What We Do
Cognitive Design for the AI era
We create human-centred curricula that help young people think independently, tell human from synthetic experience and use AI without surrendering empathy, creativity or judgement.
Three disciplines. One connected learning experience.
UX and human-centred design
Students observe, interview, question assumptions, identify real needs, create solutions and test them with people.
Gamification and storytelling
Suri comics, challenges, decisions and missions turn complex ideas into experiences students can feel, remember and discuss.
Neuroscience-informed practice
Age-appropriate activities encourage attention, memory, planning, cognitive flexibility, reflection and independent thought. These are educational activities, not clinical assessments or medical interventions.
The foundation
What is UX, and why does it matter now?
UX is more than designing screens. It's the practice of understanding people: what they need, what they experience and how products influence their behaviour.
That foundation led to Cognitive Design: personifying the key human skills within UX to create a new pathway for human and AI interaction.
Not all cognitive offloading is harmful
People have always used tools to reduce mental load. Notes, diagrams, calculators and search can free working memory for harder thinking. Used intentionally, this is supportive cognitive offloading.
The risk begins when support becomes substitution: when AI generates the answer, structures the argument or makes the decision before the student has tried the thinking. This is cognitive outsourcing.
Supports thinking
Cognitive offloading
- The student attempts the problem.
- A tool reduces unnecessary mental load.
- The student remains involved in reasoning and decisions.
- The student can explain what the tool changed and why.
Replaces thinking
Cognitive outsourcing
- The tool begins the task and supplies the answer.
- The student bypasses productive struggle.
- Reasoning becomes difficult to see or explain.
- A polished output can hide limited understanding.
- Think first
- use support intentionally
- explain the decision
The goal is not zero offloading. The goal is to protect the thinking students need to develop.
Use AI's strengths without surrendering human agency
AI can be a tutor, accessibility tool, creative collaborator and thinking partner. It can also encourage passivity, misplaced trust and emotional dependence.
Cognitive Design teaches students to recognise both sides. The goal is not to compete with AI or reject it, but to build a relationship in which technology expands human capability while purpose, empathy, judgement and responsibility stay human.
AI can support
Humans must retain
- Speed and accessPurpose
- ExplanationJudgement
- Idea developmentOriginal thought
- Pattern recognitionContext and empathy
- Cognitive scaffoldingAgency
- Creative productionResponsibility
The future of AI should be symbiotic, but human-led.
The student journey
- 1
Story
Enter through a Suri comic, mission or ethical dilemma.
- 2
Activate
Prepare attention and flexible thinking.
- 3
Question
Examine evidence, bias, synthetic content and manipulation.
- 4
Understand
Observe, interview and listen to real people.
- 5
Create
Generate ideas independently before involving AI.
- 6
Build and test
Transform evidence into products, services and prototypes.
- 7
Reflect
Identify where AI supported thinking and where it risked replacing it.
Stage 1 of 7
Story
Enter through a Suri comic, mission or ethical dilemma.
Think first. AI joins second. Humans make and explain the final decision.
Students show what they tried before using AI, identify what AI changed and explain which suggestions they accepted or rejected. This makes learning visible and turns AI disclosure into a metacognitive activity, not a compliance exercise.
Human experience is lived. Synthetic experience is generated.
Cognitive Design helps students question what they encounter and decide what must remain human.
Human
Human experience
- Lived
- embodied
- emotional
- relational
- imperfect
- conscious
Synthetic
Synthetic experience
- Generated
- predictive
- simulated
- scalable
- automated
- pattern-based
Drag the divider: watch synthetic experience spread over the human one, and back.
Human
Human experience
- Lived
- embodied
- emotional
- relational
- imperfect
- conscious
Synthetic
Synthetic experience
- Generated
- predictive
- simulated
- scalable
- automated
- pattern-based
- Deepfakes
- AI companions
- Generated answers
- Simulated empathy
- Synthetic media
Learning through story
Meet Suri
Suri is the hero of the Digital Influx learning universe. Through comics, ethical dilemmas and design missions, students explore AI, human behaviour, empathy and responsibility, then apply it to a real challenge, including the UN's SDGs.
- 1
Enter the story
Begin with a Suri comic or dilemma.
- 2
Train the thinking
Take part in creative and cognitive challenges.
- 3
Understand people
Research, interview and examine real human needs.
- 4
Design a response
Use UX and AI responsibly to address a UN Sustainable Development Goal.
Suri preview
Technology should respond to human and global needs
Students apply research, empathy, creativity and responsible AI to challenges connected to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. They begin with people, not a generated answer, then create, test and communicate a solution.
Global Design Community
Learning beyond one classroom
Students who complete Cognitive Design join the Global Design Community, where they share portfolios of solutions to the UN SDGs, connect with peers in other schools like pen pals and collaborate on regional and global design challenges.
Students, teachers and schools learn from each other, so good ideas travel faster and classroom projects become collective action.
See how this becomes a school programme.
Teacher training, structured resources, original storytelling, design projects and visible evidence of learning.
