Texas-approved pathways
Our gamified course is embedded in the Texas Education Agency-approved Foundations of UX and Advanced UX pathways, a milestone for human-centred design in schools.
Cognitive Design for Schools
Building the cognitive infrastructure for the AI era.
A ready-to-deliver curriculum that teaches students to think independently, question AI and design responsibly.
The AI problem schools haven't solved yet
Every school is trying to manage AI. Almost none are addressing what it's doing to how students think.
Most reduce it to cheating. It's bigger: students are outsourcing their thinking, struggling to tell what's real, forming relationships with machines and using powerful technology without establishing behavioural norms.
Four connected symptoms of one shift, compounding each other.
Think
Students are outsourcing thinking to AI.
Cognitive offloading, cheating, weakened critical thinking and growing dependence on generated answers instead of developed understanding.
Trust
Students cannot always tell what is real.
Deepfakes, misinformation, hallucinated facts, AI-enabled scams and synthetic media that looks and sounds authentic.
Relate
Students are forming new relationships with machines.
AI companions are being treated as friends, advisers or partners, while persuasive design blurs the line between human and synthetic relationships.
Act responsibly
Students have powerful technology without shared behavioural norms.
Schools face questions of consent, synthetic media, deepfake abuse, privacy, bias, manipulation and safeguarding.
This is not a technology problem schools can solve with an acceptable-use policy. It is a human-development challenge, and it needs a curriculum, not only a set of rules.
discussed learning benefits
raised cognitive atrophy as a concern
The learning tension
AI can accelerate learning, and bypass it
Anthropic's qualitative study of 80,508 active AI users found both sides of AI learning.
The question is not simply whether students use AI. It is whether AI supports their thinking or performs the thinking they need to practise.
Cognitive Design
UX taught us to design better experiences. AI made us ask what those experiences do to the human mind.
Digital Influx began by teaching UX. Then AI started generating content and imitating empathy, and the question changed:
How can students use AI without designing human thinking out of the process?
Cognitive Design combines human-centred design, gamification, responsible AI education and neuroscience-informed learning. It helps students recognise when AI extends their thinking and when it replaces the reasoning, effort or human connection learning requires.
UXGamificationNeuroscience-informed practiceCognitive Design
Human experience is lived. Synthetic experience is generated.
AI can simulate empathy, reproduce a voice or face and give a confident answer. But simulation is not experience. Deepfakes, misinformation and AI companions are reaching young people faster than shared norms around empathy, ethics and responsibility can develop.
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
Cognitive Design helps students question what they encounter and decide what must remain human.
Explore Human vs Synthetic
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.
Human capabilities for an intelligent world
Critical thinking
Question information and form independent judgements.
Empathy
Understand experiences and needs that data cannot fully reveal.
Creativity
Generate original ideas before selecting generated answers.
Executive thinking
Plan, focus, adapt and complete complex challenges.
Ethical judgement
Decide what technology should do, not only what it can do.
AI literacy
Know when to use AI, how to question it and when to work independently.
Metacognition
Recognise how personal thinking and learning strategies develop.
Human agency
Keep control of purpose, values and final decisions.
See what students and teachers experience
Cognitive Design is delivered through connected stories, challenges, research and design projects, with structured support for teachers.
1 of 4
Now in a GEMS school in the UAE
Cognitive Design at GEMS Wellington International School, Dubai
Students and teachers are exploring responsible AI, human versus synthetic experience, original storytelling, UX research and design missions within a real school timetable.
- Running lessons with students
- Teacher-supported
- Student design projects underway
- Responsible AI and human-centred learning
Developed with industry experts, educators, neuroscientists and international practice
From London and Texas to Australia and the UAE, Digital Influx evolves with what students and educators need next.
HundrED
Digital Influx was selected for international recognition for its gamified approach to teaching UX and human-centred problem-solving, incorporating Social Emotional Learning and aligned with the UN SDGs.
Digital Influx on HundrED
Mayor's Skills Academies
Digital Influx has supported the Mayor of London's drive to upskill Londoners in digital skills. With Westminster Kingsway College, we deliver UX and AI courses to adult learners across London.
Introduce responsible, human-centred AI education with confidence
Begin with one cohort or explore a wider implementation.
- 1
Discover
Understand your students, priorities, timetable and level of AI readiness.
- 2
Deliver
Equip teachers with structured content, training and ongoing support.
- 3
Evidence and grow
Review student development, capture meaningful work and plan the next stage.
Give students more than access to AI. Give them the ability to lead it.
Think first. AI second. Humans always.
See how Cognitive Design could fit your students, curriculum and timetable.
