Hello! I am Liwenhan Xie (Shelly). I am an HCI researcher dedicated to human-AI interaction and creative tasks. I've recently obtained my Ph.D. from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, advised by Prof. Huamin Qu.

With a background in information visualization and human-computer interaction, I study the design of interactive systems that prioritize human agency in creative tasks, focusing on its nuanced, exploratory, and unquantifiable aspects.

Latest News  
⊙ I release my LaTeX CV template. Welcome to reuse/adapt!
⊙ One paper about storytelling with collages was accepted to CHI’26.
⊙ I defended my Ph.D. dissertation! 🍰 Take a Cake!
⊙ I received 5 (out of 6) special recognition for outstanding reviews at CHI’26.
⊙ Awarded the HKUST Redbird Scholarship.
⊙ DataWink was accepted to IEEE VIS. See you in Vienna!
Liwenhan Xie

Projects   Overview

DataSway
DIS'26

DataSway brings metaphorical visualizations to life, translating a creator’s high-level animation intent into vivid motion that can be tweaked with low-level clips.

Website Video Demo
DataWink
VIS'25

DataWink supports creative reuse, using a VLM-powered pipeline to extract a template from a vis example and allows dynamic adaptation in low-level features.

Website Video Code
WaitGPT
UIST'24

WaitGPT translates complex LLM-generated code into a live, interactive diagram, giving data analysts the power to proactively steer the agent’s analysis.

Website Video
Wakey-Wakey
UIST'23

Wakey-Wakey applies the motion pattern of a sticker into kinetic typography, giving creators a powerful new path while allowing tweaking with intermediate features.

Website Talk Code
Emordle
TVCG'23

Emordle generates word clouds that express nuanced emotion, moving beyond simple categories to allow for subtle and personal refinement with dedicated parameters.

Website Talk Demo

👀 How can we express naturally?   Projects    Publications

Designing Interactive Scaffolds for Steering VLM-Powered Visualization Generation

Liwenhan Xie
Ph.D. Dissertation
About Thesis DOI Slides (.pdf) Slides (.pptx) Ack

DataSway: Vivifying Metaphoric Visualization with Animation Clip Generation and Coordination

Liwenhan Xie, Jiayi Zhou, Anyi Rao, Huamin Qu, Xinhuan Shu
DIS 2026 ACM Designing Interactive Systems in Singapore
DOI arXiv Website Video Corpus Code

Collaposer: Transforming Photo Collections into Visual Assets for Storytelling with Collages

Jiayi Zhou, Liwenhan Xie, Jiaju Ma, Zheng Wei, Huamin Qu, Anyi Rao
CHI 2026 ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems in Barcelona, Spain
DOI arXiv Website Video

DataWink: Reusing and Adapting SVG-based Visualization Examples with Large Multimodal Models

Liwenhan Xie, Yanna Lin, Can Liu, Huamin Qu, Xinhuan Shu
VIS 2025 IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics
DOI arXiv Website Video Slides (.pptx)

Creating Emordle: Animating Word Cloud for Emotion Expression

Liwenhan Xie, Xinhuan Shu, Jeon Cheol Su, Yun Wang, Siming Chen, Huamin Qu
TVCG 2024 IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics
DOI arXiv Website Preview Talk Corpus Demo Slides (.pptx)

Wakey-Wakey: Animate Text by Mimicking Characters in a GIF

Liwenhan Xie*, Zhaoyu Zhou*, Kerun Yu, Yun Wang, Huamin Qu, Siming Chen
UIST 2023 ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology in San Francisco, USA
DOI arXiv Website Preview Talk Code Slides (.pptx)