Crosspower: Bridging Graphics and Linguistics

Despite the ubiquity of direct manipulation techniques available in computer-aided design applications, creating digital content remains a tedious and indirect task. This is because applications require users to perform numerous low-level editing operations rather than allowing them to directly indicate high-level design goals. Yet, the creation of graphic content, such as videos, animations, and presentations often begins with a description of design goals in natural language, such as screenplays, scripts, outlines. Therefore, there is an opportunity for language-oriented authoring, i.e., leveraging the information found in the structure of a language to facilitate the creation of graphic content. We present a systematic exploration of the identification, graphic description, and interaction with various linguistic structures to assist in the creation of visual content. The prototype system, Crosspower, and its proposed interaction techniques, enables content creators to indicate and customize their desired visual content in a flexible and direct manner.