Stories That Teach: Eastern Wisdom for Human-AI Creative Partnerships

2025-12-22

AI Summary

This study addresses the cultural misalignment of AI integration and the lack of student authorship in Chinese HCI education. It proposes a visual narrative pedagogy grounded in East Asian aesthetics—specifically *ma* (negative space), *aida* (“the interval”), and minimalism—and implements a three-stage human–AI co-creation workshop structured around “intentional gaps” and their collaborative filling. The method integrates storyboard design, sequential art, scaffolded AI tool integration, and interactive narrative prototyping. Its key contribution lies in the first systematic translation of East Asian aesthetic principles into a human–AI creative collaboration methodology, advancing a culturally reflexive paradigm for AI literacy in design education. Empirical evaluation demonstrates significant improvements in learners’ conceptual coherence in interactive design, clarity in accessibility-oriented solution articulation, and narrative fidelity in user experience workflow representation—alongside enhanced efficacy in AI-mediated ideation and iteration.

Technology Category

• Humans and AI: Game Design — Procedural Content Generation & Storytelling
• Cognitive Modeling & Cognitive Systems: Computational Creativity
• Application Domains: Humanities & Computational Social Science

Application Category

• Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: Fairness and ethical considerations in crowd work and in human-in-the-loop AI systems
• Semantics and Knowledge: Data modeling to support human-machine intelligence, including LLMs agents, intelligent system behavior, explanations, and user-friendly interactions
• Responsible Web: Machine-in-the-loop, human agency and autonomy

Abstract

This workshop explores innovative human-AI collaboration methodologies in HCI visual storytelling education through our established "gap-and-fill" approach. Drawing on Eastern aesthetic philosophies of intentional emptiness, including Chinese negative-space traditions, Japanese "ma" concepts, and contemporary design minimalism, we demonstrate how educators can teach students to maintain creative agency while strategically leveraging AI assistance. During this workshop, participants will experience a structured three-phase methodology: creating a human-led narrative foundation, identifying strategic gaps, and collaborating on AI enhancements. The workshop combines theoretical foundations with intensive hands-on practice, enabling participants to create compelling HCI visual narratives that demonstrate effective human-AI partnership. Through sequential art techniques, storyboarding exercises, and guided AI integration, attendees learn to communicate complex interactive concepts, accessibility solutions, and user experience flows while preserving narrative coherence and creative vision. Building on our successful workshops at ACM C&C 2025, this session specifically addresses the needs of the Chinese HCI community for culturally informed and pedagogically sound approaches to AI integration in creative education.

Problem

• Explores human-AI collaboration methods in visual storytelling education.
• Teaches maintaining creative agency while strategically using AI assistance.
• Addresses culturally informed AI integration needs in Chinese HCI education.

Innovation

• Human-AI collaboration using gap-and-fill approach
• Integrating Eastern aesthetic philosophies like negative-space
• Structured three-phase methodology for narrative creation