What if you could simulate a full-scale usability test—before involving a single human user? In this episode, we explore UXAgent, a groundbreaking system developed by researchers from Northeastern University, Amazon, and the University of Notre Dame. This tool leverages Large Language Models (LLMs) to create persona-driven agents that simulate real user interactions on web interfaces.

UXAgent's innovative architecture mimics both fast, intuitive decisions and deeper, reflective reasoning—bringing realistic and diverse user behavior into early-stage UX testing. The system enables rapid iteration of study designs, helps identify potential flaws, and even allows interviews with simulated users.

This episode is powered by insights generated using Google’s NotebookLM. Special thanks to the authors Yuxuan Lu, Bingsheng Yao, Hansu Gu, Jing Huang, Zheshen Wang, Yang Li, Jiri Gesi, Qi He, Toby Jia-Jun Li, and Dakuo Wang.

🔗 Read the full paper here: https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.09407