INDUSTRY:
MEDIA
CLIENT:
CBC
YEAR:
2026
EXPERIENCE:
PRODUCT DESIGN
AI Alt Text Generator
about.
As part of an AI accelerator program, a dedicated AI team was looking for opportunities to integrate AI into workflows. I was chosen to create the design for the chosen project, which was an AI powered alt text generation.
Creating clear and structured Alt Text is:
Time-consuming for editors.
Inconsistent in quality.
Often suffers from common issues: Too short or too long, Not image-based (pulls from caption/article), Duplicates caption, Vague, misleading
We built an AI-powered Alt text generator to automate this process.
challenge.
need to maintain journalistic integrity by making sure incorrect content isn't published.
need to force "a human in the loop" process for legal reasons and to maintain standards.
this is a new feature, and it's important to make sure users understand how it works and how to use it.
design.
I designed the feature so that when a user generates alt text, a popup is triggered that forces the user to confirm that they have read through and approve of the generated text. The user can edit the generated text within the popup if needed. Important information, like character count, is also presented to help the user make decisions.
The business needs to make sure that it doesn't spend too much money generating AI text. The decision was made to only allow alt text to be generated once per picture.
I designed a user flow that allows the user to still select the generate button to generate the same text again if needed. This keeps the system from re-calling the text again while allowing users the freedom to call up the generated text if desired.
I used the standardized symbol for ai features, the sparkle, to quickly communicate that it was an ai feature. I also included an information button that users could use to trigger a popup with more in depth information and best practices for content production roles.
result.
The legal and content teams were satisfied with the designs of the AI Alt Text Generator and were happy to move forward with the project, pending legal review of existing contracts.
