GAI4DE: Harnessing the Design Process to Integrate GAI into Design Studios
Wangda Zhu, R. S. Guo, Gaoxia Zhu, Chenglu Li, Hai Ying Li, Yukyeong Song · International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction · 2025
Although promising, using image Generative AI (GAI) in a design studio in higher education is limited partly due to a lack of appropriate tools to facilitate both students’ creation and instructors’ design critique. To address the gap, guided by the studies of the design process, we designed, developed, tested, and refined a creativity support tool (CST) (i.e., GAI4DE: GAI for design education). This tool has a generation feature powered by Stable Diffusion and a process feature that visualizes the design process and enables users to interact iteratively with their previously generated designs. To examine the process feature usage, experience, and opinions from students and instructors, we conducted a one-week field study in a Computer-Aided Design (CAD) class (n = 40) with a workshop, home task, and a design critique session on interior and fashion design projects. We collected and analyzed student log data, perceived creativity support after the field study, responses to open-ended survey questions, and follow-up interview transcripts. We found that students interacted with the process feature directly and indirectly in co-creation with GAI. Students perceived collaboration and enjoyment (sub-constructs of creativity support) were significantly and positively correlated with their self-reported use frequency; highly engaged students perceived significantly more collaboration. Instructors felt this design feature brought opportunities for critique as a design reference and evaluation. This study contributes to the research and practice of CST through tool development and empirical study, offering insights for tool designers and educators and laying the groundwork for future advancements in integrating GAI in design education.