Critsly: An Artefact-Aware AI Teammate for Design Critique
Moves AI from detached feedback bot to a board-aware critique partner for learners.
Critsly transforms AI from a detached feedback tool into a critique teammate integrated directly into the learner's design board. Developed by Nizam Kadir, Juan David Salazar Rodriguez, and Sumaiyya Al, the system addresses a core challenge in design education: high-quality critique is scarce, uneven, and often disconnected from evolving artefacts. Critsly combines a visual design canvas with structured AI-supported reflection, allowing learners to ground feedback in concrete board elements, intentions, annotations, and links—going far beyond isolated text prompts.
The system's Reflecture flow guides learners through Six Thinking Hats-inspired personas, automated board synthesis, action-plan generation, and exportable critique records. Educators gain evidence views to track student progress. Accepted to the 27th International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education, Critsly offers a working example of AI-powered critique that is more frequent, structured, inspectable, and actionable. The demo walks through a learner journey from design intention to board-aware critique, persona-based evaluation, and educator-facing evidence.
- Critsly uses a structured board state (intentions, elements, annotations, history) instead of isolated text prompts.
- Reflecture employs Six Thinking Hats-inspired personas for multi-perspective critique and action planning.
- Includes educator evidence traces to make critique inspectable and actionable for both learners and teachers.
Why It Matters
Brings structured, frequent, and artefact-aware AI critique to design education, improving feedback quality and learning outcomes.