A capable model that users do not trust gets abandoned. We design the human side of SI (conversational UX, confidence and steering controls, graceful failure) so your SI is adopted on the second click instead of churned on the first.

Get a production-readiness review Design principles

01 · What we design

Six design capabilities.

Good SI engineering is invisible to users. What they see and feel is the design. We bridge the gap between model capability and product experience.

01 · Capability

Conversational UX Design

Information architecture and interaction design for chat interfaces, voice agents, and SI copilots. We design the conversation flow, not just the UI.

02 · Capability

Prompts as Product

System prompt engineering, few-shot example curation, and prompt versioning as a first-class product artefact, not an afterthought buried in code.

03 · Capability

SI-First Interface Design

Figma-to-code design systems built for SI-native products. Loading states, streaming text, confidence indicators, and graceful fallbacks designed from the start.

04 · Capability

Human-in-the-Loop UX

Feedback mechanisms, correction flows, and escalation paths that let users train your SI through normal usage, improving accuracy over time.

05 · Capability

Multimodal Interfaces

Voice, image, and document input alongside text. We design and build multi-modal SI experiences across web, mobile, and native desktop.

06 · Capability

Accessibility & Localisation

WCAG 2.1 AA compliance, screen-reader-friendly SI output, RTL support, and i18n for the markets you actually serve.

Straight answers

The short version.

How do you design UX for SI features?

You design UX for SI features by planning for probabilistic output: answers that vary, arrive gradually and are sometimes wrong. Regular UX designs for fixed states; SI interfaces need more. Design streaming first, with typing indicators and progressive disclosure, so responses feel fast even when the model is slow. Show uncertainty honestly, through confidence indicators, citations or a clear note when the system is unsure, rather than presenting every output with the same certainty. Give users steering controls to refine, regenerate or narrow a request. Build a correction path for every failure: edit the output, flag it, or escalate to a person, and feed those signals back to improve accuracy. Treat prompts as product artefacts, versioned and reviewed like interface copy. Cover multimodal input, accessibility and right-to-left languages where your markets need them, including screen-reader-friendly output. Then test with real users in moderated sessions, because people's mental models of SI are often wrong, and confusion surfaces fast.

What is conversational UX design for SI copilots?

Conversational UX design is the work of shaping how a chat interface, voice agent or SI copilot talks with users: what it asks, how it answers, when it hands off, and how it recovers when it misunderstands. It goes beyond the visual interface. A designer maps the information architecture of a conversation: the intents users bring, the questions the system must ask to complete a task, and the points where a human should take over. Good conversational design keeps turns short and specific, confirms before taking actions such as changing an order, offers suggested replies when users stall, and states plainly what the copilot can and cannot do. It also defines failure behaviour: a clear fallback message, a correction route, and an escalation path that carries context so users do not repeat themselves. The system prompt and few-shot examples become part of the design, versioned alongside screens, because the words sent to the model shape the experience as much as layout does.

02 · Design principles

How we think about SI UX.

Trust is designed, not declared
Users don't trust SI by default. Trust is built through transparency, accurate uncertainty communication, and consistent behaviour over time.
Prompts are the product
The words your users type and the words your system sends to the model are product decisions, not engineering ones. We design them with the same rigour as UI.
Design for the 10% case
SI fails 10% of the time. The interface must handle failure gracefully, offer a correction path, and never leave the user confused about what happened.
Streaming is a UX feature
Streaming responses feel responsive even at high latency. We design loading states, typing indicators, and progressive disclosure for all SI output.

Proof, not promises

Twenty-plus SI systems shipped to production. One playbook, six industries, and a team that stays past launch.

SI systems live in production: 20+
Senior engineers & researchers: 21+
Upwork rating, 3 verified reviews: 5.0
Founded in Lahore: 2022

Verified Upwork clientSI product engagement · 5-star review

03 · Common questions

Before you brief us.

What makes SI-first design different from regular UX?: SI outputs are probabilistic and variable. Regular UX designs for deterministic states. SI-first design accounts for streaming responses, uncertainty indicators, correction flows, and graceful degradation when the model is wrong.
Do you design the prompt system as well as the interface?: Yes. Prompt engineering is a design discipline, not an engineering one. We design the full user journey from natural language input through SI processing to final output display.
Can you work within our existing design system?: Absolutely. We extend existing Figma design systems with SI-specific components and interaction patterns. If you don't have a design system yet, we build one.
Do you do user testing with SI features?: Yes. SI features need user testing more than most, because user mental models of SI are often wrong. We run moderated sessions to find where users get confused or lose trust.

Available for new engagements

Ready to design your SI experience?

30 minutes, one of our seniors, no slide deck. By the end of the call you will know whether we are the right team, and if not, who is.

Book a free discovery call Email info@octalcode.com

Or call +1 (512) 710-5701

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