AI Wayfinder
A navigator for people with no prior AI knowledge — because the barrier to entry for generative AI is still far too high for most people.
// the problem
The AI landscape is overwhelming even for people who work in tech. For everyone else — teachers, NGO workers, small business owners — it's impenetrable. "Just try ChatGPT" is not guidance. People don't know where to start, what's free, what's safe, or what's actually useful for their specific situation.
// why this matters
If the barrier to entry for AI tools stays this high, most people will never use them effectively. That's a tool problem, not a people problem. Wayfinder is built on the belief that access to AI shouldn't require a technical background — and that explaining the reasoning behind a recommendation teaches people to prompt, not just to copy.
// how it works
A tool that takes a plain-language description of what someone wants to do and returns curated AI tool recommendations — with the reasoning made visible. Not just "here's a tool," but "here's why this tool fits what you described." Each recommendation includes a suggested starting prompt, and that prompt is colour-coded by component — so users can see what each part does, edit it with confidence, and understand how prompting works as they go, rather than just copying and pasting blindly.
The goal is a tool that makes someone more capable with AI generally, not just dependent on Wayfinder. The recommendation and prompt generation logic is AI-powered. The design challenge — how to make AI reasoning legible to a non-technical user — is the interesting product problem.
// trade-offs i made
The decision to make reasoning visible — not just surface a recommendation — adds complexity to the UX. It would be easier to show a clean list. But if users can't see why a tool was recommended, they can't learn from it or transfer that reasoning to new situations. The goal is building AI literacy, not dependency on Wayfinder.
// what i learned
The hardest design challenge isn't the recommendation logic — it's making AI reasoning legible to someone who has never used AI before. What reads as a helpful explanation to a practitioner reads as noise to a first-time user. Calibrating the right level of transparency is the ongoing design problem.
// what's next
First version targets non-technical users who need to get started with AI tools but don't know where to begin.