A robotic hand interacting with a futuristic touchscreen interface, symbolizing AI agents navigating digital systems autonomously.
August 5, 2025

Agent-Aware UX: Designing for Humans and AI

🧠 A visual guide to FRAME—the 5 pillars of AI agent UX

There’s a new kind of user inside your product.

It doesn’t click.
It doesn’t swipe.
It doesn’t sleep.

AI agents are already using your product—and they’re doing it invisibly. They fill forms, trigger workflows, and make decisions inside your interface without ever seeing your tooltips or delight animations.

Most digital products are still built for humans. But what happens when your next user is a script, not a person?

This post is a visual primer on how to design systems that work for both humans and AI agents—anchored on the FRAME model: a five-part checklist for agent-aware design.

The 5 Pillars of FRAME

FRAME stands for:

  • Functional state visibility:
    Can agents “see” what matters? Are states exposed in ways machines can read and act on?
  • Readable by structure, not just style:
    Is your DOM stable and semantic, or does your UI break every time an agent tries to parse it?
  • Accessible error handling:
    Are errors surfaced in ways both users and scripts can understand and recover from?
  • Mapped flows with fallback:
    Are your workflows robust and testable? Can they recover from edge cases or failure states?
  • Expresses intent clearly:
    Are user actions, system intent, and call-to-action logic explicit—not just implied?

When a system nails all five, it’s ready for human users and autonomous agents alike.

👇 Here’s the visual summary:

Cover slide titled “Designing for AI Agents vs Human Users.” Subtitle reads “From human-centred to agent-aware design.” Bright, abstract bubble visual in the background.
Slide text reads “Humans aren’t your only users. AI agents are silently navigating, deciding, and acting inside your product, no tooltips needed.” Background features a soft digital grid.
Text listing tasks AI agents already perform: fill forms, trigger API calls, parse UI states, and execute purchases. Light blue background with grid pattern.
Slide quotes Shopify’s report: “18% of checkout flows now involve autonomous agents or scripts.” Text emphasizes the growing shift toward agent interactions. Includes source citation.
Text contrasts “Automation is scripted” with “Autonomy is adaptive.” Explains that agents make decisions, interpret context, and recover from errors. Ends with the line “Design for that, or prepare for breakage.”
Side-by-side comparison of what humans vs agents care about. Humans prioritize clarity, emotion, and trust. Agents prioritize state visibility, DOM consistency, and predictable flows.
Statement reading: ‘One interface. Two audiences. Misalign, and both suffer.’ Simple text on a gradient background with subtle linework.
List of agent-breaking UX patterns to avoid, such as modal-only flows, hidden interactions, non-standard states, visual-only cues, and inconsistent markup. Ends with the line: ‘What delights a human may blind an agent.’
Text that reads: ‘Imagine a glass layer over your UI’ followed by bullets: ‘Agents read it. Systems audit it. Users trust it.’ Emphasizes that this layer is structural, not visual, and essential for scale.
Title slide introducing the F.R.A.M.E. model for AI-ready UX, with bolded title: ‘FRAME your future-proof system for agents.’ Subhead: ‘A model for AI-ready UX.’
FRAME model breakdown for designing AI-aware UX: Functional state visibility, Readable structure, Accessible error feedback, Mapped flows with fallbacks, Expressed intent clearly—text on a grid-style background.
Quote slide saying: ‘The user isn’t gone. It just isn’t always human.’ Subheading: ‘From eyes and clicks to agents and scripts.’ Footer: ‘And yes, you still need great UX. Just a new kind.’
Closing message on a gradient grid background: ‘Designing for AI agents is already part of the job. Don’t wait for a prompt to tell you. Start now.’ with a neon yellow ‘fin’ badge in the corner.

Want to go deeper?

This post is just the primer.

For strategies, real-world examples, and a deeper breakdown of agent systems, workflows, and design implications:

🌀 Read the full analysis → Users Who Never Sleep