ThinkWrite: Design Interventions for Empowering User Deliberation in Online Petition

Abstract

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.