Sketching NLP: A Case Study of Exploring the Right Things To Design with Language Intelligence

This paper investigates how to sketch NLP-powered user experiences. Sketching is a cornerstone of design innovation. When sketching, designers rapidly experiment with a number of abstract ideas using simple, tangible instruments such as drawings and paper prototypes. Sketching NLP-powered experiences, however, presents challenges, i.e. How to visualize abstract language interaction? How to ideate a broad range of technically feasible intelligent functionalities? As a first step towards understanding these challenges, we present a first-person account of our sketching process when designing intelligent writing assistance. We detail the challenges we encountered and emergent solutions, such as a new format of wireframe for sketching language interactions and a new wizard-of-oz-based NLP rapid prototyping method. Drawing on these findings, we discuss the importance of abstraction in sketching and other implications.