A window to the future: Proposal for a lexicography-assisted writing assistant

Abstract The paper initially discusses some of the challenges posed to contemporary lexicography and stresses the need to move upstream in the value chain to guarantee future work. Today’s lexicographers must accept that their product par excellence is not dictionaries, but lexicographical data that can either be presented to the users in the form of dictionaries or be integrated into various types of tools, platforms, and services. From this perspective, the paper describes the functionalities of various digital writing assistants and focuses on one of them, namely the Spanish-English Write Assistant. It illustrates some decisions that have to be taken to prepare a database to feed both this tool and a series of online dictionaries. A proposal on how a big amount of lexicographical data can be presented in a small pop-up window without resorting to data overload will be discussed. In this connection, alternative ways of doing user testing in a digital environment are introduced. Finally, the paper stresses the importance of a human-centered design and terminology.