What is it about?
In this user experience (UX) study, 45 high school students were tasked with writing a creative piece under time constraints using a unique variant of a writing application custom-developed by our interaction design lab, CAVI. One third used the writing application with no obvious display of the imposed time constraint, while the two other groups used the application with a visual timer and fading text, respectively. The study explores the pros and cons of such visual display of a time constraint in the graphical user interface (GUI) and suggests new ideas for further development of user-friendly applications for creative writing.
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Why is it important?
This study suggests that the writing applications (such as MS Word) that many of us rely on every day are not necessarily well-suited for the familiar process of having to write 'on cue;' that is, producing creative text under severe time constraints. The study points to the importance of continuously refining these tools, not least by looking toward creativity research for insights and inspiration when designing creativity support tools for the future.
Perspectives
Most of us who frequently engage in creative writing rely on off-the-shelf writing applications such as MS Word or Google Docs. Although prevalent and undeniably helpful, these tools may not be ideal for the specific practice of creative writing and even less so for doing so under time constraints. With this paper, we wish to challenge the apparent status quo of these predominant writing tools and suggest that there is room for new perspectives and design improvements to make the use of these creative writing tools more efficient and, ultimately, more fun.
Michael Mose Biskjaer
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: How Time Constraints in a Creativity Support Tool Affect the Creative Writing Experience, September 2019, ACM (Association for Computing Machinery),
DOI: 10.1145/3335082.3335084.
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