banner-image

Hello!

I am Samangi Wadinambiarachchi

I am a Final year PhD candidate in Human-Computer Interaction at the University of Melbourne, exploring the interaction between designers and AI-powered creativity tools. My professional journey includes experience as a University Lecturer and a User Experience (UX) Designer in Sri Lanka. These roles have sharpened my ability to apply a rigorous academic approach and practical insight. Skilled in design thinking and user-centric research, I adeptly employ quantitative and qualitative methods to enrich my investigations. My ambition is to develop my expertise in this ever-evolving field of Human-AI interaction. Alongside my research, I am dedicated to mentoring and empowering students in Sri Lanka and beyond to achieve excellence in the dynamic realms of interaction design and research.

Follow

Projects ↓

post-thumb

The effects of Generative AI on Design Fixation and Divergent Thinking

Authors: Samangi Wadinambiarachchi, Ryan M. Kelly, Saumya Pareek, Qiushi Zhou, Eduardo Velloso

Generative AI systems have been heralded as tools for augmenting human creativity and inspiring divergent thinking, though with little empirical evidence for these claims. This paper explores the effects of exposure to AI-generated images on measures of design fixation and divergent thinking in a visual ideation task. Through a between-participants experiment (N=60), we found that support from an AI image generator during ideation leads to higher fixation on an initial example. Participants who used AI produced fewer ideas, with less variety and lower originality compared to a baseline. Our qualitative analysis suggests that the effectiveness of co-ideation with AI rests on participants’ chosen approach to prompt creation and on the strategies used by participants to generate ideas in response to the AI’s suggestions. We discuss opportunities for designing generative AI systems for ideation support and incorporating these AI tools into ideation workflows.

read...