AI as an ideation tool: Dall-E outdoor baby carriage

In this medium post I will showcase a quick example on how to use an AI as Dall-E as a tool in the ideation process.

The object we want to design is a outdoor baby carriage for hiking.

Simplified version of an ideation process #

Example of Traditional ideation #

As a designer you might create a moodboard to help you communicate a direction for yourself or others. Followed by drawing some quick ideation sketches. Finally you then highligt your best idea with a more refined sketch.

(Apologies for the quality of my example sketches 😅 Since I have transitioned to UX I haven’t done much product drawings.)

Moodboard #

Idea sketches #

Direction sketch #

Dall-E examples #

Below you will see how I try different variations to point the AI in the direction I would like to explore.

The prompt sentenced used is written below the generated images.

A photograph of a muddy rugged baby carriage designed for outdoor experiences on a trail in the woods on a sunny day

A product render of a rugged baby carriage with big terrain wheels inspired by outdoor clothing

A product render of a rugged and waterproof baby carriage with three big terrain wheels inspired by hiking bags with pockets

Exploring a direction with AI #

Similar to the traditional ideation when working with AI you can refine a direction. With Dall-E you can create variations from a selected output.

Above is the selected output and below is the variants generated from it.

Dall-E with an image prompt #

Besides text inputsDall-E can also take a image combined with a sentence as input. It looks like this

A product render of a rugged baby carriage with big terrain wheels

A product render of a waterproof and rugged baby carriage with mountain bike wheels

Use outputs as inputs #

In my opinion AI is fascinating and inspiring — but very hard to stir in the right direction. So for now I would not use AI output as final output, but instead combine them with the traditional way and include the most interesting AI outputs in front of me when beginning to draw.

( I however do believe the AI beat me in this round )