Designing with Machines: AI Across the UX Lifecycle

AI is reshaping every stage of UX work, from how we plan and conduct research, to how we synthesize findings, generate design concepts, build prototypes, and evaluate usability.

This course gives students hands-on fluency with the AI tools and workflows actively transforming UX practice while building the critical judgment to know when AI accelerates good design and when it undermines it.

Students will work with current-generation AI platforms across the full UX lifecycle: research synthesis, generative design and prototyping, vibe coding (turning natural language into functional prototypes), and AI-augmented evaluation and testing.

Because the AI tool landscape evolves rapidly, the specific platforms covered will reflect industry-leading tools at the time the course runs.

Throughout the course, students apply practical frameworks for assessing which UX tasks are automatable, which are enhanced by AI, and which remain irreplaceable, learning to position themselves as high-value practitioners rather than tool operators.

The course bridges human-centered design thinking with emerging AI capabilities through lectures, tool workshops, and lab sessions.

Students will build a personal AI-augmented UX workflow, critically evaluate the privacy, ethical, and quality implications of AI in design, and complete a capstone project demonstrating both technical fluency and design judgment.