Abstract
The rapid development of generative AI tools is transforming design practice, shifting designers’ roles from technical producers to human experience experts. As AI increasingly handles production tasks, design education must evolve to develop graduates who can understand complex human needs and create meaningful experiences. This paper presents a process-centric framework for design education built on four theoretical foundations: systems thinking, phenomenology, activity theory, and futures studies. Drawing from implementations in undergraduate and graduate courses at Miami University from 2023–2025, the paper demonstrates how these foundations can be translated into practical teaching methods emphasizing process over product. Through analysis of specific interventions, including ripple effect diagrams and specifications grading, the paper shows how design education can develop the contextual understanding and Practical Imagination that AI tools cannot replicate. The findings suggest that process-centric education better prepares designers to create meaningful human experiences in an AI-enabled future while maintaining ethical awareness of design’s broader societal impacts.