How Time Constraints in a Creativity Support Tool Affect the Creative Writing Experience

TY - GEN

T1 - How Time Constraints in a Creativity Support Tool Affect the Creative Writing Experience

AU - Biskjaer, Michael Mose

AU - Frich Pedersen, Jonas

AU - Macdonald Vermeulen, Lindsay

AU - Remy, Christian

AU - Dalsgaard, Peter

N1 - Conference code: 31

PY - 2019/9

Y1 - 2019/9

N2 - Being able to write ‘on cue’ is critical in text-based, creative domains, since time is often a limited resource. Although numerous digital-interactive Creativity Support Tools (CSTs) are available, writing applications with features to support creative writing as a time-constrained activity have scarcely evolved since the 1960s. This is striking, since studies show that time constraints may benefit creativity. We present an exploratory survey-based, qualitative user experience study of how a writing application prototype designed to accel- erate text production by imposing time constraints affects a creative writing task among high school students (n=45). Using thematic analysis, we report how implicit and explicit time constraints built into the GUI (graphical user inter- face) influence how users experience time pressure and the quantity vs. quality, initiation, and revision of their creative writing process. We discuss how writing applications may develop to incorporate time constraints to support creative writing, as well as the need for increased tool literacy.

AB - Being able to write ‘on cue’ is critical in text-based, creative domains, since time is often a limited resource. Although numerous digital-interactive Creativity Support Tools (CSTs) are available, writing applications with features to support creative writing as a time-constrained activity have scarcely evolved since the 1960s. This is striking, since studies show that time constraints may benefit creativity. We present an exploratory survey-based, qualitative user experience study of how a writing application prototype designed to accel- erate text production by imposing time constraints affects a creative writing task among high school students (n=45). Using thematic analysis, we report how implicit and explicit time constraints built into the GUI (graphical user inter- face) influence how users experience time pressure and the quantity vs. quality, initiation, and revision of their creative writing process. We discuss how writing applications may develop to incorporate time constraints to support creative writing, as well as the need for increased tool literacy.

KW - creative writing

KW - creativity

KW - creativity support tool (CST)

KW - time constraints

KW - user experience

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85073157503&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1145/3335082.3335084

DO - 10.1145/3335082.3335084

M3 - Article in proceedings

SN - 978-1-4503-7166-7

SP - 100

EP - 107

BT - ECCE 2019: Proceedings of the 31st European Conference on Cognitive Ergonomics

A2 - Mulvenna, M

A2 - Bond, R

PB - Association for Computing Machinery

T2 - European Conference on Cognitive Ergonomics (ECCE 2019)

Y2 - 10 September 2019 through 13 September 2019

ER -