Design literacy as an mediator: An empirical study on AIGC-assisted intangible cultural heritage design

Although AI-generated content (AIGC) is increasingly integrated into cultural heritage design, few empirical studies have examined how users’ design literacy and educational backgrounds shape their engagement with AIGC in culturally embedded design tasks. This paper uses mixed methods to investigate AIGC in Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) design, using Quanzhou Festival Lanterns as a case study. A 17-week teaching experiment involving 105 undergraduates was conducted to develop a structured evaluation framework for AIGC-assisted ICH design. The findings indicate that AIGC significantly enhances creative expression, particularly when supported by strong design literacy. Comparative analysis demonstrates that design literacy may play a significant explanatory role in the process of AIGC-assisted culture creativity: design majors tend to use AIGC for cultural semantic organization and design iteration, whereas non-design majors focus more on the novelty of visual forms, resulting in works that are relatively limited in terms of the depth of cultural expression.