AI UX design course in New Zealand. Design with AI. Lead with people.

AX stands for AI and agent experience design. It covers designing AI features people can trust, designing products that AI agents can use, and building with AI agents. CAAXDE teaches all three on top of the research and testing UX designers already do.

UX design is about how people experience a product. AX design adds two more things to design for: the AI features inside the product, and the AI agents that use it on someone’s behalf. The research, testing and judgement from UX stay at the centre. CAAXDE adds trust patterns, agent readiness, AI evals and agent builds on top.

Yes. Design thinking is built into CAAXDE, and your project runs through all five stages: empathise through five real interviews in week 2, define with an opportunity solution tree, ideate and prototype with flows, Figma Make and agent builds in weeks 3 to 5, and test with five users and AI evals in week 7. At each stage you learn where AI helps and where your own judgement has to lead.

AI is taking on more of the production work, such as first drafts of screens and working prototypes. Deciding what to build, talking to real people, judging whether an AI feature can be trusted and taking responsibility for the result still need designers. CAAXDE trains that side, and shows you how to hand the production work to AI safely.

MCP (Model Context Protocol) is an open standard that lets AI apps connect to other tools. Figma’s MCP server lets coding agents such as Claude Code and Codex read your design file, including its components and variables. In week 5 you connect your own Figma file this way and build a prototype, which you test with five users in week 7.

Yes. CAAXDE is for people who already work in UX, UI or product design, or who have finished a UX course such as CAUXPDE. If you’re new to UX, start with the 5-week Agile UX Design JumpStart, then CAUXPDE.

About 10 hours a week for 8 weeks, around 80 hours in total. Each week you book live one-to-one sessions with your mentor, join the hands-on tool studio, and do the reading, activities and project work in the learning portal. Week 0, before week 1, is for setting up your tools, getting your project brief and meeting your mentor.

No. Paid access to Figma, Claude and ChatGPT is included for the 8 weeks of the course, so you can use every feature we teach. After the course you can keep using the free plans or buy your own.

Your live lessons are one-to-one sessions with your mentor. You book them through the calendar we give you when you enrol: unlimited sessions Monday to Friday, with limited slots on Saturday and Sunday. You also have required check-ins in weeks 2, 4, 6 and 8.

No. You direct the agent from your Figma file through Figma’s MCP server and review what it builds. Week 0 sets up everything you need, and the week 5 studio takes you through your first agent build step by step.

Yes, with your employer’s agreement. Otherwise you work on a live brief from a New Zealand partner organisation. Partners are announced each intake.

Yes. We can invoice you or your employer: email godigital@id.ac.nz. Teams of 3 to 5 from one employer get 10% off each seat, and teams of 6 or more get 15% off. For 8 or more people, ask about a private cohort with your own product as the project.

On your work. You hand in something every week, which builds your portfolio. In week 8 you present your final case study at the showcase and complete a timed practical. There’s no 200-question exam.

Yes. CAAXDE is an IDNZ industry certification, and if you take the 11-week CAUXPDE afterwards, CAAXDE counts towards it. Going the other way, CAUXPDE graduates can step up to CAAXDE for $2,397 + GST.

CAAXDE is an IDNZ industry certification, so it’s reviewed and updated every two months, with a dated note of what changed. NZQA-approved programmes go through formal approval first: for a new degree programme, NZQA asks providers for at least three months’ notice and aims to complete approval within six months of the application. That process gives you an NZQA qualification and suits people who need one. CAAXDE is built to keep pace with the tools.

No. CAAXDE is an industry certification from IDNZ, not an NZQA qualification, and it isn’t eligible for Fees Free. It’s built for working designers who need practical skills and portfolio work they can show after 8 weeks of part-time study.

The founding cohort starts on 15 November 2026, and enrolments close on Wednesday 11 November. After that, a new intake starts every two months.

$3,997 + GST ($4,596.55 including GST) for the first intake on 15 November 2026, which is limited to 15 seats. The standard price is $4,789 + GST ($5,507.35 including GST).

They suit different people. A full-time bootcamp usually suits someone changing careers who can stop working for several months. CAAXDE is for designers who already do UX and want to add AI and agent design while they keep working: about 10 hours a week for 8 weeks. If you’re new to UX and want to keep working, IDNZ’s JumpStart and CAUXPDE are part-time too.

The IDNZ learning portal is open 24/7 and holds each module’s lessons, reading material and activities, and it’s where you hand in your work. All reading material and activities are included in the course fee. The course is updated every two months, and each update comes with a dated note of what changed.

CAUXPDE covers the full UX and product design process over 11 weeks, for people moving into UX or stepping up to product design. CAAXDE is 8 weeks for designers who already know that process and want the AI and agent layer: designing AI features and agent-ready products, and building prototypes with AI agents.

Yes. Week 8 covers New Zealand privacy rules, EU AI disclosure requirements and Māori data sovereignty, and how they shape the AI features you design. Week 6 covers trust, disclosure and correction, using Microsoft’s 18 guidelines for human–AI interaction.