Designing with And For Generative AI: Understanding Generative AI as Design Material

This project investigates how generative AI is adopted across contemporary design practice and how designers can engage with it more effectively, critically, and responsibly. It has three interlinked objectives: first, to review how design experts from different disciplines currently use generative AI in their own work; second, to develop conceptual tools for understanding generative AI as a form of design material with distinctive affordances,constraints, and implications; and third, to create a set of design thinking tools that support reflective, effective, and ethically responsible uses of generative AI in design processes. The project centres on a series of expert design workshops. Two workshops will be organized in Helsinki, Finland, in collaboration with Aalto University, alongside two comparable workshops in Hong Kong and two additional workshops in Mainland China (the Guangdong area). By bringing together design experts from varied disciplines and cultural backgrounds,the project will generate comparative insights into emerging practices, assumptions, and concerns surrounding generative AI. The project will lay the groundwork for a larger international collaboration grant proposal and will produce at least one high-quality journal article in the field of human-computer interaction. It will advance design research while delivering practical frameworks and tools for designers working with generative AI.