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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Commun.
Sec. Visual Communication
Volume 9 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fcomm.2024.1440384
This article is part of the Research Topic Communicating with Non-humans: A New Visual Language View all 3 articles

The Creative Cosmos Beyond Humans: A Symphony of Participatory Design and Visual Artificial Intelligence

Provisionally accepted
YangYang Zhao YangYang Zhao *
  • Department of Informatics, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, University of Oslo, Oslo, Oslo, Norway

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    As artificial intelligence (AI) continues its pervasive presence in our daily lives, it is imperative to expand the boundaries of participatory design to aspects of visual communication beyond humans. This research explores the intriguing convergence of participatory design and AIenabled visual-based design as powerful methodologies to shape the ways we create new ideas (e.g. products/services). The specific research objectives are threefold: to unravel the nuanced dynamics in terms of perception inherent in the increasingly intertwined visual communication between humans and AI (e.g. sketch AI); to investigate how AI-enabled visual communication supports the participatory process with stakeholders; to explore their experiences in AI-enabled visual-based design for non-human subjects (e.g. animals, plants). Through a laboratory study of 18 experimental groups, we have found the critical setting for increased creative ideation performance in the AI-enabled visual-based design when (novice) designers engage AI as a partner rather than simply a tool, or collaboratively interact with stakeholders. As such, the engagement level of internal stakeholders is much higher than that of external stakeholders.

    Keywords: Participatory Design, Visual AI, Sketching, Non-humans, Stakeholder communication

    Received: 29 May 2024; Accepted: 30 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Zhao. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: YangYang Zhao, Department of Informatics, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, University of Oslo, Oslo, N-0373 OSLO, Oslo, Norway

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.