Julie Heiser

Lines, Blobs, Crosses and Arrows: Diagrammatic Communication with Schematic Figures

In producing diagrams for a variety of contexts, people use a small set of schematic figures to convey certain context specific concepts, where the forms themselves suggest meanings. These same schematic figures are interpreted appropriately in context. Three examples will support these conclusions: lines, crosses, and blobs in sketch maps; bars and lines in graphs; and arrows in diagrams of complex systems.

Arrows in Comprehending and Producing Mechanical Diagrams

Mechanical systems have structural organizations-parts, and their relations-and functional organizations-temporal, dynamic, and causal processes-which can be explained using text or diagrams. Two experiments illustrate the role of arrows in diagrams of mechanical systems. In Experiment 1, people described diagrams with or without arrows, interpreting diagrams without arrows as conveying structural information and diagrams with arrows as conveying functional information. In Experiment 2, people produced sketches of mechanical systems from structural or functional descriptions. People spontaneously used arrows to indicate functional processes in diagrams. Arrows can play a powerful role in augmenting structural diagrams to convey dynamic, causal, or functional information.

Identification and validation of cognitive design principles for automated generation of assembly instructions

Designing effective instructions for everyday products is challenging. One reason is that designers lack a set of design principles for producing visually comprehensible and accessible instructions. We describe an approach for identifying such design principles through experiments investigating the production, preference, and comprehension of assembly instructions for furniture. We instantiate these principles into an algorithm that automatically generates assembly instructions. Finally, we perform a user study comparing our computer-generated instructions to factory-provided and highly rated hand-designed instructions. Our results indicate that the computer-generated instructions informed by our cognitive design principles significantly reduce assembly time an average of 35% and error by 50%. Details of the experimental methodology and the implementation of the automated system are described.

Sketches for Design and Design of Sketches

It is said, though not without controversy, that what distinguishes design from art is function. Design is for a purpose, usually a human one. As such, design entails both generating ideas and adapting those ideas to intended uses. This occurs iteratively. Form and function. Studying how people go about both these tasks gives insights that can facilitate the design process. Two relevant projects will be described. The first investigates how designers and novices get ideas from sketches and applies those insights to suggestions for promoting generation of ideas. The second seeks to develop computer algorithms for designing individualized visualizations, algorithms that are informed by cognitive design principles.

Characterizing diagrams produced by individuals and dyads

Diagrams are an effective means of conveying concrete, abstract or symbolic information about systems. Here, individuals or pairs of participants produced assembly instructions after assembling an object. When working individually, nearly all participants used a combination of text and diagrams. Those high in spatial ability produced the step-by-step action diagrams that in later studies were rated higher by all and improved performance of low ability participants. In a second experiment, pairs of participants assembled the object and produced instructions jointly. Pairs assembled the object faster and more accurately than individuals. Surprisingly, in the instructions produced, fewer than half the dyads used diagrams, and dyads produced fewer of the more effective diagrams. We speculate that the social verbal nature of the interactions of pairs encouraged verbal instructions.

Space, Time, and Story

Abstract Life presents as a continuous multimodal barrage on all our senses. From that, we abstract events, discrete units characterized by completion of goals and peaks of action. Effective communication of sequences of events in explanations and narratives is similarly segmented, and linked globally by overall themes and locally by anaphora. Visuospatial explanations and narratives, notably diagrams, comics, and gestures, rely on congruity of mappings of elements and relations of ideas to space and marks in space. Just as we design visuospatial discourse, we design the world: Our design actions in space create diagrams in the world, patterns, piles, rows, one-to-one correspondences, and the like, that express abstractions, categories, hierarchies, dimensions, and more, a circular process termed spraction .