arXiv AI

Creativity from Friction: Human-AI Interaction for Exploratory Structural Design

arXiv:2607. 07521v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: AI agents that generate final answers based on user input often do not meet the needs of creative fields.

Hugging Face Trending Papers
Jul 29

AI as Friction for Reflection Support in Ideation

Generative AI tools for creative work tend to be designed around the goal of removing friction, on the assumption that smoother iteration and faster output translate into more value for the designer. We argue, however, that this framing leaves out something important about how design ideation works, namely reflection-in-action.

arXiv AI
Jul 31

AI as Friction for Reflection Support in Ideation

arXiv:2607. 26827v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Generative AI tools for creative work tend to be designed around the goal of removing friction, on the assumption that smoother iteration and faster output translate into more value for the designer.

By Janin Koch, Xiaohan Liao, G\'ery Casiez
arXiv AI
Aug 25

TO-Agents: A Multi-Agent AI Framework for Subjective Preference-Guided Topology Optimization

TO-Agents is a multi‑agent AI framework that translates natural‑language design intent into iterative topology optimization. It converts a human problem description into solver inputs, runs the optimizer, renders 3D topologies, and employs a judge agent to critique and revise results using multiview vision‑language reasoning. Evaluated on a cantilever beam and a phone‑stand design, the system achieved preference‑aligned designs in 60% of trials, outperforming an ablated pipeline by up to six times and enabling end‑to‑end intent‑to‑prototype design with additive manufacturing.

By Isabella A. Stewart, Hongrui Chen, Faez Ahmed
arXiv Computation and Language
Sep 4

Editable Visual Design

Editable Visual Design introduces a new design paradigm that combines a Coding Agent with a Vision‑Language Model (VLM) and an image generation model. The VLM acts as the creative brain, understanding requirements, planning tasks, and judging aesthetics, while the image generator produces isolated visual assets on demand. The agent follows an "imagine first, then act" workflow, generating assets, writing native HTML/CSS, and refining the design through visual feedback, ultimately producing editable, layer‑wise artifacts with real text that can be adjusted via a graphical interface.

By Junyan Ye, Wei Liu, Dongzhi Jiang, Zichen Wen, HaoDong Li, Zhutao Lv, Jiaxin Lin, Jinhua Yu, Jun He, Zilong Huang, Rui Chen, Weijia Li
arXiv AI
Aug 24

Environmental Slow AI: Design Principles for Generative Systems

The paper "Environmental Slow AI: Design Principles for Generative Systems" argues that generative AI reflects embedded cultural values that can be reshaped. It proposes five design principles—restraint, sufficiency, selectivity over retention, material visibility, and friction as affordance—grounded in environmental sustainability and the Slow AI tradition. Each principle is illustrated with current system designs and operates at both implementation and interpretive levels to restore human agency and encourage reflective engagement.

By Vanessa Utz