Texterial: A Text-as-Material Interaction Paradigm for LLM-Mediated Writing

Fuente: arXiv
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Hauptverfasser: Shen, Jocelyn, Marquardt, Nicolai, Romat, Hugo, Hinckley, Ken, Riche, Nathalie, Chevalier, Fanny
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2026
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author Shen, Jocelyn
Marquardt, Nicolai
Romat, Hugo
Hinckley, Ken
Riche, Nathalie
Chevalier, Fanny
author_facet Shen, Jocelyn
Marquardt, Nicolai
Romat, Hugo
Hinckley, Ken
Riche, Nathalie
Chevalier, Fanny
contents What if text could be sculpted and refined like clay -- or cultivated and pruned like a plant? Texterial reimagines text as a material that users can grow, sculpt, and transform. Current generative-AI models enable rich text operations, yet rigid, linear interfaces often mask such capabilities. We explore how the text-as-material metaphor can reveal AI-enabled operations, reshape the writing process, and foster compelling user experiences. A formative study shows that users readily reason with text-as-material, informing a conceptual framework that explains how material metaphors shift mental models and bridge gulfs of envisioning, execution, and evaluation in LLM-mediated writing. We present the design and evaluation of two technical probes: Text as Clay, where users refine text through gestural sculpting, and Text as Plants, where ideas grow serendipitously over time. This work expands the design space of writing tools by treating text as a living, malleable medium.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_00452
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Texterial: A Text-as-Material Interaction Paradigm for LLM-Mediated Writing
Shen, Jocelyn
Marquardt, Nicolai
Romat, Hugo
Hinckley, Ken
Riche, Nathalie
Chevalier, Fanny
Human-Computer Interaction
Artificial Intelligence
H.5.2; I.2.m; D.2.2; D.2.10
What if text could be sculpted and refined like clay -- or cultivated and pruned like a plant? Texterial reimagines text as a material that users can grow, sculpt, and transform. Current generative-AI models enable rich text operations, yet rigid, linear interfaces often mask such capabilities. We explore how the text-as-material metaphor can reveal AI-enabled operations, reshape the writing process, and foster compelling user experiences. A formative study shows that users readily reason with text-as-material, informing a conceptual framework that explains how material metaphors shift mental models and bridge gulfs of envisioning, execution, and evaluation in LLM-mediated writing. We present the design and evaluation of two technical probes: Text as Clay, where users refine text through gestural sculpting, and Text as Plants, where ideas grow serendipitously over time. This work expands the design space of writing tools by treating text as a living, malleable medium.
title Texterial: A Text-as-Material Interaction Paradigm for LLM-Mediated Writing
topic Human-Computer Interaction
Artificial Intelligence
H.5.2; I.2.m; D.2.2; D.2.10
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.00452