Associate Professor, Gwangju University
Henney Hyehyun Ahn
Talk
Designing Designers for the AI Era: A Competency-Based UX/UI Curriculum from Day One
When AI can generate screens in seconds, what should we actually teach UX/UI students? Henney describes building a four-year curriculum focused on decision-making rather than tool proficiency — students learn to define problems, test hypotheses and own the decision log. AI is embedded throughout, but students must document their usage choices and reasoning: a practical redesign of design education for the automation era.
Profile
Henney is a design educator, creative director and studio founder in Gwangju, South Korea. After eleven years in New York at agencies including Publicis Groupe, Random House, VML and DIGITAS, she returned home to join Gwangju University, and also runs Biibiis, a studio focused on visual design and emerging technology. Her teaching shifts the focus “from tools to decisions,” and she has directed city-scale public-media projects integrating AI image expansion with outdoor digital billboards.