Breaking the Midas Spell:Understanding Progressive Novice-AI Collaboration in Spatial Design

TL;DR

This paper investigates how iterative, collaborative human-AI processes can enhance spatial design by promoting user involvement, learning, and creativity, contrasting with current one-step AI generation methods.

Contribution

It introduces a novel understanding of novice-AI collaboration in spatial design through a Wizard-of-Oz study and proposes design implications for more democratic, iterative co-creation systems.

Findings

Identified typical workflow patterns in human-AI spatial design collaboration

Highlighted challenges and opportunities in iterative co-creation

Proposed design implications for democratizing spatial design

Abstract

In spatial design, Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools often generate the entire spatial design outcome in a single automated step, rather than engaging users in a deepening and iterative process. This significantly reduces users' involvement, learning, and creative capabilities, leading to a superficial understanding of spatial design. We conducted a Wizard-of-Oz study, where Novices and AI (acted by experimenters) worked together to finish spatial design tasks using various AI models. We identified typical function and workflow patterns adopted by the participants, leading to the understanding of the opportunities and challenges in the human-AI co-creation process. Based on insights gathered from this research, we proposed some design implications of the novice-AI collaboration system that aims to democratize spatial design through a progressive, iterative co-creation process.