Interaction design for scholarly writing: Hypertext representations as a means for creative knowledge work

This paper presents our approach of using hypertext representations to support a scholar in the early stages of a scholarly writing process. We take D. A. Schoen’s model of design as a theoretical framework. Schoen views design as a reflective conversation with the materials of a situation, where the designer interacts with the materials, such as pen and sketch on a sheet of paper, in the reflection-in-action process. The designer acts and reflects almost simultaneously; acting on external representations, interpreting emerging representations, and reacting to them. We argue that a scholar needs to engage in two different types of representations in the reflection-in-action process: external representations for thinking about the problem, and representations for expressing a solution in a publishable form. The former does not necessarily precede the latter; rather, the two representations coevolve through the reflection-in-action process. Our approach uses hypertext representations as a means to interact with in the early stages of scholarly writing both for thinking about the problem and for expressing a solution. Hypertext representations have long been studied in their relation to supporting human intellectual work; our approach, however, is unique in providing the two representations with a specific concern for supporting reflection-in-action by applying the concept called ART (Amplifying Representational Talkback) as an interaction design principle. Based on this framework, we have developed ART014, a tool for scholarly writing. ART014 simultaneously supports two types of hypertext representations: a column-based network hypertext representation and a spatial hypertext representation. The two representations are located side by side, and integrated when an interaction with one representation is reflected in the visual presentation of the other. Although a user operates on the same set of objects through the two representations, the user expresses relationships among the objects independently in the two representations. We present a scenario to illustrate in detail how the design concepts underpinning ART014 supports scholarly writing. This paper then discusses our approach from three viewpoints by using the scenario: use of the two representations, engagement in reflection-in-action, and modes of authoring. The paper concludes with a description of future directions.