AI-Instruments: Embodying Prompts as Instruments to Abstract & Reflect Graphical Interface Commands as General-Purpose Tools

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Riche, Nathalie, Offenwanger, Anna, Gmeiner, Frederic, Brown, David, Romat, Hugo, Pahud, Michel, Marquardt, Nicolai, Inkpen, Kori, Hinckley, Ken
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Riche, Nathalie
Offenwanger, Anna
Gmeiner, Frederic
Brown, David
Romat, Hugo
Pahud, Michel
Marquardt, Nicolai
Inkpen, Kori
Hinckley, Ken
author_facet Riche, Nathalie
Offenwanger, Anna
Gmeiner, Frederic
Brown, David
Romat, Hugo
Pahud, Michel
Marquardt, Nicolai
Inkpen, Kori
Hinckley, Ken
contents Chat-based prompts respond with verbose linear-sequential texts, making it difficult to explore and refine ambiguous intents, back up and reinterpret, or shift directions in creative AI-assisted design work. AI-Instruments instead embody "prompts" as interface objects via three key principles: (1) Reification of user-intent as reusable direct-manipulation instruments; (2) Reflection of multiple interpretations of ambiguous user-intents (Reflection-in-intent) as well as the range of AI-model responses (Reflection-in-response) to inform design "moves" towards a desired result; and (3) Grounding to instantiate an instrument from an example, result, or extrapolation directly from another instrument. Further, AI-Instruments leverage LLM's to suggest, vary, and refine new instruments, enabling a system that goes beyond hard-coded functionality by generating its own instrumental controls from content. We demonstrate four technology probes, applied to image generation, and qualitative insights from twelve participants, showing how AI-Instruments address challenges of intent formulation, steering via direct manipulation, and non-linear iterative workflows to reflect and resolve ambiguous intents.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2502_18736
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle AI-Instruments: Embodying Prompts as Instruments to Abstract & Reflect Graphical Interface Commands as General-Purpose Tools
Riche, Nathalie
Offenwanger, Anna
Gmeiner, Frederic
Brown, David
Romat, Hugo
Pahud, Michel
Marquardt, Nicolai
Inkpen, Kori
Hinckley, Ken
Human-Computer Interaction
Artificial Intelligence
Chat-based prompts respond with verbose linear-sequential texts, making it difficult to explore and refine ambiguous intents, back up and reinterpret, or shift directions in creative AI-assisted design work. AI-Instruments instead embody "prompts" as interface objects via three key principles: (1) Reification of user-intent as reusable direct-manipulation instruments; (2) Reflection of multiple interpretations of ambiguous user-intents (Reflection-in-intent) as well as the range of AI-model responses (Reflection-in-response) to inform design "moves" towards a desired result; and (3) Grounding to instantiate an instrument from an example, result, or extrapolation directly from another instrument. Further, AI-Instruments leverage LLM's to suggest, vary, and refine new instruments, enabling a system that goes beyond hard-coded functionality by generating its own instrumental controls from content. We demonstrate four technology probes, applied to image generation, and qualitative insights from twelve participants, showing how AI-Instruments address challenges of intent formulation, steering via direct manipulation, and non-linear iterative workflows to reflect and resolve ambiguous intents.
title AI-Instruments: Embodying Prompts as Instruments to Abstract & Reflect Graphical Interface Commands as General-Purpose Tools
topic Human-Computer Interaction
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.18736