Vibe Coding for UX Design: Understanding UX Professionals' Perceptions of AI-Assisted Design and Development
This addresses the impact of AI on UX professionals' workflows, highlighting tensions in efficiency and responsibility, but is incremental as it builds on existing human-AI collaboration research.
The study investigated how generative AI's 'vibe coding' transforms UX design workflows, finding it accelerates iteration and supports creativity but introduces challenges like code unreliability and AI over-reliance, based on interviews with 20 professionals.
Generative AI is reshaping UX design practices through "vibe coding," where UX professionals express intent in natural language and AI translates it into functional prototypes and code. Despite rapid adoption, little research has examined how vibe coding reconfigures UX workflows and collaboration. Drawing on interviews with 20 UX professionals across enterprises, startups, and academia, we show how vibe coding follows a four-stage workflow of ideation, AI generation, debugging, and review. This accelerates iteration, supports creativity, and lowers barriers to participation. However, professionals reported challenges of code unreliability, integration, and AI over-reliance. We find tensions between efficiency-driven prototyping ("intending the right design") and reflection ("designing the right intention"), introducing new asymmetries in trust, responsibility, and social stigma within teams. Through the lens of responsible human-AI collaboration for AI-assisted UX design and development, we contribute a deeper understanding of deskilling, ownership and disclosure, and creativity safeguarding in the age of vibe coding.