Cited by 16Digital Media and Visual ArtUsability and User Interface DesignDesign Education and Practice

Design principles for text-to-image generative artificial intelligence creativity support tools for visual design

Open access
Herath, Savindu, Bashardoust, Amirsiavosh, Bole, Yonah, Shrestha, Yash Raj·2026·European Journal of Information Systems

Abstract

Generative AI (GenAI) presents significant opportunities, particularly for creative work like visual design. GenAI can effectively address creative challenges like the “blank page” problem by enabling rapid visual conceptualisation, thereby enhancing productivity in visual design tasks. However, organisations face significant challenges in integrating off-the-shelf, untamed foundation models, whose complex user interfaces are misaligned with production-oriented workflows, exacerbating issues such as AI illiteracy, employee resistance, and job displacement. To facilitate GenAI integration into creative workflows while addressing these challenges, we conduct an action design research study at Ubisoft, where we develop and introduce a GenAI-enabled creativity support tool (CST)—comprising workflow guidance and simplified user interface on Stable Diffusion models—as a bridging tool in concept art creation processes. Our user studies and evaluations indicate that the artefact increases user acceptance, improves productivity, and adds value to both concept artists and their studios. In addition to detailing the artefact’s design and evaluation, we present seven design principles for text-to-image GenAI CSTs for visual design. These principles contribute to the academic discourse on human-AI collaboration by filling a critical gap in prescriptive design knowledge and emphasising the role of GenAI in augmenting, rather than replacing, human skill and ingenuity.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1080/0960085x.2026.2616042

Cites

75 of 75 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

We couldn’t retrieve this paper’s full text, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Herath, S., Bashardoust, A., Bole, Y., & Shrestha, Y. R.
Affiliations
  • ETH Zurich (CH)
  • University of Lausanne (CH)
Corresponding author
Herath, Savindu
Venue
European Journal of Information Systems
Published
2026-01-20
Volume
35
Issue
4
Pages
679-704
ISSN
  • 0960-085X (ISSN-L)
  • 1476-9344
OpenAlex
W7125159659
Cited by
16
References
74
Citations by year
2026: 16
FWCI
235.19
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • European Journal of Information Systems (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Repository for Publications and Research Data (ETH Zurich) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • ETH Zürich Research Collection (cc-by)
Funders
Swiss National Science Foundation (197763)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Graphics and Computer-Aided Design › Digital Media and Visual Art
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Human-Computer Interaction › Usability and User Interface Design
  • Physical Sciences › Engineering › Mechanical Engineering › Design Education and Practice
Keywords
generative AI, text-to-image generation, creativity support tools, visual design, concept art, design principles, human-AI collaboration, Stable Diffusion, user interface design, user acceptance, productivity, Ubisoft

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review