Towards a method for co-designing: embracing and interrogating AI through a design education research project

As artificial intelligence (AI) permeates our daily lives and into the creative industry and design education, designers have an opportunity to experiment with and critically use these tools and technologies in new and innovative ways. Looking beyond AI, specifically ChatGPT and Dall-E, as content generators, I present a method for students to interrogate while also embrace AI as a tool for co-designing. In a project for my Junior graphic design class, I prompted my students to explore the possibilities and test the limitations of AI. They were encouraged to research a topic of their choice and then question, challenge, and define authorship and creativity in the design process when using AI. Students discovered ways to use AI as a tool to develop a personal design process to generate content for their topic. Project outcomes included illustrating a visual narrative with a storyline by ChatGPT, examining how Dall-E is biased and perpetuates stereotypes, testing ChatGPT’s ethics through the “trolley problem,” challenging Dall-E to design a better “I Love New York” logo than the 2023 rebrand, using ChatGPT to write breakup letters based on heartbreak scenarios, and examining if chatbots have a Myers–Briggs Type Indicator. This research project offers a method for students to co-design with AI and to encourage them to challenge, experiment with, and even embrace AI. Ultimately, the goal was to challenge students to consider the designer’s role of authorship and creativity when using AI in a design process and to define their own relationship with designing with AI.