Designing for sketching to support concept exploration

Sketching is a way of exploring early concepts through the act of externalization in a suitable material with the aid of a suitable tool. One could use paper and sketch with a pencil or go digital and sketch with code. What is appropriate to choose depends on the situation and on the skillset of the person who is going to sketch. When sketching is done successfully, the externalization can “speak back” and thus engage the sketcher, and others, in a conversation leading to a better understanding of the sketched concepts as well as new concept ideas. This is thoroughly documented in literature – a typical example would be an architect sketching a site plan on a flat piece of paper and being able to read into the possible movements in the third-dimensional space. Sketching generally works like this in familiar, that is, idiomatic situations for experienced sketchers. In unfamiliar or non-idiomatic situations, existing sketching tools are inadequate for expressing and exploring early concepts. For novice sketchers, with limited sketching literacy, even attempting to sketch in an idiomatic situation can be challenging. Through three cases, I design for concept exploration by enabling sketching to understand how this can be done in new situations. The first case deals with expert sketchers exploring non-idiomatic situations: professional creatives working with fulldome format for visual communication. The second case deals with novice sketchers exploring non-idiomatic situations: design students working with virtual reality. The third case deals with novice sketchers exploring idiomatic situations: air traffic controllers working with finding alternative routes for aircraft in the airspace with automation support. I take a constructive design approach by making design examples and reflecting during and after the process. With the help of the design examples, I engage domain experts through participatory co-design workshops and elicit insights in order to inspire further design work. What I learn through this dynamic making-workshopping-and-reflecting process forms the foundation of the knowledge contribution. It is presented here as three design tactics on how sketching could be like to support concept exploration: 1) be responsive, 2) emulate salient material properties, and 3) be lightweight.Att skissa är ett sätt att utforska tidiga koncept. Det görs vanligtvis genom att externalisera koncepten i ett lämpligt material med hjälp av ett lämpligt verktyg. Det går likväl att skissa med papper och penna som att skissa digitalt med hjälp av kod. Vilket material eller verktyg som är att föredra beror på situationen och skickligheten hos personen som ska skissa. När skissning sker framgångsrikt kan externaliseringen “prata tillbaka” och på så sätt engagera skissaren, och andra, i en konversation som leder både till bättre förståelse för koncepten och även till nya konceptförslag. Det här finns utförligt beskrivet i litteraturen – ett typexempel är när en arkitekt skissar en byggnadskonstruktion på ett plant papper och utifrån det kan se hur möjliga rörelser kan te sig i en tredimensionell rymd. Skissning funkar generellt sett på det här sättet i alla fall i välbekanta, idiomatiska situationer för erfarna skissare. Däremot i obekanta, icke-idiomatiska situationer, är befintliga skissningsverktyg otillräckliga för att kunna användas till att uttrycka och utforska tidiga koncept. För novisa skissare, med begränsad skiss-kunnighet, är det dessutom utmanande att skissa även i en idiomatisk situation. I tre fallstudier, designar jag för konceptutforskning för att förstå hur det kan ske i nya situationer genom att möjliggöra för skissning. Den första fallstudien handlar om erfarna skissare som utforskar icke-idiomatiska situationer: professionella kreatörer som jobbar med domformat för visuell kommunikation. Den andra fallstudien handlar om novisa skissare som utforskar icke-idiomatiska situationer: designstudenter som jobbar med virtuell verklighet. Den tredje fallstudien handlar om novisa skissare som utforskar idiomatiska situationer: flygledare som jobbar med att hitta alternativa rutter för flygmaskiner i luften med automationsstöd. Jag tar en konstruktiv designansats genom ett skapande av designexempel och reflektion under och efter processen. Med hjälp av designexemplen engagerar jag domänexperter i deltagande co-designworkshops och fram insikter som inspirerar fortsatt designarbete. Det jag lär mig under den här dynamiska processen av skapande, workshopande och reflekterande, formar grunden till kunskapsbidraget. Bidraget presenteras här som tre designtaktiker om hur skissning kan vara för att stödja konceptutforskande: 1) vara responsiv, 2) emulera centrala materialegenskaper, och 3) vara lättviktig

Designing fine-grained interactions for automation in air traffic control

Our work aims to explore novel approaches to the challenge of designing the interaction between people and automation. Through a case study within the domain of air traffic control, we focus on designing fine-grained human–automation interactions. We design a concept and develop an interactive lo-fi prototype of an assisted sketching system to enable air traffic controllers to interact with automation in a fine-grained manner and to externalize mental images. Assisted sketching seems to offer a possible way to communicate different degrees of predictive certainty using visual cues and interaction. Our insights further suggest that externalization through assisted sketching could encourage exploration of future scenarios, and support communication and collaboration between air traffic controllers and between air traffic controllers and pilots. The explorative benefits for the individual decision-making process might be more evident in situations where air traffic controllers have more time for reflection, for example during planning or debriefing and in educational settings

Sketching Immersive Information Spaces : Lessons learned from experiments in '\u98sketching for and through virtual reality'

This paper presents the lessons learned from a design workshop exploring methods for early exploration of immersive information spaces, such as Virtual Reality (VR). The methods explored cover design situations both designing for VR, and designing through VR, in varying degrees of fidelity. The workshops shared the common factor of attempting to enable a feedback loop between sketching activities and the more didactic and time consuming prototyping processes. From our analysis, we found that to achieve true â\u80\u98sketchinessâ\u80\u99 in an immersive VR settings, tool proficiency naturally becomes a decisive factor, since a lot of new techniques needs to be learned and gained experience with. Furthermore, it is evident that the mental shift, from flat to 360 degree design, was challenging, but also the enabler of new creative constraints from which the designer can explore the boundaries of the design space. We conclude by arguing for the development of more formalized patterns, materials and tools to not just enable immersive sketching, but also enable grasping the immersive design space itself by motivating the explorations and happy accidents when â\u80\u98doodlingâ\u80\u99 in the immersive space

Sketching Immersive Information Spaces : Lessons learned from experiments in '\u98sketching for and through virtual reality'

This paper presents the lessons learned from a design workshop exploring methods for early exploration of immersive information spaces, such as Virtual Reality (VR). The methods explored cover design situations both designing for VR, and designing through VR, in varying degrees of fidelity. The workshops shared the common factor of attempting to enable a feedback loop between sketching activities and the more didactic and time consuming prototyping processes. From our analysis, we found that to achieve true â\u80\u98sketchinessâ\u80\u99 in an immersive VR settings, tool proficiency naturally becomes a decisive factor, since a lot of new techniques needs to be learned and gained experience with. Furthermore, it is evident that the mental shift, from flat to 360 degree design, was challenging, but also the enabler of new creative constraints from which the designer can explore the boundaries of the design space. We conclude by arguing for the development of more formalized patterns, materials and tools to not just enable immersive sketching, but also enable grasping the immersive design space itself by motivating the explorations and happy accidents when â\u80\u98doodlingâ\u80\u99 in the immersive space