TY - GEN
T1 - Transforming descriptions and diagrams to sketches in information system design
AU - Tversky, Barbara
AU - Corter, James E.
AU - Nickerson, Jeffrey V.
AU - Zahner, Doris
AU - Rho, Yun Jin
PY - 2008
Y1 - 2008
N2 - Sketching is integral to information systems design. Designers need to become fluent in translating verbal descriptions of systems to a variety of kinds of sketches, notably sequential and logical, and to translate among the kinds. Here, we investigated these cognitive skills in design students, asking them to design a system configuration starting from either a sequential diagram or a sequential description. Although the two source descriptions were logically equivalent, the diagram led to designs that corresponded more closely to the source description - that is, designs with fewer omissions of crucial components and links. Text descriptions led to more variable and less accurate designs, most likely because they require more cognitive steps from problem representation to problem solution.
AB - Sketching is integral to information systems design. Designers need to become fluent in translating verbal descriptions of systems to a variety of kinds of sketches, notably sequential and logical, and to translate among the kinds. Here, we investigated these cognitive skills in design students, asking them to design a system configuration starting from either a sequential diagram or a sequential description. Although the two source descriptions were logically equivalent, the diagram led to designs that corresponded more closely to the source description - that is, designs with fewer omissions of crucial components and links. Text descriptions led to more variable and less accurate designs, most likely because they require more cognitive steps from problem representation to problem solution.
KW - Descriptions
KW - Diagrammatic reasoning
KW - Information systems design
KW - Problem representation
KW - Sketches
KW - Topological diagrams
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=56549089169&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=56549089169&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/978-3-540-87730-1_23
DO - 10.1007/978-3-540-87730-1_23
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:56549089169
SN - 3540877290
SN - 9783540877295
T3 - Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
SP - 242
EP - 256
BT - Diagrammatic Representation and Inference - 5th International Conference, Diagrams 2008, Proceedings
T2 - 5th International Conference on Diagrammatic Representation and Inference, Diagrams 2008
Y2 - 19 September 2008 through 21 September 2008
ER -