by Veronika Poštrak -

IMPULSE #8 – A Meeting & Websites

This impulse began with a meeting with my thesis supervisor, Mr. Baumann, where we discussed my topic in a more focused and structured way. Beyond talking about the concept itself, we spoke about how to approach the research phase and how to translate inspiration into something usable for a master’s thesis. One key takeaway from this meeting was his suggestion to start systematically collecting websites that function as strong examples of web storytelling. The focus was not only on visual quality, but on how these websites guide users through information, create meaning through interaction, and build narratives across structure, content, and interface.

I realized that I had already been doing this informally for a while. Whenever I came across a website that made me think “this is good web storytelling”, I saved it to my notes. After this conversation, however, I turned that habit into a more structured process by creating a spreadsheet where I collect examples, categorize them, and add notes about their narrative strategies, interaction patterns, and thematic focus. This spreadsheet will definitely continue to expand over the next weeks as my thesis research progresses. Below, I present a small selection of websites that tell stories in different ways.

AI Takes Over

This website uses humor and interaction to make a complex and often intimidating topic feel approachable. The opening line “AI Takes Over” followed by “Okay, just kidding :)”, immediately sets a playful tone and signals that the site aims to guide rather than overwhelm the user. The visual design supports this narrative approach through a futuristic color palette that gradually shifts from red to purple as the user scrolls. The story moves from past to present to future, combining short explanations, statistics, and myth-busting sections. This creates a clear narrative arc that educates while keeping the experience light. Overall, the website frames AI as a tool rather than a threat, showing how storytelling and interface design can influence perception and understanding.

The Silly Bunny

The Silly Bunny website is a strong example of how immersive technology can be used as a storytelling tool rather than a visual gimmick. Through motion, 2D and 3D illustrations, and interactive elements, the site transforms navigation into exploration. Instead of simply consuming information, users actively move through the brand’s story, discovering elements as they interact with the interface. This playful and experimental approach creates a sense of curiosity and engagement, while reinforcing the brand’s creative identity. The storytelling here happens through interaction itself, making the experience memorable and distinct.

The Message to Ukraine

This is a powerful example of emotional and cultural storytelling on the web. The website unfolds as one continuous narrative, combining poetry, animation, typography, and interaction to celebrate Ukrainian identity and history. Gestalt principles play an important role throughout the experience: images break down into dots and lines and reassemble into recognizable forms as the user scrolls. Content layers overlap like pages in a book, supported by a custom typeface and carefully crafted animations. The result is an experience that feels deeply human and intentional, using interaction and visual language to turn national memory and emotion into a digital story.

Unifiers of Japan

The Unifiers of Japan website presents historical storytelling in a playful and accessible way. Inspired by samurai history and Ukiyo-e art, it reimagines 1600s Japan through modern illustration and interaction. Each historical figure is introduced through interactive cards that highlight key moments and strategies, allowing users to explore the story at their own pace. Rather than overwhelming the user with historical facts, the site focuses on character, contrast, and curiosity. This approach shows how storytelling on the web can simplify complex topics while still encouraging deeper engagement.

And of course, THE Lando Norris Website

This website is a strong example of brand storytelling driven by motion and performance. Speed-inspired animations, sharp transitions, and cinematic scrolling mirror the intensity of Formula 1, making the interface itself part of the narrative. The design balances McLaren’s racing heritage with Lando Norris’s personal identity, using bold typography, color, and interaction to communicate who he is beyond the track. Storytelling here is not delivered primarily through text, but through rhythm, responsiveness, and flow. The result is a digital experience that feels energetic, personal, and closely tied to its subject.

This growing collection of websites already plays an important role in shaping how I understand narrative UX and interactive storytelling. By analyzing different approaches, from educational and cultural narratives to brand-driven and immersive experiences, I am building a foundation that will inform both the research and design phases of my master’s thesis.

Disclaimer: This blog post was written with the help of AI for better grammar and correct spelling.

by Veronika Poštrak -

IMPULSE #7 – A Talk & A Book

After defining my thesis topic as Narrative UX & Interactive Web Storytelling, I wanted to engage more directly with designers who explicitly connect storytelling and design. One impulse that felt especially relevant was watching Ellen Lupton’s talk Storytelling and Visual Design. After the talk, I spent a few hours browsing through her book Design is Storytelling, skimming through it and reading the parts that drew me in the most.

The Talk: Storytelling and Visual Design

What stayed with me most from Lupton’s talk was her idea of the journey as the interface. She described interfaces as narrative paths, using the example of a weight loss app. The user is on one long journey toward a goal, while within that journey there are many smaller daily journeys, such as logging progress or receiving feedback. Each interaction becomes a small narrative moment within a larger story.

Lupton also explained how even very small design elements can tell stories. Interface icons, transitions, and micro-interactions function as short narrative cues that guide users and shape expectations. Another key idea was her explanation of mazes versus labyrinths. A maze is designed to confuse, while a labyrinth has one guided path. She used IKEA as an example of a labyrinth: a long, structured journey where the visitor moves through different stages and succeeds at the end (often rewarded with a hot dog). This made me think about how well-designed interfaces should guide users through information rather than overwhelm them.

The Book: Design is Storytelling

The book expands on many of the ideas introduced in the talk and frames storytelling as a practical design tool rather than something purely narrative or fictional. Lupton argues that all design communicates a message, whether it is political, social, or cultural, and that storytelling provides a structure for how those messages are experienced. Instead of focusing on linear stories, she presents storytelling as a way of shaping meaning through interaction, sequencing, and context.

A key part of the book is Lupton’s framework of Action, Emotion, and Sensation, which she uses to describe how people move through designed experiences. Action focuses on paths and decisions, similar to the idea of users navigating a guided journey. Emotion centers on empathy and human-centered design methods, such as personas and experiences, while Sensation looks at how users perceive and react to visual and interactive cues. Together, these layers helped me better understand how narrative structure and interaction design overlap.

Another idea that stood out was her explanation of how storytelling adds value by providing context. Lupton uses examples like coffee culture to show how experience can transform a simple product into something more meaningful. This made it clear that storytelling in design is often subtle and embedded in atmosphere, flow, and expectations rather than explicitly told. For my thesis, this reinforced the idea that Narrative UX is less about telling a story to users and more about guiding them through one in a way that feels intentional and coherent.

Why This Was an Impulse for My Research

This impulse helped me clarify how storytelling principles apply directly to interaction design. Lupton’s talk introduced the idea of interfaces as guided journeys, while her book provided language and structure for thinking about narrative in design. For my thesis on Narrative UX & Interactive Web Storytelling, this reinforced the idea that interfaces do not simply present content, but guide users through experiences. Seeing design as a form of storytelling helped me think more intentionally about how users move through digital spaces and how meaning is constructed through interaction.

Stuff Worth Clicking A.K.A. Accompanying Links

Disclaimer: This blog post was written with the help of AI for better grammar and correct spelling.

by Veronika Poštrak -

IMPULSE #6 – Board Games

This impulse was not based on a single event, but on several moments over the past months. I played a lot of board games with friends, and some of them stood out more than others. Not because they were the most complex or competitive, but because I genuinely enjoyed the worlds and stories behind them.

While playing, I started to notice that many board games create narrative experiences in subtle ways. Even without explicit storylines, they invite players into specific settings, roles, and situations. This made me realize that board games can be understood as interactive storytelling formats, which connects surprisingly well to my thesis topic on narrative UX and interactive storytelling.

The following games are the ones I played most recently and enjoyed the most.

Catan

In Catan, players arrive on an island and gradually build settlements, cities, and trade routes. There is no written story, yet the game creates a clear sense of exploration and development. Each round feels like a small chapter in the process of colonizing and shaping a new world. What I liked most about Catan is that the story is not told directly, but emerges through interaction. Every decision (where to build, whom to trade with, how to expand) contributes to a unique narrative. This is similar to Narrative UX, where users do not just receive a story but actively shape it through their actions.

Ticket to Ride: Europe

This game creates a narrative through movement and geography. By building train routes across European cities, players experience a journey rather than a static game board. The visual design of the map, the cities, and the routes makes it easy to imagine travel, connection, and progress. I enjoyed how the game subtly encourages storytelling through its structure. The routes feel like personal travel stories, even though they are based on strategic choices. This connects to interactive web storytelling, where navigation and structure influence how users experience a narrative.

Sky Team

Sky Team is a cooperative game in which two players work together as pilots to land an airplane. Compared to the other games, the narrative here is more direct and intense. Every move feels meaningful because it affects the outcome of the landing. What fascinated me was how the story emerges from tension and collaboration rather than from text or visuals alone. The game shows how constraints and roles can create strong narrative experiences. This is similar to interactive design, where users often experience stories through tasks, challenges, and decisions rather than through traditional storytelling formats.

7 Wonders Duel (with Pantheon Expansion)

In 7 Wonders Duel, players build civilizations, construct wonders, and compete across different historical and cultural dimensions. With the Pantheon expansion, mythological elements add another layer of meaning and atmosphere. I liked how the game creates a sense of historical progression and symbolic depth without explicitly telling a story. Over time, each player’s civilization develops its own narrative through strategic choices. This reflects how interactive narratives often unfold gradually, shaped by user decisions rather than predefined plots.

Why This Was an Impulse for My Research

Playing these board games made me realize that storytelling does not always need words, scripts, or linear narratives. Instead, it can emerge from systems, rules, and interactions. The stories I experienced were not written beforehand; they were created through play.

For my thesis, this impulse is important because it shows that Narrative UX can exist beyond digital media. Board games function as analog examples of interactive storytelling, where users co-create meaning through interaction. This perspective helps me think differently about how stories can be designed in web experiences, not as fixed narratives, but as frameworks that invite participation. In this sense, board games became more than just entertainment. They offered insights into how interaction can generate storytelling, which directly relates to my research.

Stuff Worth Clicking A.K.A. Accompanying Links

Disclaimer: This blog post was written with the help of AI for better grammar and correct spelling.

by Veronika Poštrak -

IMPULSE #5 – Escape Room

In my first four blog posts, I was still experimenting and trying out different directions for my thesis topic. I deliberately explored a wide range of activities and formats, not because I was unsure of what I liked, but because I wanted to understand what could meaningfully connect to my field of Interaction Design. Instead of committing too early, I tested ideas, interests, and approaches to see where a consistent theme might emerge.

In December, I finally made a decision about my thesis topic. I realized that many of the things I had been drawn to: books, talks, presentations, videos, and digital experiences, had one thing in common: strong storytelling. This led me to focus on Narrative UX & Interactive Web Storytelling. Looking back, the connection seems obvious, but it took time to translate a general interest in stories into a concrete design-related research direction.

During the Christmas break, I visited an escape room with friends and unexpectedly found a clear connection to this topic.

The Event

The escape room was called Top Secret. The scenario was introduced with the following description:

“You are locked inside a high-security military facility with the mission to steal the plans for a revolutionary weapon. Every step you take is monitored by advanced systems and security traps, so you must act quietly, swiftly, and with precision. Only the best spies can successfully complete this deadly mission and escape without a trace.”

The room had a difficulty rating of 10/10. We had one hour to complete the mission and managed to escape in the very last minute. The puzzles were demanding and required close attention, logical thinking, and collaboration. What stood out to me was not only the complexity of the tasks, but the way every clue, object, and interaction was integrated into the narrative setting.

Escape Rooms as a Form of Storytelling

Escape rooms rely on storytelling in a specific way. Unlike films or books, they do not present a linear narrative. Instead, participants experience the story through interaction with space, objects, and systems. The narrative is gradually revealed through actions rather than explanations.

While playing, I began to see parallels to Interaction Design. The escape room functioned like an interactive system in which users navigate a designed experience. Storytelling was embedded in spatial design, visual cues, sound, and physical interfaces. Each interaction revealed a fragment of the story, similar to how users explore and interpret content in interactive digital environments.

From this perspective, escape rooms can be understood as physical examples of Narrative UX. They demonstrate how narratives can be structured through interaction rather than through traditional storytelling formats.

Why This Was an Impulse for My Research

This experience helped me reconsider how storytelling operates within design. It showed that narratives can emerge from interaction, structure, and user decisions, not only from text or visuals.

For my thesis, this impulse is relevant because it highlights how storytelling principles function across different media. It encourages me to examine how narrative strategies in physical interactive spaces can inform the design of interactive web experiences. Instead of treating storytelling as an additional layer, I now see it as an integral part of interaction design.

The escape room therefore became more than just a leisure activity. It provided a concrete example of how narrative and interaction intersect, which directly relates to my research focus on narrative UX and interactive web storytelling.

And a cringe photo as a proof that I was there:

Stuff Worth Clicking A.K.A. Accompanying Links

Disclaimer: This blog post was written with the help of AI for better grammar and correct spelling.

by Veronika Poštrak -

IMPULSE #4 – TED Talks

For my last blogpost in November, and with the deadline suddenly very close, I decided not to overthink what activity to choose. Instead, I made myself a TED Talk evening, letting myself wander, research, and explore until I found talks that could spark something meaningful. And surprisingly, I found a lot. Five talks, all circling around creativity, identity, and what it means to navigate the design world with many interests at once.

The art of being yourself by Caroline McHugh

McHugh talks about identity as something you grow into, not something you force. Her reminder that we spend too much time comparing ourselves to others felt painfully accurate. Comparison is constant in design. This talk made me reflect on how designers form their identities in a field that almost encourages fragmentation. It helped me see that having many interests doesn’t weaken identity, it shapes it. Identity in a multidisciplinary industry isn’t about choosing one path, it’s about understanding your own mix.

The power of creative constraints by Brandon Rodriguez

Rodriguez argues that constraints aren’t the boundaries of creativity, but the foundation of it. Drawing from engineering and scientific history, he shows how many major discoveries were made by accident and how those “mistakes” revealed new constraints that pushed innovation even further. In science, limits don’t shut creativity down, they activate it. And the same is true in design. As someone who often feels overwhelmed by endless possibilities, this talk reminded me that constraints, whether tools, time, or even my own abilities, can actually guide ideas instead of restricting them.

Embrace the Shake by Phil Hansen

In art school, Phil Hansen developed a hand tremor that made his signature pointillist drawings impossible. He felt lost, like his entire creative identity had collapsed, until a neurologist told him something simple: embrace the limitation. That shift changed everything. Instead of fighting the shake, Hansen used it, exploring new materials, motions, and techniques. His story shows that creativity doesn’t vanish when a skill becomes shaky; it evolves. And for generalist designers pressured to “excel” at everything, this is a powerful reminder: working with our limitations, not against them, can open up completely new creative paths.

Where good ideas come from by Steven Johnson

People often credit their ideas to individual “Eureka!” moments. But Johnson shows that history tells a different story. He takes us on a fascinating tour, from the “liquid networks” of London’s coffee houses to Charles Darwin’s long, slow hunch, all the way to today’s high-velocity web. Creativity, he explains, emerges from the slow collision of many influences rather than sudden inspiration. Again, an impulse connected to exploring multiple interests, showing that a broad mix of experiences can be the fertile ground where ideas grow and intersect.

How to build your creative confidence by David Kelley

Is your school or workplace divided into creatives versus practical people? Kelley challenges this notion, emphasizing that creativity isn’t reserved for a chosen few. Drawing from his legendary design career and personal experiences, he shares how confidence to create comes from taking small risks repeatedly. Throughout my life, my biggest obstacle has been people discouraging my ideas, but I am learning that I have to ignore them to succeed. Kelley’s message resonates deeply for anyone navigating multiple roles or interests: creativity grows when you trust yourself and keep experimenting, even in the face of doubt.

In the past, watching TED Talks often felt like a task (assigned by teachers or professors), something to check off a list. This evening, however, it was entirely different. I watched out of genuine curiosity, letting myself be inspired, challenged, and surprised. Sometimes, the most valuable insights come when we follow our own impulses and let ideas find us.

Disclaimer: This blog post was written with the help of AI for better grammar and correct spelling.

by Veronika Poštrak -

IMPULSE #3 – A Talk

Even though I couldn’t attend the George UX Conference in Vienna on 5th of November, I watched the recorded talks afterward. One immediately stood out: “Manufacturing Serendipity: Designing Delight at Scale with a Little Help from AI” by Mick Champayne, an illustrator-designer from Google. The talk unexpectedly resonated with the direction my master’s thesis is slowly taking: multidisciplinary design identity, AI as a creative bridge, staying calm amidst many skills, and the psychology of being a generalist designer.

At first, I wasn’t excited about revisiting AI in my research. Lately, it has felt overwhelming, and I even thought: “Let’s move away from AI this semester.” But then… the talk reminded me: AI is the elephant in the room. You can’t escape it, and its presence has moved from novelty to ubiquity. Mick presented it not as a threat, but as a playful, human tool, a spark for creativity.

Mick shared how being both an illustrator and a UX designer initially felt like living in two worlds: order equals UX, chaos equals illustration. This resonated deeply with me because I’ve often felt split between multiple design selves: UI/UX, visual storytelling, graphic design, motion design, interaction design … Her experience reassured me that embracing these differences doesn’t dilute identity, it can strengthen it.

A particularly fascinating part was how she trained her own AI model using her illustration work. She fed the machine her best pieces as a data set, and the results at first were bizarre: strange proportions, odd humor. Instead of rejecting the accidents, she embraced them, now using AI mostly for first drafts. She redraws and reinterprets the outputs, extending her own style rather than replacing it. This combination of machine draft and human reinterpretation felt directly relevant to my thesis: AI can act as a bridge connecting skills, not a replacement.

Mick also described using AI as a “creative spark factory”, particularly for projects outside her expertise. For example, she helped design Google easter eggs for Swifties (Taylor Swift fans), creating a playful scavenger-hunt-like experience that blended illustration, pop culture, storytelling, and UX. Her principles for creativity, translating feelings, fostering curiosity, and looking for happy accidents, felt like rules for surviving and thriving as a generalist.

Another highlight was her process of “vibe coding” in Gemini, moving rapidly from idea to tiny playable prototype. Her team even holds DGIF: Delightful Generation of Ideas and Features every Friday. And her definition of delight, shifting something from “it works” to “I love it”, captured something essential about creating meaningful experiences. I also appreciated her humor: her illustrations are playful, sometimes chaotic, often feminine, incorporating absurdities like butts, boobs, and farts, showing how personality and joy can coexist in professional design.

Watching this talk sparked a personal realization: I want to start digital illustration. One of my “other design selves” seems ready to be explored. More importantly, it reassured me that exploring multiple creative paths isn’t a distraction, it’s central to my identity as a designer. For my thesis, it clarified something vital: it’s not about choosing a single design identity, but understanding how multiple identities can coexist and fuel creativity. Mick’s work demonstrates a real-world example of blending art, UX, and AI into a coherent practice, showing that curiosity, experimentation, and calm engagement with chaos can be a source of innovation.

Stuff Worth Clicking A.K.A. Accompanying Links

Disclaimer: This blog post was written with the help of AI for better grammar and correct spelling.

by Veronika Poštrak -

IMPULSE #2 – Video Essays

This impulse started in the most unplanned way possible: boredom. I was aimlessly scrolling through YouTube when the original Everything Is a Remix series popped up. I clicked on it just to have something in the background, and then ended up watching the whole thing, plus the 2023 edition right after.

At first, it didn’t seem relevant to my Design & Research work at all. The documentary begins with the music industry, showing how songs recycle melodies and structures. Then it shifts to movies, pointing out how Hollywood endlessly reuses storylines, characters, and visuals. I didn’t expect any of this to spark anything academically useful… but it did.

The more I watched, the more the core message hit me: creativity is combination. Nothing begins as a pure, untouched idea. Designers, musicians, filmmakers, we’re all remixers. We borrow, reshape, merge, distort, and evolve things that already exist. That’s not a flaw of the creative process, it is the creative process.

This came at the perfect moment for me, because I’ve been stressing a lot about finding a unique topic for my Master’s thesis. The fear of “this isn’t original enough” has been in my head for months. But this documentary reminded me that originality is kind of a myth. Every famous movie, interface, or design moment has roots somewhere else. Creativity happens through exposure to many sources, not by inventing something out of thin air.

One part I loved was the reminder that copying is how we learn. Nobody starts out original. Kids copy drawings. Musicians learn by copying songs. Designers remake interfaces, posters, and layouts before they know how to create their own style. Copying gives you understanding, transforming gives you creativity. That’s exactly what the documentary showed again and again.

The most interesting section for me was about interfaces. It showed how early computers developed (especially Apple’s Macintosh) and how much of it came from remixing ideas from Xerox PARC and other pioneers. Even the updated 2023 version keeps those examples, but adds new ones from the 2020s, which makes it even easier to understand today in 2025. Interfaces evolve the same way music and film do: through constant borrowing and refining.

Then came the AI chapter, which was uncomfortable in a good way. The documentary explained diffusion models: how AI takes noise and patterns it into images based on millions of existing pictures. But is that learning? Or copying? It’s a controversial space where remixing meets ethics, and it made me think a lot about how designers work with tools that blur the lines between influence and imitation. Even memes, which get remixed endlessly, raise questions about ownership.

What surprised me most was how directly this documentary ties into the things I maybe want to explore this semester, especially around being a multidisciplinary designer and navigating all the influences, tools, and expectations that come with that. It made me think: How do designers form their identity when everything they create is built from other things? What does “original” even mean in a world where everything is borrowed, remixed, and reinterpreted? And how do generalist designers stay grounded when there are endless directions to pull inspiration from?

The series didn’t answer these questions, but it opened the door to them. It reminded me that having many interests isn’t a weakness or a sign of being unfocused, it’s actually the raw material creativity feeds on. Being a generalist might feel overwhelming at times, but it also gives you a wider palette to work with.

So yes, a random YouTube suggestion ended up calming me down. I don’t need to chase some impossible idea of “pure originality.” I just need to keep remixing, learning, and combining things in my own way.

Stuff Worth Clicking A.K.A. Accompanying Links

Disclaimer: This blog post was written with the help of AI for better grammar and correct spelling.

by Veronika Poštrak -

IMPULSE #1 – A Book

The past two months have honestly felt like a creative fog. After spending two semesters researching mental-health apps, accessibility, calming UX elements, and the role of AI in emotional support, I hit a wall. I wasn’t excited about pushing that topic any further, even though I still care about it. It just didn’t feel like the direction I wanted to take for my Master’s thesis.

So I started looking for something new.
For a short while, I explored AI in education: AI tutors, learning tools, digital classrooms. I listened to podcasts, skimmed articles, tried to “feel it”… but it didn’t grab me. It felt interesting, yes, but not like “my” topic. And because nothing lit that spark, I kept delaying these Impulse blogs. There simply wasn’t anything I could honestly call an impulse, until I picked up Keep Going by Austin Kleon.

Reading this book didn’t suddenly give me the perfect thesis idea, but it gave me something I really needed: a sense of movement again.

What Keep Going Gave Me

One of the big ideas in the book is that creativity isn’t a dramatic, once-in-a-while moment. It’s more like a daily rhythm. Kleon compares it to waking up in Groundhog Day – every day you start again. That made me feel a bit calmer about not knowing my direction yet. Maybe not having “the” idea right now is normal, not a failure.

His idea of a “bliss station” stayed with me too. Basically, a little mental or physical space where you disconnect from the noise and let your thoughts breathe. Lately, I’ve been drowning myself in information about what my thesis could be: podcasts, articles, trends, AI debates. Constant noise. Kleon reminded me that creativity sometimes comes from doing less, not more. From quiet, boredom, or even a messy desk.

Another chapter that hit home was “You Are Allowed to Change Your Mind.” This felt almost like permission I didn’t know I needed. I had convinced myself that because I had spent so much time on my previous topic, I must continue with it. Changing direction felt wrong, like giving up. But Kleon says it’s completely normal to shift, to rethink, to explore something new. That idea made me feel less guilty about stepping away from mental health apps and not fully clicking with AI in education. Maybe changing my mind is just part of the creative process.

He also talks a lot about focusing on the verb rather than the noun. Not “being a student looking for a topic,” but actually researching, playing, trying things out. That mindset feels much lighter and more fun.

And finally, one line keeps repeating in my head:
“Pay attention to what you pay attention to.”
Maybe the things that naturally grab my curiosity in the next weeks, small things, random things, might slowly point me toward my thesis direction.

How This Helps Me Moving Forward

I still don’t know my final topic. But after reading Keep Going, I don’t feel stuck anymore. I feel more open, more patient with myself, and more willing to explore without pressure. My thesis will come from what I genuinely care about next, not from panic or noise.

For now, this book was exactly the impulse I needed to… well, keep going.

Stuff Worth Clicking A.K.A. Accompanying Links

Disclaimer: This blog post was written with the help of AI for better grammar and correct spelling.

by Veronika Poštrak -

Proseminar Task III: Evaluation of a Master’s Thesis

Author: Francesca Fusco
Title: Child-AI Creativity Support Tools: A Co-Design Study with Children
Year of Publication: 2024
University: University of Illinois at Chicago
Degree: Master of Science in Computer Science
Source: Politecnico di Torino Webthesis Libraries

Introduction

I chose this master’s thesis because I want to write my own research about e-learning for children supported by AI. I am interested in how technology can make learning more creative and personal. This thesis explores how children imagine and design tools that help them be creative together with AI. I think this is very relevant for my topic because understanding how children think about AI can help design learning environments that feel natural and supportive, not intimidating or overly technical.

Overall Presentation Quality

The thesis has a clear and professional structure, moving from theory to practical work and ending with strong reflections. It includes a summary, visuals, tables, and a conceptual model that helps readers understand the findings. The documentation of the design sessions is detailed and transparent. However, some chapters, especially the methods, are very long and could be shorter without losing clarity. Overall, the presentation is high-quality and shows strong academic effort.

Degree of Innovation

This thesis is innovative because it looks at how children co-design AI creativity tools, rather than just testing finished products. It introduces new ideas like “negotiation,” “division of work,” and “input methods” between children and AI partners. This is an original contribution to the field of child–computer interaction. However, the innovation is mostly conceptual, since no working prototype or long-term study was developed. The results are valuable but more theoretical than practical.

Independence

The author demonstrates strong independence in planning, conducting, and analyzing the co-design study. She clearly took initiative in organizing sessions and interpreting the data. The writing shows personal understanding and critical thinking. While she collaborated with a research team, her own contribution and perspective are visible throughout. Some sections could show even more of her individual interpretation rather than describing the process step by step, but overall, the independence level is very good.

Organization and Structure

The structure of the thesis is logical and easy to follow. Each part connects to the research questions, and the tables and diagrams support understanding. However, the transitions between chapters are sometimes abrupt, and the text could benefit from short summaries after each section. The structure fits academic expectations and shows a clear flow from research context to findings, even if it feels slightly overloaded with details in some places.

Communication

The author communicates her ideas clearly and uses suitable academic language. The introduction and discussion are well written and make the research questions easy to follow, though some sentences are quite long. Visuals and diagrams support understanding, but I didn’t really like the overall design and layout. The typography and images look very technical and plain, which is typical for a computer science thesis but feels a bit dry. In our study program, visual presentation is more important, so this difference stood out. Still, the communication is clear and consistent, even if the visual design could be more engaging.

Scope

The scope of the study is suitable for a master’s thesis. The author worked with seven children aged 8–13 over several co-design sessions. The amount of data is large and well analyzed. Still, the thesis focuses mainly on creativity and interaction, not directly on learning outcomes. For my own work about e-learning, I would like to see more about how such AI systems can support children’s actual learning progress. Nevertheless, the scope fits the research goal and provides deep insights.

Accuracy and Attention to Detail

The thesis is carefully written and well formatted. Figures and tables are clear and correctly referenced. The text is free from major language or spelling errors. Some sentences could be shorter and more precise, but the overall accuracy and attention to detail are strong. It is clear that the author invested significant time in ensuring the quality and correctness of the work.

Literature

The literature review is comprehensive and well organized. The author includes recent studies from child–computer interaction, AI in education, and creativity research. The sources are relevant and academic. Some references could be updated with even newer works on generative AI tools, but the overall literature base is strong and supports the study’s goals effectively.

Overall Assessment

This master’s thesis offers an original and thoughtful look at how children imagine working with AI in creative storytelling, showing a good understanding of their perspectives. Its strengths are a clear structure, detailed documentation, good visuals, and a meaningful contribution to child–AI design. Weaknesses include being mostly conceptual, sometimes repetitive, and having chapter transitions that could be smoother. Still, it provides useful ideas for future research on AI-supported learning, showing that AI should help, not replace, children’s creativity. Overall, I would rate this thesis as good (2) for its originality, depth, and professional presentation.

Disclaimer: This blog post was written with the help of AI (ChatGPT) for better structure and phrasing.