Metacognitive Scaffolding in GenUI-Assisted UX Prototyping: Effects on Novice Designers Reflective Thinking and Creative Self-Efficacy

Generative user-interface (GenUI) tools enable rapid prototyping through natural language, yet their cognitive impact on user experience (UX) design remains unclear. In a three-week randomized trial, novice designers used traditional tools, GenUI alone, or GenUI with user-test-triggered metacognitive scaffolding. The two GenUI conditions produced contrasting profiles. Unscaffolded GenUI was associated with higher habitual action and no advantage in higher-order reflection, despite higher adjusted post-test creative self-efficacy than the traditional condition. In contrast, the scaffolded condition achieved the highest creative self-efficacy, outperformed both other groups on higher-order reflective thinking, and produced more useful designs. Qualitative findings showed that scaffolding shifted designers from accepting AI outputs to evaluating them against user evidence. GenUI’s cognitive impact thus depended less on the technology itself than on the interaction structure surrounding its use.