Coalesce: An Accessible Mixed-Initiative System for Designing Community-Centric Questionnaires
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3708359.3712118.pdf
Size
5.19 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
2e4ad22da54a0832626bc81754b6e0d2
Author(s)
Overney, Cassandra
Kessler, Daniel
Fulay, Suyash
Jasim, Mahmood
Roy, Deb
Date Issued
March 24, 2025
Publisher
ACM|30th International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces
Citation
Overney, Cassandra, Kessler, Daniel, Fulay, Suyash, Jasim, Mahmood and Roy, Deb. 2025. "Coalesce: An Accessible Mixed-Initiative System for Designing Community-Centric Questionnaires."
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Effectively incorporating community input into civic decision-making processes is crucial for fostering inclusive governance. However, public officials often face challenges in formulating effective questions to gather meaningful insights due to constraints such as time, resources, and limited experience in questionnaire design. This paper explores the potential of leveraging large language models (LLMs) to address this challenge. We present Coalesce, a novel mixed-initiative system that utilizes LLMs to assist civic leaders in crafting tailored and impactful questions for surveys, interviews, and conversation guides. Guided by best practices in questionnaire design, Coalesce improves question readability, enhances specificity, and reduces bias. To inform our design, we conducted a formative interview study with 30 civic leaders and implemented an iterative human-centered design process involving 14 feedback sessions. We built a fully-functional system before evaluating it through a real-world user study with 16 participants who applied the platform to their own community engagement projects. Our findings show that Coalesce improved participants’ confidence in questionnaire design, supported diverse workflows, and fostered learning while raising important questions about human agency and over-reliance on AI. These insights highlight the potential for intelligent user interfaces to reshape how civic leaders engage with their communities, fostering more informed and inclusive decision-making processes.
Description
IUI ’25, Cagliari, Italy
MIT Department
Program in Media Arts and Sciences (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
Terms of Use
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1145/3708359.3712118
