PhD Position F/M Using AI as Design Material: Exploring the potential of GenAI for Design Practice (M/F)

Created in 2008, the Inria center at the University of Lille employs 360 people, including 305 scientists in 15 research teams. Recognized for its strong involvement in the socio-economic development of the Hauts-De-France region, the Inria center at the University of Lille maintains a close relationship with large companies and SMEs. By fostering synergies between researchers and industry, Inria contributes to the transfer of skills and expertise in the field of digital technologies, and provides access to the best of European and international research for the benefit of innovation and businesses, particularly in the region.

For over 10 years, the Inria center at the University of Lille has been at the heart of Lille's university and scientific ecosystem, as well as at the heart of Frenchtech, with a technology showroom based on avenue de Bretagne in Lille, on the EuraTechnologies site of economic excellence dedicated to information and communication technologies (ICT).

This Ph.D. focuses on visual designers and explores how to design effective human-computer partnership to take advantage of GenAI in their professional practice while leaving the user in control. It builds on principles such as instrumental interaction [1] and co-adaptation [5] to create interactive systems that are discoverable [2], appropriable [4], and expressive [6], that grow with the user to enhance rather than replace the users skills.

Designers are a particularly demanding audience, who generate ideas and new artifacts for existing challenges. Advancements in AI, especially GenAI, hold large potential for design and artistic practice [7]. However, today’s (professional) AI tools exhibit a limited degree of human control or fine-tuning, which the creative process requires. Existing text prompt interactions limit GenAI’s usefulness in practice, particularly in design, where concepts are frequently represented visually, such as through sketches, moodboards, or prototypes. Enabling a more collaborative human-computer process requires that systems adapt their agency and interaction style throughout the creative process in a more situated way.

Our research focuses on developing interactive tools and systems that support fluid interaction between creative professionals and their tools [3]. We use a human-centered and practice-oriented approach when designing human-AI interactions to improve the usefulness of AI in design practice [6] treating AI rather as a design material that can be adapted, controlled and explored to assist creative professionals in their work.

The candidate will be part of the Loki research team, based at the Centre Inria de l'Université de Lille in France. The 3-year doctoral position will be supervised by Prof. Géry Casiez and Dr. Janin Koch.

[1] M. Beaudouin-Lafon and W. E. Mackay. Reification, polymorphism and reuse: Three principles for designing visual interfaces. In Proc. of ACM AVI ’00.
[2] G. Casiez, E. Mackamul and S. Malacria. Clarifying and differentiating discoverability. In Proc. of  ACM Human Computer Interaction 2024.
[3] J. Koch, N. Taffin, M. Beaudouin-Lafon, M. Laine, A. Lucero, and W. Mackay. ImageSense: An Intelligent Collaborative Ideation Tool to Support Diverse Human-Computer Partnerships. In Proc. of ACM Human-Computer Interaction 2020.
[4] I. Lobo, J. Koch, J. Renoux, I. Batina, and R. Prada. When should I lead or follow: Understanding initiative levels in human-ai collaborative gameplay. In Proc. of ACM DIS ’24.
[5] W. Mackay. Responding to cognitive overload: Co-adaptation between users and technology. Intellectica 2000.
[6] X. Peng, J. Koch, and W. E. Mackay. DesignPrompt: Using multimodal interaction for design exploration with generative ai. In Proc. of ACM DIS ’24.
[7] K. Thoring, S. Huettemann, and R. M. Mueller. The augmented designer: a research agenda for generative AI-enabled design. Proc. of the Design Society, 2023.

The goal of this Ph.D. is to design and develop a novel form of human-computer partnership in the context of professional design practice. The student will build on theory-based interaction approaches informed by previous work in the lab to develop systems that help users to interactively explore diverse capabilities of creative systems, such as suggesting, explaining and negotiating contributions on visual creations.

The student will develop new design and evaluation methods that support effective interaction, specifically:

• Investigate how humans could actively take control and collaborate with computers in design creation.
• Provide a better understanding how users directly and indirectly communicate while creating visual designs.
• Design new interactive methods for users to express and refine these characteristics related to their particular artistic and communication style.
• Develop working prototype(s) that demonstrate these methods in realistic design practice.
• Develop and apply evaluation methods to determine the efficacy of the interaction from a human perspective.

The doctoral candidate will be expected to:

• Conduct empirical studies and workshops, e.g. participatory design workshops.
• Prototype, design and develop novel interactive systems.
• Design, run, and analyze qualitative and quantitative studies to evaluate interaction techniques.
• Write and publish research articles for top-level research venues.

• Subsidized meals
• Partial reimbursement of public transport costs
• Leave: 7 weeks of annual leave + 10 extra days off due to RTT (statutory reduction in working hours) + possibility of exceptional leave (sick children, moving home, etc.)
• Possibility of teleworking and flexible organization of working hours
• Professional equipment available (videoconferencing, loan of computer equipment, etc.)
• Social, cultural and sports events and activities
• Access to vocational training
• Social security coverage

 2200 € per month