Foundation Interface Lab (hci.ucsd.edu)

Drs. Haijun Xia and Jim Hollan have launched the Foundation Interface Lab to rethink user interfaces for a new era of AI-augmented work. The lab’s goal is to move beyond a 50-year-old paradigm where information is static, commands are rigid, and applications are siloed, and instead create dynamic, malleable, adaptive interfaces that tightly couple human cognitive processes with intelligent computation. By treating information as active and interfaces as co-creative partners, the lab aims to remove a key bottleneck that limits how effectively people and AI systems can collaborate and scale complex information work. Technically, the lab’s agenda spans theory, frameworks, toolkits, and full systems, grounded in applied domains such as creativity support, scholarly research workflows, data visualization, and programming environments. Expected outcomes include interactive primitives and toolkits for adaptive behavior, new interaction metaphors that embed computation into information objects, and integrated systems that break application silos—enabling more fluid data manipulation, exploratory analysis, and mixed-initiative workflows. The lab is recruiting: undergraduate and graduate internships are accepted year-round, and a postdoc position begins early 2025 (contact Haijun Xia). This work could reshape human-AI interfaces, improving productivity, discoverability, and the conviviality of information environments.