UXID Lab

Welcome to the UXID Lab

The UXID Lab (User Experience and Interaction Design Lab) at Ontario Tech University conducts cutting-edge research in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), with a strong emphasis on human-AI interaction, information visualization, and wearable technologies. We design intuitive, data-driven interfaces that enhance user experience and accessibility across digital platforms. Our interdisciplinary team explores how AI can better understand and support user needs, particularly through adaptive and responsive design. With a diverse group of students, researchers, and collaborators, the UXID Lab is committed to shaping the future of interaction design through innovation and inclusivity.

Research

Focused on impactful advancements across a range of areas, from Human-Computer Interaction to AI in User Experience.

Human-AI Interaction

Exploring how AI systems can interact with users seamlessly, enhancing human-AI collaboration across diverse applications.

AI in User Experience

Exploring AI's potential in creating adaptive and personalized interfaces to enhance user engagement and accessibility.

Wearable Technology

Focusing on designing interaction techniques for wearable devices, aimed at accessibility and user-friendly interaction.

Publications

PaperPal: An AI-Powered Platform for Collaborative Reading and Discussion

PaperPal: An AI-Powered Platform for Collaborative Reading and Discussion

Authors: Sakil Sarker, Carlos Carrasco Garcia, Patrick Hung, Heidar Davoudi, Ali Neshati

CUI '25: Proceedings of the 7th ACM Conference on Conversational User Interfaces Article No.: 19, Pages 1 - 6

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CitePeek: Contextual Citation Exploration Within Research Papers

CitePeek: Contextual Citation Exploration Within Research Papers

Authors: Yasaman AkhoundzadehBasti, Heidar Davoudi, Ali Neshati

CUI '25: Proceedings of the 7th ACM Conference on Conversational User Interfaces Article No.: 20, Pages 1 - 7

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Large Language User Interfaces: Voice Interactive UIs

Large Language User Interfaces: Voice Interactive User Interfaces powered by LLMs

Authors: Syed Mekael Wasti, Ken Q Pu, Ali Neshati

Intelligent Systems Conference, 2024 - Springer, pp 639–655

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Exploring Uni-manual Around Ear Off-Device Gestures for Earables

Exploring Uni-manual Around Ear Off-Device Gestures for Earables

Authors: Shaikh Shawon Arefin Shimon, Ali Neshati, Junwei Sun, Qiang Xu, Jian Zhao

Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies, Volume 8, Issue 1 Article No.: 3, Pages 1 - 29

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Exploring Unimanual Region-to-Region (R2R) Swipes for Off-Device Earable Interaction

Exploring Unimanual Region-to-Region (R2R) Swipes for Off-Device Earable Interaction

Authors: Shimon Shaikh Shawon, Ali Neshati, Qiang Sun, Junwei, Xu, Jian Zhao

Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies, Volume 8, Issue 1 Article No.: 3, Pages 1 - 29

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Exploring Interactive Color Palettes for Abstraction-Driven Exploratory Image Colorization

Exploring Interactive Color Palettes for Abstraction-Driven Exploratory Image Colorization

Authors: Xinyu Shi, Mingyu Liu, Ziqi Zhou, Ali Neshati, Ryan Rossi, Jian Zhao

CHI '24: Proceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Article No.: 146, Pages 1 - 16

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In-vehicle Performance and Distraction for Midair and Touch Directional Gestures

In-vehicle Performance and Distraction for Midair and Touch Directional Gestures

Authors: Arman Hafizi, Jay Henderson, Ali Neshati, Wei Zhou, Edward Lank, Daniel Vogel

CHI '23: Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Article No.: 316, Pages 1 - 13

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De-Stijl: Facilitating graphics design with interactive 2D color palette recommendation

De-Stijl: Facilitating graphics design with interactive 2D color palette recommendation

Authors: Xinyu Shi, Ziqi Zhou, Jing Wen Zhang, Ali Neshati, Anjul Kumar Tyagi, Ryan Rossi, Shunan Guo, Fan Du, Jian Zhao

CHI '23: Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Article No.: 122, Pages 1 - 19

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Interaction Region Characteristics for Midair Barehand Targeting on a Television

Interaction Region Characteristics for Midair Barehand Targeting on a Television

Authors: Jay Henderson, Ali Neshati, Sachi Mizobuchi, Wei Zhou, Daniel Vogel, Edward Lank

CHI EA '23: Extended Abstracts of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Article No.: 180, Pages 1 - 7

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Slide4n: Creating presentation slides from computational notebooks with human-ai collaboration

Slide4n: Creating presentation slides from computational notebooks with human-ai collaboration

Authors: Fengjie Wang, Xuye Liu, Oujing Liu, Ali Neshati, Tengfei Ma, Min Zhu, Jian Zhao

CHI '23: Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Article No.: 364, Pages 1 - 18

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Interaction Region Characteristics for Midair Barehand Targeting on a Television

Interaction Region Characteristics for Midair Barehand Targeting on a Television

Authors: Jay Henderson, Ali Neshati, Sachi Mizobuchi, Wei Zhou, Daniel Vogel, Edward Lank

CHI EA '23: Extended Abstracts of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Article No.: 180, Pages 1 - 7

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EdgeSelect: Smartwatch Data Interaction with Minimal Screen Occlusion

EdgeSelect: Smartwatch Data Interaction with Minimal Screen Occlusion

Authors: A Neshati, A Salo, SA Faleel, Z Li, HN Liang, C Latulipe, P Irani

ICMI '22: Proceedings of the 2022 International Conference on Multimodal Interaction Pages 288 - 29

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Data visualization and interaction on smartwatch small screens

Data visualization and interaction on smartwatch small screens

Author: Ali Neshati

University of Manitoba, 2022

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Understanding and Adapting Bezel-to-Bezel Interactions for Circular Smartwatches in Mobile and Encumbered Scenarios

Understanding and Adapting Bezel-to-Bezel Interactions for Circular Smartwatches in Mobile and Encumbered Scenarios

Authors: B Rey, K Zhu, ST Perrault, S Bardot, A Neshati, P Irani

Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, Volume 6, Issue MHCI Article No.: 201, Pages 1 - 28

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Crowdsourcing vs laboratory-style social acceptability studies? Examining the social acceptability of spatial user interactions for head-worn displays

Crowdsourcing vs laboratory-style social acceptability studies? Examining the social acceptability of spatial user interactions for head-worn displays

Authors: Fouad Alallah, Ali Neshati, Nima Sheibani, Yumiko Sakamoto, Andrea Bunt, Pourang Irani, Khalad Hasan

CHI '18: Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Paper No.: 310, Pages 1 - 7

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BezelGlide: Interacting with Graphs on Smartwatches with Minimal Screen Occlusion

BezelGlide: Interacting with Graphs on Smartwatches with Minimal Screen Occlusion

Authors: A Neshati, B Rey, AS Mohommed Faleel, S Bardot, C Latulipe, P Irani

CHI '21: Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Article No.: 501, Pages 1 - 13

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SF-LG: Space-Filling Line Graphs for Visualizing Interrelated Time-series Data on Smartwatches

SF-LG: Space-Filling Line Graphs for Visualizing Interrelated Time-series Data on Smartwatches

Authors: A Neshati, F Alallah, B Rey, Y Sakamoto, M Serrano, P Irani

MobileHCI '21: Proceedings of the 23rd International Conference on Mobile Human-Computer Interaction Article No.: 5, Pages 1 - 13

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🏅 Honorable Mention Award
Using Guessability Framework: Age-related Differences in Hand Gesture Interaction

Using Guessability Framework: Age-related Differences in Hand Gesture Interaction

Authors: Y Vasylkiv, A Neshati, SAM Faleel, Y Sakamoto, P Irani

AH '20: Proceedings of the 11th Augmented Human International Conference Article No.: 24, Pages 1 - 2

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Eyes-Free Graph Legibility: Using Skin-Dragging to Provide a Tactile Graph Visualization on the Arm

Eyes-Free Graph Legibility: Using Skin-Dragging to Provide a Tactile Graph Visualization on the Arm

Authors: S Bardot, S Rempel, B Rey, A Neshati, Y Sakamoto, C Menon, P Irani

AH '20: Proceedings of the 11th Augmented Human International Conference Article No.: 1, Pages 1 - 8

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G-Sparks: Glanceable Sparklines on Smartwatches

G-Sparks: Glanceable Sparklines on Smartwatches

Authors: A Neshati, Y Sakamoto, L Leboe-Mcgowan, J Leboe-McGowan, M Serrano, P Irani

GI '19: Proceedings of the 45th Graphics Interface Conference Article No.: 23, Pages 1 - 9

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An Analytic Model for Time-Efficient Personal Hierarchies

An Analytic Model for Time-Efficient Personal Hierarchies

Authors: W Delamare, A Neshati, P Irani, X Ren

CHI '19: Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Paper No.: 368, Pages 1 - 11

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🏅 Honorable Mention Award
Smart Home Interactions for People with Reduced Hand Mobility Using Subtle EMG-Signal Gestures

Smart Home Interactions for People with Reduced Hand Mobility Using Subtle EMG-Signal Gestures

Authors: Y Vasylkiv, A Neshati, Y Sakamoto, R Gomez, K Nakamura, P Irani

Studies in Health Technology and Informatics, Volume 257: Improving Usability, Safety and Patient Outcomes with Health Information Technology, Pages 436 - 443

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Challenges in Displaying Health Data on Small Smartwatch Screens

Challenges in Displaying Health Data on Small Smartwatch Screens

Authors: A Neshati, Y Sakamoto, P Irani

Studies in Health Technology and Informatics, Volume 257: Improving Usability, Safety and Patient Outcomes with Health Information Technology, Pages 325 - 332

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Performer vs. Observer: Whose Comfort Level Should We Consider When Examining the Social Acceptability of Input Modalities for Head-Worn Display?

Performer vs. Observer: Whose Comfort Level Should We Consider When Examining the Social Acceptability of Input Modalities for Head-Worn Display?

Authors: F Alallah, A Neshati, Y Sakamoto, K Hasan, E Lank, A Bunt, P Irani

VRST '18: Proceedings of the 24th ACM Symposium on Virtual Reality Software and Technology Article No.: 10, Pages 1 - 9

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Is Really NACK Protocol Secure to Be Employed in MANETs?

Is Really NACK Protocol Secure to Be Employed in MANETs?

Authors: M Saeed, A Mackvandi, M Taghavi, MZ Bidoki, M Ghasemi, A Neshati

2014 IEEE 17th International Conference on Computational Science and Engineering

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Our Team

Supervisor

Ali Neshati

Ali Neshati

Assistant Professor, Faculty of Science

Ph.D. in Computer Science, University of Manitoba

Graduate Students

Sakil Sarker

Sakil Sarker

Master's student specializing in AI, focusing on Human-AI Interaction and LLMs.

Co-supervisor: Dr. Kourosh Davoudi

Aron-Seth Cohen

Aron-Seth Cohen

Researching HCI with a focus on interaction design and usability in complex systems.

Co-supervisor: Dr. Christopher Collins

Yasaman Ghasemi

Yasaman Ghasemi

Exploring data-driven UX improvements and interactive system development.

Co-supervisor: Dr. Kourosh Davoudi

Undergraduate Students

Farees Siddiqui

Farees Siddiqui

Final-year student focusing on UI/UX design and prototyping.

Neel Shah

Neel Shah

Final-year student with a focus on interaction technologies and data visualization.

Neel Shah

Nicholas Kissoon

Final-year student with a research focus on wearable technologies like smartwatches.

David Long

David Long

Final-year student with interests in machine learning and AI, transitioning to a master’s program.

Opportunities

PhD Position in HCI

Engage in cutting-edge research in HCI, focusing on adaptive interfaces, wearables, and the ethical design of interactive systems to improve user experiences.

Learn More & Apply

Master's Position in Human-AI Interaction

Explore advanced topics in Human-AI Interaction, including emotional AI, real-time feedback, and adaptive, AI-driven interfaces for enhanced user engagement.

Learn More & Apply

Research Collaboration

Collaborate with us on projects in input devices, ubiquitous analytics, and mobile interfaces, advancing Information Visualization and wearable UX.

Learn More & Apply

Teaching

Ontario Tech University

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Specializing in Human-Computer Interaction, software design, and mobile development.

  • Fall 2023: Human-Computer Interaction
  • Winter 2024: Software Design
  • Fall 2024: Mobile Development, Human-Computer Interaction

University of Waterloo

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Practical courses in HCI and foundational computer science.

  • Summer 2022, Winter 2023: CS 449 - Human-Computer Interaction
  • CS 105 - Introductory Computer Science

University of Manitoba

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Programming fundamentals and object-oriented principles.

  • Comp 2150 - Object Orientation
  • Comp 1020 - Introductory Computer Science II
  • Comp 1010 - Introductory Computer Science I

Get in Touch

Have a question, collaboration idea, or want to join the lab? Drop us a message and we’ll get back to you!