Critsly and StudioCrit: An Artefact-Aware AI Critique Workspace and Simulation-Based Readiness Study for Design Education

Abstract

Critique in design education depends on interpreting work in progress, articulating intentions and translating feedback into revisions. This technical report presents Critsly, an artefact-aware AI critique workspace, and StudioCrit, its architecture-studio research mode. Critsly combines a visual board, design-intention fields, guided reflection, perspective-based critique and action planning. StudioCrit adds studio/class organisation, role-based access, cognitive and architectural classification, educator analytics and exportable evidence. The report consolidates implementation and simulation evidence recorded in a research project submitted in July 2026. Three simulated studio scenarios yielded 109 classified evidence rows, including 85 assigned to higher-order Bloom categories. A separate rehearsal using 50 disposable learner accounts yielded 56 evidence rows, including 46 assigned to higher-order categories. A subsequent hardening rehearsal recorded 50 completed sessions, 50 successful board pulls and 50 denials of student access to analytics. These are software and synthetic-trace observations, not measurements of learning gains or human cognitive performance. Automated classifications remain provisional, and the source report does not establish classifier accuracy or inter-rater reliability. The contribution is an implemented critique-to-evidence workflow and a bounded account of its readiness for further controlled evaluation.