Visual Electric has quickly become my go-to product for image generation and in this weekâs episode we get to learn from the founder and designer, Colin Dunn. The whole discussion is an excellent look at the design founder journey as well as a deep dive into AI-native creative tools. We get into the weeds about:
- Visual Electricâs big bet to take on Canva
- The hidden challenges with designing AI products
- Colin's approach to early user and market research
- The art and science of raising funds for your startup
- Where the value will accrue in the landscape for creative tools
- Where Colin draws the line between abstraction and power in UX
- The wild backstory of how the company was named âVisual Electricâ
- Lessons learned learned from early startup ideas that were shot down
Key takeaways:
- AI is like electricity. Once we gained access to this new form of power, we immediately replaced candles with outlets. But it took 50+ years before the microwave and other staple household appliances were invented. When electricity came on the scene in the late 19th century it wouldâve been impossible to imagine these types of products. Colin believes the electricity layer will quickly become commoditized, and instead is solely focused on building âappliancesâ for AI. Because someone is going to build the oven, the sewing machine, the coffee percolator, the electric can opener, etc. It might even be you đ
- Choosing the level of abstraction is one of the core challenges with designing AI products. Most users donât want to be burdened by all of the knobs and levers of the AI model. Thatâs why itâs essential that we define new patterns and mental models that make AI easy to understand. But you have to be careful, because âthe more you abstract something, the less control users have over itâ. One example Colin shares is why theyâre considering combining the âreference sliderâ and âcreativity sliderâ. It simplifies the UX but at the cost of control. And striking that balance is one of the challenging parts about designing Visual Electric.
- Language is an awkward medium for visual ideas. We need more effective ways to provide visual inputs if we want to generate high quality visual outputs.Want to get early access to Visual Electricâs new product? đ Click hereColin talks about his great his experience with User InterviewsGreg Rosen was the investor who helped Colin in the early daysJess Lee is the Sequoia partner they met withTom from Manual led the branding and chose the name âVisual ElectricâHereâs Manualâs case study on designing the Visual Electric brandVisual Electricâs brand story page (which Ellis Hamburger helped with)
