InkKit: a generic design tool for the tablet PC

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we describe the design philosophy, implementation and evaluation of InkKit, an informal design platform that uses pen input on a tablet PC to imitate the informality of a low fidelity tool. The aim is for this toolkit to provide a foundation for further research into domain specific sketch support.Designers initially hand-sketch their ideas [3, 6] because informal tools, such as pen and paper, offer the freedom to work with partly formed or ambiguous designs. The emergence of electronic pen input systems has seen a number of exploratory projects applying pen-based sketch software to the design process. Even though these projects differ, most of them use the same general framework. Thus a significant part of the implementation incorporates the same basic functionalities.

REFERENCES

• 1: Blackwell, A. F. and Y. Engelhardt, A Meta-Taxonomy for Diagram Research, in Diagrammatic Representation and Reasoning, M. Anderson, B. Meyer, and P. Olivier, Editors. 2002, Springer.
• 2: Damm, C. H. and H. R. Hansen, Ideogramic. 2002. http://www.ideogramic.com/ Accessed 10 Jan 2005
• 3: Gross, M., The proverbial back of an envelope, in IEEE Intelligent Systems. 1998. 10--13.
• 4: Leszynski Group, In Tegrate. 2005, http://www.leszynski.com/Accessed 10 Jan 2005.
• 5: Newman, M. W., et al., DENIM: An Informal Web Site Design Tool Inspired by Observations of Practice. in Human-Computer Interaction, 2003. 18(3): 259--324.
• 6: Beryl Plimmer , John Grundy, Beautifying sketching-based design tool content: issues and experiences, Proceedings of the Sixth Australasian conference on User interface, p.31-38, January 30-February 03, 2005, Newcastle, Australia
• 7: Dean Rubine, Specifying gestures by example, Proceedings of the 18th annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques, p.329-337, July 1991

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.2 User Interfaces (D.2.2, H.1.2, I.3.6)
          Subjects: Input devices and strategies (e.g., mouse, touchscreen)

Additional Classification:
  D. Software
  D.2 SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
      D.2.2 Design Tools and Techniques
          Subjects: User interfaces

Keywords:
sketch tools, toolkits