Individual information is paramount to the case view

what metaphors can we use to design intuitive, Explicit and mutable context in LLMs?

what metaphors can we use to design intuitive, Explicit and mutable context in LLMs?

HUMAN-AI INTERACTION

CONVERSATIONAL UI

Context engineering

DIRECT MANIPULATION

INTERACTION DESIGN

Context in LLMs is hidden, ephemeral, and out of the user's hands. As conversations grow, models degrade, a phenomenon known as Context Rot. While existing research treats this as a technical bottleneck, we identify a design gap, Interactional Context Engineering, using UI to make context explicit and manipulable, so users can understand what the AI knows and actively shape it, rather than drifting into passive "instruct, serve, repeat" loops.

Context in LLMs is hidden, ephemeral, and out of the user's hands. As conversations grow, models degrade, a phenomenon known as Context Rot. While existing research treats this as a technical bottleneck, we identify a design gap, Interactional Context Engineering, using UI to make context explicit and manipulable, so users can understand what the AI knows and actively shape it, rather than drifting into passive "instruct, serve, repeat" loops.

Context in LLMs is hidden, ephemeral, and out of the user's hands. As conversations grow, models degrade, a phenomenon known as Context Rot. While existing research treats this as a technical bottleneck, we identify a design gap, Interactional Context Engineering, using UI to make context explicit and manipulable, so users can understand what the AI knows and actively shape it, rather than drifting into passive "instruct, serve, repeat" loops.

Context engineering

HUMAN-AI INTERACTION

CONVERSATIONAL UI

Context engineering

DIRECT MANIPULATION

INTERACTION DESIGN

HUMAN-AI INTERACTION

CONVERSATIONAL UI

DIRECT MANIPULATION

INTERACTION DESIGN

The project is still in progress. The deliverables and the research was presented at NYU's Research Excellence Exhibit 2026

The project is still in progress. The deliverables and the research was presented at NYU's Research Excellence Exhibit 2026

Siddharth Srivastava

Isaac Ting

Reviewed by

Vedant Daas Swain

Kevin Chow

A glimpse of Bloom DELIVERABLES

Presented our research work at NYU's 2026 Tandon Research Excellence Exhibit

What is Context?

We understand Context very differently. Context is the specific piece of information that is deemed relevant to the LLM to make better decisions. At the moment we are still forming the language that we use to describe what context is beyond just prompting. Existing research look at different classifications of context, using language that is familiar to us from the lens of “memory”. In current design literature, CONTEXT IS USUALLY HIDDEN or takes huge cognitive load to curate.

Context segregation

Context segregation

Prior work addresses pieces of the puzzle. No existing work combines a terrain-based metaphor, applied to AI context/memory, that supports interactive manipulation through cartographic primitives.

My other projects

my projects

my OTHER projects

Create a free website with Framer, the website builder loved by startups, designers and agencies.