A Framework to Support Writing as Design Using Multiple Representations

This paper describes a system that supports considering-while-writing and writing-while-considering process as a design process. We propose a novel framework to organize parts of a document. Its characteristic permits coexistence of informal and formal representations and supports both top-down and bottom-up writing seamlessly. In our framework, users organize group relations using a two-dimensional space and organize their hierarchical interrelations using a tree. The whole structure of document is defined by the two separate views. Based on this framework, we have built a system named iWeaver. In a user study, we show that our framework is an effective aid constructing documents.