Online petitions have served as an innovative means of citizen participation over the past decade. However, their original purpose has been waning due to inappropriate language, fabricated information, and the lack of evidence that supports petitions. The lack of deliberation in online petitions has influenced other users, deteriorating the platform to a degree that good petitions are seldom generated. Therefore, this study designs interventions that empower users to create deliberative petitions. We conducted user research to observe users’ writing behavior in online petitions and identified causes of non-deliberative petitions. Based on our findings, we propose ThinkWrite, a new interactive app promoting user deliberation. The app includes six main features: a gamified learning process, a writing recommendation system, a guiding interface for self-construction, tailored AI for self-revision, short-cuts for easy archiving of evidence, and a citizen-collaborative page. Finally, the efficacy of the app is demonstrated through user surveys and in-depth interviews.
Abstract
ThinkWrite is a new interactive system promoting user deliberation
Problems
ThinkWrite is a new interactive system promoting user deliberation. Online petitions are losing their original purpose due to lack of deliberation since the users write without reasonable evidence, fail to comply with the rules. Inappropriate expression cause conflicts, false facts have spread without responsibility.
User Research
The primary objective of user research was to identify the underlying causes of users not being able to write petitions in a deliberative manner. By using a remote field study and semi-structured interviews, we observed 17 users’ writing behavior in online petitions and identified causes of non-deliberative petitions. We obtained an in-depth understanding of current user experiences on the online petition platforms.
Defining User Challanges
To solve the problems, we conducted research to discover the challenges the users faced when writing online petitions, and the design interventions that effectively address and resolve them.
Ideation workshops
Design interventions
"ThinkWrite" is designed to awaken the users to the significance of deliberation in petition, help them overcome the challenges and create more deliberative policy proposals on their own. ThinkWrite includes six main features: a gamified learning process, a writing recommendation system, a guiding interface for self-construction, short-cuts for easy archiving of evidence, tailored AI for self-revision, and a citizen-collaborative page.
Evaluation
The efficacy of ThinkWrite is demonstrated through user surveys and in-depth interviews. We recruited 16 evaluators. The evaluation was conducted by the following criteria : (1) Comparisons of pre-and post-mindset ratings and (2) Comparison of deliberative features. be- tween the existing and new platforms.
How much does it increase user deliberation?
We confirm that ThinkWrite helped the participants to acquire a deliberative mindset, rationality, responsibility, the willingness to propose a solution, learn the petition rules, and proliferated a cooperative culture.
Does applied functions enhance user deliberation?
We confirm that new prototype is more helpful than existing platform for helping users to empower deliberation.
Reflection
I’ve accepted CHI 2022 Late-breaking work with ThinkWrite.
This is collaborative work of UX Design & NLP Knowledge.
Designer and NLP developer made a AI infused interactive systems.
We designed an interactive system containing interventions and BERT model (AI NLP Model) for empowering user deliberation in online petition.
