Search Support for Exploratory Writing

Abstract

Writing articles involves searching, exploring, evaluating and reflecting upon different perspectives. To this end, online search engines are commonly used tools to support writing. However, online search engines, such as Google, fall short in supporting complex queries that satisfy multiple criteria simultaneously. In this paper, we present our studies with GAS, a crowd-powered tool that allows writers to discover viewpoints, solutions and ideas that best fulfil multiple criteria simultaneously. Our user studies validate GAS as a beneficial companion to online search engines in supporting writing. We found that GAS helps people come up with ideas and write with more confidence, resulting in a higher self-reported article quality and accuracy when compared to only using an online search engine. Through our experiments, we also develop an understanding of the distinct process that people employ when searching for and exploring open-ended, subjective information to support exploratory writing.

CrowdCog

“…Working memory is the ability to hold information in memory and mentally work with it. Cognitive flexibility or Switching is the ability to adapt behaviours in response to changes in the environment and is often associated with creativity [14,54]. We provide instructions as well as an example before each test to aid workers.…”

Crowd-powered creativity support systems

“…We designed and tested an intervention [21] to support writers in finding and exploring different ideas for a writing piece. The lightweight system draws on a crowdsourced database and supports complex searches for information, that is, searches with at least two criteria, through a faceted filtering interface.…”

Unterstützung Kreativer Arbeit mit Crowdsourcing

“…Lösungsweg. Ein web-basiertes Interface [17] wurde entwickelt, mit dem Benutzer in der post-hoc Exploration und Auswahl von Ideenvorschlägen von Crowdworkern unterstützt werden. Ideen werden dabei aufgrund ihrer Übereinstimmung mit mehreren Suchkriterien sortiert.…”