Formality in Sketches and Visual Representation

Alan Blackwell, University of CambridgeLuke Church, University of Cambridge Beryl Plimmer, Auckland UniversityDave Gray, XPLANE

Kinds of Formality

• i) Formal Intention• ii) Formal Connotation• iii) Formal Description• iv) Formal Interpretation

i) Formal Intention

• a clear formulation of objectives

ii) Formal Connotation

• professional or conservative appearance

iii) Formal Description

• representation elements are clearly differentiated – from other classes of element– from other parts of the representation (bounded and separate) – from alternatives that might have been chosen but are not

• “elements” not just visual symbols, but relations:– arrangement in the plane– topological relations– grouped graphical attributes

iv) Formal Interpretation

• Rules: things a reader should do differently in response to differences in the representation

• the “reader” may be a machine• human readers may interpret using different rules … • including rules the creator didn’t intend

Sketches and Computation

• visual representations that are created or captured by computers tend toward formality.

• computers follow interpretative rules• business and scientific visual styles have formal

connotations• user interfaces need predictable correspondences

Problems

• Are some kinds of human endeavour not supported by computer processing of visual representations, because inappropriately formalised?

• Above kinds of formalisation are conflated …• … so freedom of intention is restricted:

– as a result of representational choices – as a result of technical implementations– as a result of unnecessary connotations

Some Productive Research Approaches

• Studies of designers• Studies of pencil use

– (or other traditional drawing tools)• Studies of ‘finishedness’ in graphic communication• Studies of ‘ideation’• Philosophy of art• Sociology of knowledge

Case Studies

Describes a process(transcription)

Lower case + Italics=> Gene

Gene -> Protein (Expression)mRNA step omitted, either doesn’t matter or not known

’, but not after a number => Variant

Has a negative effect on whatever RsmA ‘normally does’

This is what happens after the complex is formed

Two separate genes

Capital => Protein

Discussion?