Coordination Mechanisms in AI Development: Practitioner Experiences on Integrating UX Activities

Bruun, Anders; Van Berkel, Niels; Raptis, Dimitrios; Law, Effie L-C

Abstract

Software development relies on collaboration and alignment between a variety of roles, including software developers and user experience designers. The increasing focus on artificial intelligence in today's development projects has given rise to new challenges in this collaboration. We extend previous work on the process of designing human-AI systems by analysing collaborative practices between UX designers and AI developers through Mintzberg's theory on coordination mechanisms. We conducted 15 in-depth interviews with UX designers and AI developers currently working on AI projects. We contribute by identifying how coordination mechanisms impact the UX design process when developing AI systems , inter-team (a)symmetries in power relations, and a growing need for tools and cross-disciplinary knowledge to support these collaborative efforts. In particular, we outline the risks of coordinating AI development work through the standardisation of output and skills in separately organised UX and AI development teams. CCS Concepts • Software and its engineering → Collaboration in software development; • Human-centered computing → Collaborative and social computing.

Citation

Bruun, A., Van Berkel, N., Raptis, D., & Law, E. L.-C. (2025, April). Coordination Mechanisms in AI Development: Practitioner Experiences on Integrating UX Activities. Presented at CHI 2025 (Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems), Yokohama, Japan

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (published)
• Conference Name: CHI 2025 (Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems)
• Start Date: Apr 26, 2025
• End Date: May 1, 2025
• Acceptance Date: Feb 18, 2025
• Online Publication Date: Apr 25, 2025
• Publication Date: 2025
• Deposit Date: Feb 20, 2025
• Publicly Available Date: May 7, 2025
• Publisher: Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Article Number: 796
• Pages: 1-14
• Book Title: CHI '25: Proceedings of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3706598.3713200
• Keywords: UX Integration; Artificial Intelligence; Coordination Mechanisms; Software Development; UX Design; Organisational theory
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/3491776