Mindwriter: An Integrated Word Processing Environment for Academic Writing

Kai Hu, Purdue University

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to propose a high-level system framework, an integrated word processing environment that fosters a clear academic writing workflow and facilitates various academic writing activities. The target users were college students and university faculties who need to write academic papers. In this study, the researcher reviewed literature on the development of writing technologies, the paradigm of academic writing, writing behaviors, and different writing models proposed by scholars in the disciplines of English education, linguistic and cognitive psychology. To understand user’s academic writing activities, behaviors and their feedbacks on the writing programs they use, the researcher collected anecdotal feedback from various online forums, conducted contextual inquiry at user’s writing space, and studied several word processing and bibliography management programs functions that are related to academic writing activities. Based on the information and data collected, the researcher identified and categorized the major issues of the existing writing programs, established a new writing model and an information architecture to guide the academic writing software design. The design involved several iterations to brainstorm ideas and to develop wireframes, mockups, and interactive prototypes. In the end, the researcher conducted a heuristic evaluation to examine the design outcome, to check how well the design addressed those major issues identified from the user study, and to spot potential design problems for the future design iterations. Based on the heuristic evaluation feedbacks, the researcher refined some of the user interface elements, discussed the significance of the design and specified several directions for the future work.

Degree

M.F.A.

Advisors

Qian, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Linguistics|Design|Information Technology

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