POV, a Creative Writing Platform

Inspiration

1. **Prototype link (https://youtu.be/JGGwEEJf7No, https://drive.google.com/file/d/1567P8Rn37s8YMtZkIBOyngH_3qkOW6n0/view?usp=sharing)

2. Describe your project (max 150 words)

Writing is more than putting words on a page—it’s a way to process thoughts, express emotions, and capture experiences. As people use AI more to write, they lose an intimate sense of creativity and critical thought: fundamental aspects of being human.

Further, many creative writers struggle to develop a consistent writing habit because they lack structure or motivation.

Instead of being a tool for self-expression, writing is becoming automated and impersonal. Our solution is a no-copy-paste writing platform where creative writers respond to a daily one-word prompt. After submitting their responses, users can explore and engage with top-rated posts, finding inspiration from others. Users also earn fun milestones like tracking their cumulative word count ("You’ve written as many words as The Great Gatsby!").

Through the app, we preserve the human creativity of writing—its raw expression and authentic communication—while helping people build the habit of creative writing that AI has disrupted.

1. Describe your research process and findings. If you conducted any surveys or interviews, please include the survey form and/or interview questions here. If you conducted secondary research by pulling from online sources, please include a link to your sources. (Max 500 words)

We began the project by reflecting on how AI is influencing our own lives—exploring many high level ideas around job insecurity, fake news, lack of authenticity, and more. However, we found that our most prominent experience was that we all felt less creative with our AI usage.

Although many of us grew up writing—whether academically or creatively—we have all decreased our writing significantly since ChatGPT and other Generative AI tools became more prominent.

Wondering if this was a shared experience among other people, we did some initial research online. Many sources echoed our initial thoughts, with Harvard Business Review stating that “In the face of technological change, creativity is often held up as a uniquely human quality, […] critical for the future. […] Today however, generative AI applications such as ChatGPT and Midjourney are threatening to upend this special status and significantly alter creative work” (https://hbr.org/2023/04/how-generative-ai-could-disrupt-creative-work).

Other academic sources emphasized that AI-generated prompts can bias writers and reduce creativity early in the writing process (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11244532/#:~:text=Conversely%2C%20generative%20AI%20may%20hamper,the%20extent%20of%20creative%20writing.). The Literacy Trust reported that after AI became more widely used, “daily writing levels halved between 2023 and 2024, decreasing from 19.3% of children and young people writing daily to 11.1%” (https://literacytrust.org.uk/research-services/research-reports/children-and-young-peoples-writing-in-2024/).

With these findings, we narrowed our focus to writing—seeking to understand what users wanted from a platform like this. We conducted phone interviews with creative writers in our communities with these questions: How do you think AI has impacted your creativity? As a writer, do you have a place to share your work? Would you want a place to share your work with other writers? Has building a writing habit been a challenge? How has AI impacted that? Would you like to write a little bit everyday? Is building a writing habit a challenge? On a scale of 1-10 how much does AI influence your writing? What device do you write on the most (phone, tablet, laptop, pen/paper)? How often do you rely on AI for writing assistance (idea generation, editing, drafting)? Would you find it helpful to track your writing progress over time?

Our survey revealed that many writers in our communities agreed with online research. Almost all felt their reliance on AI had made them less creative, causing them to write less and lose the habit of exercising creative thinking.

We then analyzed other writing apps, including 5 Minute Journal, Daylio Journal, and Stoic. Through competitive analysis and opportunity mapping, we found that most prioritized gratitude and self-reflection rather than creative writing. Apps like Werdsmith, which did focus on creativity, included AI-driven features that generated the next line for users when they were stuck. This reinforced the idea that many writing tools encourage over-reliance on AI rather than building the habit of independent creativity, highlighting a gap for a platform that preserves the human essence of creative writing.

1. Describe your most important design decisions. What research findings and/or user testing results led you to make these decisions? (Max 500 words)

An important design decision was that we wanted to be intentional about making the writing fully written by humans, so we disabled the ability for users to copy and paste text. We took a firm stance on this by preventing users from pasting content from external sources or even within their own text, creating intentional friction for those attempting to input AI-generated writing. However, understanding that users may need to move around their writing, we added a highlight and drag option within the textbox to allow people to rearrange or structure their thoughts and paragraphs if needed. This approach strikes a balance between preserving authenticity and maintaining a user-friendly writing experience.

Another key design decision was our “award” system. Many of the apps we analyzed for competitive research heavily gamified the writing experience through streaks and achievement-based milestones, which we felt distracted from the core purpose of writing. Our focus was on building a creative daily habit through a minimalist, distraction-free UI, making writing an intentional activity. The only “award” system we incorporated was tracking a user’s total word count and comparing it to famous literary works—such as The Great Gatsby, Harry Potter, Games of Thrones, etc. This choice is because writers look up to great authors, and we wanted to provide an intentional incentive to keep users writing without it overtaking the experience or shifting the focus away from creativity. This feature serves as a reminder to our writers that many of these famous authors started similarly, with just a few words on a page.

We wanted to make the writing experience feel less intimidating, leading to two key design decisions: allowing anonymous posts and limiting interactions. By enabling users to post without a name, we removed the pressure to impress others, encouraging them to focus on writing as a daily habit with low stakes. Further, we agreed not to have comments or dislikes, keeping the focus on creativity as opposed to criticism. However, we decided to keep the like and save interactions, allowing users to engage in a simple, supportive way while building a personal inspiration library of writing that resonated with them.

We were also intentional about selecting the right platform. While our initial wireframes were designed for mobile, we recognized that people feel most natural typing on their laptops, leading us to pivot to a desktop website. However, even on a laptop, we created a balance by designing a smaller writing surface–mimicking the feel of a short post rather than an expansive essay. We wanted to maintain ease and prevent writing from feeling overwhelming, making sure it felt like an approachable daily habit.

Other key design decisions included removing minimum word limits, providing creative daily prompts for all users, and ensuring a lightweight, inspiration-driven platform. Our goal was to encourage creativity without pressure, making writing a consistent and enjoyable habit. By focusing on simplicity and shared creativity, we aimed to help users reclaim the writing practice many feel they have lost with the rise of AI.

Built With

• figma
• protopie