Social-Technical Tools for Collaborative Sensemaking and Sketching

  • Authors:

  • James Sullivan;Meredith Banasiak;Christopher Messick;Raymond Rimey

  • Affiliations:

  • Department of Computer Science,;College of Architecture and Planning,;Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Center for Lifelong Learning and Design, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, USA 80309-0430;Lockheed-Martin Corporation, Denver, Colorado, USA

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction. Part IV: Interacting in Various Application Domains
  • Year:
  • 2009

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Abstract

Sensemaking is a deliberate effort to understand events or information, and a sketch is an exploratory graphic composition of a concept or observation. Within the architecture domain, sketching is employed during pre-design phases to create a shared understanding among clients and stakeholders. While sensemaking is highly collaborative, sketching is usually a solitary activity. This paper describes the design and evaluation of two prototype social-technical tools to support collaborative "same time, same place" sketching and sensemaking: (1) a software environment (SketchBook) that allows users to quickly generate and capture ideas; and (2) a wireless, scalable, multi-user pen interface (FireFly). When used together, these tools support simultaneous sketching, diagramming, and annotation within the same work space without traditional bottlenecks of "turn taking" by passing a single pen. This paper presents the motivation for sensemaking and sketching, and findings from a preliminary evaluation involving a design charrette with architecture students.