Yuelin Shao
@mona.shaoyl
@mona.shaoyl
At the centre of the work is a visual modelling tool built from real design standard operating procedures (SOPs) used by independent designers and small studios. Seven key value factors, ranging from efficiency and market response to human authorship and ethical risk, are translated into colour coded matrices that encode the dynamics of the design process.
Alongside this system, a set of interactive cards allows visitors to reconfigure the workflow themselves. By altering the presence of AI, the involvement of participatory actors, or the weight of designer led decisions, each variation produces a new composition that makes visible the shifting balance between the seven value factors.
The project compares two extreme scenarios: a fully human led workflow with high quality but low efficiency, and an AI dominated workflow with accelerated output, weaker quality, reduced authorship and elevated ethical risk. Between these poles, drawing on interviews, literature and practice based experimentation, the project proposes an SOP in which AI functions as assistant and mediator rather than author. In this configuration, AI helps translate complex information, supports communication between designers and non design participants, and makes collaboration more accessible. This expanded form of participatory design uses AI as a bridge that enables broader involvement in the design process while preserving human agency at its core.
The work positions participatory design as a promising framework for future relations between humans and AI. When AI becomes a bridge rather than a substitute, it enables broader access, more equal dialogue and richer forms of collaboration, while preserving what practitioners repeatedly identify as irreplaceable: human intuition, contextual judgement and ethical responsibility.