanding how expert users use AI tools in the process of image generation can help designers and other beginner users get better at using these tools for their projects; it can also inform the future design of such tools.
Our Research
We conducted nine contextual inquiry sessions to understand the users’ natural behaviors when generating images with AI. Participants were invited to use any image generation tool they preferred; all nine chose Midjourney.
During the sessions, we observed patterns in participants’ creative process, regardless of what they were producing. We distilled these user journeys into a high-level experience map to represent how most users approached their goals.