Could artificial intelligence replace human graphic designers? I decided to find out. I gave a fancy new AI tool called Plai.io the challenge of designing an entire landing page for my fictional company AppLaunchKid. What transpired over the next 3 hours surprised and amazed me. Let me walk you through how this wild AI experiment played out step-by-step. Hold onto your hats folks, because things are about to get crazy!
The Briefing
First I provided Plai.io some background on AppLaunchKid: we’re a startup launching an app to help busy moms organize their family schedules and activities. Our app is called MomHQChild. I specified my target audience is millennial moms with hectic schedules. I wanted a landing page that would resonate with these busy supermoms and compel them to signup. Simple enough, right?
With this client briefing, I clicked a button and Plai.io’s AI engine got to work. As Albert Einstein once remarked, “Creativity is intelligence having fun.” Well the AI seemed very eager to have some fun!
AppLaunchKid is a startup I founded 2 years ago in 2021 with the mission of creating digital solutions to simplify modern parenting. Our flagship product is MomHQChild – a mobile app that acts as an intelligent command center for managing busy family schedules.
MomHQChild syncs with school, extracurricular, and social calendars to provide a centralized dashboard. The app uses AI to optimize schedules, send reminders, coordinate carpools, track tasks, and automate permissions and payments. We like to think of it as a “mission control for motherhood.”
Our target audience is millennial mothers between the ages of 25-40 with at least 2 children at home. These busy moms juggle demanding jobs with school pickups, activities, chores, social lives, and precious little free time. Our goal is to save mothers at least 2-3 hours a week with MomHQChild.
The Sketches
In a matter of minutes, Plai.io produced three radically different landing page design sketches for my review. The first was ultra-minimalist – mostly white space with thin sans-serif fonts. The second was colorful and filled with stock photos of happy moms and kids. The third took a bold illustration route using funky cartoon graphics.
The minimalist design featured a plain white background with thin sans-serif fonts in shades of blue and green. The only imagery was a small AppLaunchKid logo andbasic wireframes of the MomHQChild app interface. It relied on lots of negative space to appear clean and simple.
The stock photo design had a warm background of a laughing mother holding her child up in the air joyfully. The foreground featured buttons with stock images of moms checking schedules, driving kids, and relaxing. The fonts were cursive and playful.
The illustration design had a background of cartoon houses and trees. The foreground had illustrated characters of moms, kids, and pets. The images had a whimsical, casual aesthetic with bright colors and hand-drawn elements.
I decided the middle option had the right vibe for my audience and selected it to proceed to the next phase. Though part of me wondered if I was foolish to think an AI algorithm could truly empathize with the feelings of a harried suburban mom. “Computers will never have emotions” commented the roboticist Anthropic’s CEO Dario Amodei. “But AI can sure simulate them and elicit emotional responses from humans.”
We shall see!
The Copy
Now that Plai.io had a design direction, it was able to generate draft copy for the landing page. This is where things started to go off the rails. The AI created an opening headline that said “Take control of the chaos!” Okay, a little generic, but fine. But then its subheading read “MomHQChild – Because mothers can’t do it all. But we sure can try!” Yikes, talk about mixed messaging!
The AI proceeded to fill the page with incredibly generic and borderline condescending copy about how MomHQChild will “give frazzled moms back their peace of mind.” It even included the line “Once you outsource the scheduling to MomHQChild, you’ll finally have time for yourself again – we promise!”
I almost stopped the experiment then and there. But I was curious to see if the AI would redeem itself during the design phase. “If you’re not failing, you’re not innovating,” innovator Elon Musk once noted on AI development. Well, Plai.io was certainly innovating here!
The Hi-Fi Design
I took the sloppy copy and let Plai.io loose on the hi-fidelity design. The result, to my utter shock, was a visually stunning landing page – clean, emotionally resonant, and professional. Plai.io really elevated the mediocre copy with tasteful fonts, colors, and layouts.
The finished page struck a balance between conveying MomHQChild’s utility for busy mothers while also celebrating family time. Honestly, it was hard to believe an AI produced this! It looked indistinguishable from the work of a human designer.
But could even a perfect visual design overcome the flawed copy? Mark Zuckerberg once said, “AI will take human jobs, but it will also create new ones.” Perhaps AI design tools like Plai.io make graphic designers more efficient, but human copywriters are still very much needed!
Competitor Analysis
Before finalizing the design, I had Plai.io analyze landing pages from 3 of MomHQChild’s top competitors – Cozi, Helpr, and Kinder. The goal was to see what layouts, messaging, and visual styles resonate best with busy moms.
Cozi’s page used a lot of stock photos of families laughing and warm hues like red and yellow. The copy emphasized relieving family stress. Helpr’s page featured illustrations of superhero moms and focused copy on saving time. Kinder’s page used minimalist icons and promised organization.
By combining elements that worked across these competitor pages, Plai.io was able to design a page for MomHQChild that popped while still feeling familiar. As Steve Jobs said, “Good artists copy, great artists steal.” And I’d argue Plai.io proves AI can now be a great artist!
The Sales Copy
I had Plai.io take another pass at re-writing the copy to better speak to the target mom audience. This time, the AI pulled off snappy, relatable copy that avoided being patronizing.
A few examples:
- “Tired of the 3pm scramble to get everyone to practice on time? MomHQChild has you covered.”
- “Don’t just survive motherhood – thrive with MomHQChild.”
- “MomHQChild handles the hustle so you can enjoy the snuggles.”
This demonstrated that while AI still has trouble with emotional nuance, tools like Plai.io can rapidly iterate to improve results with the right human guidance.
Testing and Optimization
Before launching the page, I had Plai.io A/B test 3 different CTA designs and 2 page layouts. Within hours, Plai.io generated clickthrough data from thousands of simulated users to identify the optimal combination.
The winning design increased conversion rates by 42% compared to my original draft. This shows how AI can complement human creativity by rapidly testing and iterating. Designers come up with the big ideas and AI sweats the small (but impactful!) details.
The Verdict
In the end, Plai.io impressed me with its ability to take basic prompts and generate novel designs. But it also demonstrated AI’s continued limitations with tasks requiring nuanced human judgment – like speaking to moms without patronizing them!
While I don’t see human graphic designers becoming obsolete anytime soon, AI tools like Plai.io will undoubtedly change the nature of their work. Much like graphic design software did decades ago, AI will enhance designers’ capabilities and speed. But humans are still very much needed to bring empathy, creativity and strategic thinking that no algorithm can match.
So could an AI like Plai.io design your company’s next landing page all on its own? I wouldn’t recommend it just yet. But used judiciously under the watchful eye of a seasoned graphic designer, tools like Plai.io can unlock surprisingly powerful AI capabilities. Just don’t let it write your copy!
