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PhD opportunity in UX/UI design with interactive and generative AI

We are offering a self-funded PhD position with our Department of Computer Science at Brunel University of London, focusing on integrating AI into UX/UI design.

This research project aims to improve UX/UI design workflows by leveraging interactive and generative AI. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis.

If you have any questions about the project or would like to arrange an informal discussion, please reach out to Professor Yongmin Li at yongmin.li@brunel.ac.uk.

Research area

This research project focuses on the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI), human-computer interaction and UX/UI design. You'll explore how artificial intelligence can augment human designers' capabilities, streamline design processes, and create innovative user interfaces. You will have the opportunity to develop cutting-edge solutions that improve design efficiency and user engagement, ultimately driving advancements in digital product development.

Project description

User experience/interface (UX/UI) design is a complex and time-intensive process that traditionally relies on highly skilled professionals to create intuitive, engaging, and effective solutions.

This labour-intensive and time-consuming process can be a bottleneck in product development cycles. The emergence of artificial intelligence (AI), particularly interactive AI and generative AI can significantly accelerate design workflows by automating repetitive tasks, generating design variations, providing data-driven insights, and enabling a wider range of users to engage in the design process.

You will play a key role in advancing research on how AI can be used to enhance UX/UI design. This project provides a platform for you to develop your skills and make impactful contributions to the field of computer science.

Key focus areas

As a PhD candidate, your potential focus areas include:

  • AI models for design elements: Develop new AI models or frameworks to create unique design elements, patterns, and illustrations
  • Generative user interfaces (genUI): Create personalised user experiences through generative interfaces
  • AI-assisted persona generation: Automate the creation of user personas and profiles
  • Prototype transformation: Convert low-fidelity prototypes into mid and high-fidelity prototypes using AI
  • User insight analysis: Use AI to analyze user requirements and evaluate design effectiveness
  • Accessibility design: Enhance and assess accessibility in design with AI

Research approach

This project employs a multidisciplinary approach, combining advanced AI techniques with UX/UI design principles to enhance digital product development. You will:

  • Explore AI solutions for UX/UI design: Leverage AI to improve design workflows
  • Collaborate across disciplines: Work with experts in AI, design, and human-computer interaction to develop comprehensive solutions

Who we're looking for

Are you a motivated and passionate individual with an interest in AI in UX/UI design? We are looking for someone like you to join our research team.

Your passion for exploring and advancing this field will be essential, as will your innovative thinking to develop creative solutions to complex problems. Your strong interpersonal skills will enable you to collaborate effectively with a diverse team of researchers.

While previous experience in conducting research, especially in AI applications or UX/UI design, is highly valued, it is not a strict requirement.

How to apply

If you are interested in applying for the above PhD topic please follow the steps below:

  1. Contact the supervisor by email or phone to discuss your interest and find out if you would be suitable. Supervisor details can be found on this topic page. The supervisor will guide you in developing the topic-specific research proposal, which will form part of your application.
  2. Click on the 'Apply here' button on this page and you will be taken to the relevant PhD course page, where you can apply using an online application.
  3. Complete the online application indicating your selected supervisor and include the research proposal for the topic you have selected.

Good luck!

This is a self funded topic

Brunel offers a number of funding options to research students that help cover the cost of their tuition fees, contribute to living expenses or both. See more information here: https://www.brunel.ac.uk/research/Research-degrees/Research-degree-funding. The UK Government is also offering Doctoral Student Loans for eligible students, and there is some funding available through the Research Councils. Many of our international students benefit from funding provided by their governments or employers. Brunel alumni enjoy tuition fee discounts of 15%.

Meet the Supervisor(s)


Yongmin Li - Please visit my personal website where you may find more details of my work. Prof. Yongmin Li received his PhD from Queen Mary, University of London, MEng and BEng from Tsinghua University, China. Before joining Brunel University, he worked as a research scientist in the British Telecom Laboratories. He is a Senior Member of the IEEE, and Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. He was ranked in the world's top 2% scientists by the Standardized Citation Indicators (Elsevier) every year since 2020. His research interest covers the areas of data science, machine learning, artificial intelligence, image processing, computer vision, video analysis, medical imaging, bio-imaging, biomedical engineering, healthcare technologies, automatic control and nonlinear filtering. Together with his colleagues, their work has won the following awards:
  • 1st Place, RETOUCH Challenge (Online), MICCAI 2023 (with Ndipenoch, Miron and Wang).
  • 2nd Place, FeTA Challenge, MICCAI 2022 (with McConnell, Ndipenoch and Miron).
  • Most Influential Paper over the Decade Award, MVA, 2019 (with Ruta, Porikli, et al).
  • Best Paper Award, Bioimaging, 2018 (with Dodo, Eltayef and Liu).
  • VC Prize, Brunel University, 2015 (with Kaba and Liu).
  • Best Paper Award, HIS, 2012 (with Salazar-Gonzalez and Kaba).
  • Best Poster Prize, BMVC, 2007 (with Ruta and Liu).
  • Best Scientific Paper Award, BMVC, 2001 (with Gong and Liddell).
  • Best Paper Prize, RATFG, 2001 (with Gong and Liddell).
For Chinese students only: Twenty (20) China Scholarship Council (CSC) scholarships are available for PhD studies at Brunel University of London. Brunel University of London will provide full tuition fees (up to 48 months) for each successful candidate. The CSC will provide each scholarship recipient with a stipend for living costs (including medical insurance), one international round trip economy class airfare between China and the UK, and reimbursement for one-off visa application fees. Follow this link to apply. Expected start date: September 2025. Deadline : 3 January 2025 at 12am. Prospective PhD Students: We invite talented and hard-working students to join us for their PhD study. From time to time, we may have studentships available, which include an annual bursary (about £18,000 this year) plus payment of tuition fees for three years. Currently we have several projects on-going, for example, Deep Learning for Medical Imaging, Natural Language Processing for Business Intelligence, Natural Language Processing for Tax Assessment, and Image/Video Content Generation for Personalised Remarketing. But any other topics within the area of artificial intelligence and data science would also be welcome.  Contact me for details if interested. Master of Science in Artificial Intelligence 2024/25: Built on our strong international research profile (consistently ranked in the top 200 in the world over the past decade by various ranking systems, and particularly strong in publication performance, e.g. 7th in UK by the "NTU Performance Ranking of Scientific Papers for World Universities" (Subject: Computer Science, 2023),  we offer the MSc Artificial Intelligence course with great flexibility (1 year full-time, 2 year part-time or 3 year staged study). If you are interested, apply here. 15 Scholarships available for applicants from under-represented groups, £10,000 of each. Research & Development Collaboration: Developing downstream applications of large AI models is a focused area of my group in the upcoming years. Contact me if you have a collaboration project. We can assist in securing funding from sources like UKRI, EU, or Innovate UK, potentially cutting your costs in the project significantly (e.g. by 1/3 or more), plus the university's input.

Fotios Spyridonis - Fotis is a Senior Lecturer in Computer Science focusing on Interactive Multimedia and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI).

Related Research Group(s)

Human Computer Interaction

Human Computer Interaction - Investigating ways in which humans and computers can interact through intuitive interface design, understanding of human factors and multimedia.

Intelligent Data Analysis

Intelligent Data Analysis - Concerned with effective analysis of data involving artificial intelligence, dynamic systems, image and signal processing, optimisation, pattern recognition, statistics and visualisation.