About

Hi! My name is Jiaxin ("Jee-ah-shin") An (安佳鑫). I'm a PhD candidate at the School of Information, University of Texas at Austin, researching how to design AI agents that amplify human autonomy rather than replace it.

My work sits at the intersection of human-agent interaction and health information practice. I explore how people understand and relate to conversational agents—investigating the metaphors users employ, the barriers and concerns they have, and the design decisions that either support or undermine their autonomy. I also study how people seek health information across their lived experiences, such as older adults, patients with fibromyalgia, and parents caring for children with autism.

The connective thread: How can we design agentic systems that respect and preserve human autonomy in health contexts? Rather than asking "what can AI do," I ask "what should AI do to empower rather than diminish users in their health information practice?"

Selected Publications
Conversational Agents
An, J. (2026). Autonomy in Older Adults' Information Seeking with Information Agents. CHIIR 2026 (pp. 388–393). [Link]
Zhang, Y., An, J., Wang, B., Zhang, Y., & Liu, J. (Under revision). Human-Centered Explainability in Interactive Information Systems: A Survey. ACM TOIS. [Link]
An, J., Yi, S., Lyu, Y., & Zhang, Y. (Pre-print). Conversational agents for older adults' healthcare: A systematic review. [Link]
Choi, W., Bak, H., An, J., Zhang, Y., & Stvilia, B. (2024). College students' credibility assessments of GenAI-generated information. JASIST. 🏅 SIG-AI Best Paper Award [Link]
An, J., Bak, H., Choi, W., Zhang, Y., & Stvilia, B. (2024). College Students' Metaphors for ChatGPT: An Exploratory Study. Proceedings of ASIS&T. [Link]
Health Information Practice
Lin, J., An, J., & Zhang, Y. (Under review). Exploring everyday life health information-seeking conversations as an information practice. Information Research.
An, J., Fan, W., Mittal, A., Zhang, Y., & Chen, A. (2024). Mobile App Use among Persons with Fibromyalgia: A Cross-Sectional Survey. The Journal of Pain.
An, J., Na, Y., & Zhang, P. (2019). How do parents of children with ASD use information grounds to seek for ASD-related information? Proceedings of ASIS&T, 56(1), 10–20. [Link]

Full list on Google Scholar and CV.

Research Awards & Scholarships
IC² Institute Graduate Fellowship, UT Austin2025–26
Best AI Published Paper Award, ASIS&T SIG-AI2025
Student Travel Grant Award, ASIS&T SIG-AI2024 / 2025
Dayuan Wu & Suiqiao Chen Scholarship (Top 1 in library science), Peking University2017
Research Experience

Research Assistant — University of Texas at Austin (Aug 2021 – Present)

Human-Centered Explainability in Interactive Information Systems · Generative AI in Education · Consumer Longitudinal Health Information Needs · Fibromyalgia Mobile App Use

Research Investigator — Peking University (Jul 2015 – Jan 2020)

Information Behavior of Parents of Children with ASD · Emoji Usage in Smartphone Communications · Primary School Students' Internet Use for Learning

Teaching Experience

Teaching Assistant — UT Austin (Jan 2023 – Present)

Programming for Informatics · Academic Success in Digital University · Consumer Health Informatics · Introduction to Informatics

Teaching Assistant — Peking University (Sep 2018 – May 2020)

The Organization of Information

Industry Experience
User Research Intern — Xiaomi Technology, BeijingApr–Jul 2021
User Research Intern — Ferrum Health, San FranciscoJul–Aug 2018
Product Manager Assistant — Didi Chuxing, BeijingJul 2017–Jan 2018
Skills

Software: NVivo · MAXQDA · SPSS · Excel · Axure · Sketch · Figma

Methods: Qualitative (surveys, observation, interviews, focus groups, diaries) · Quantitative (experiment design, statistical tests)

Coding: Python · SQL · HTML · CSS

Languages: Chinese · English

Contact

The best way to reach me is by email: jiaxin.an@austin.utexas.edu.

I'm also on LinkedIn and Zhihu (Chinese content).