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Robert Zeleznik, Andrew Bragdon, Chu-Chi Liu, Andrew Forsberg
Lineogrammer is a program that uses a touch screen and pen input to create diagrams and drawings. There are a few programs out there that are similar, but lineogrammer is trying to be more innovative. The concept behind the program is to find a way to be able to use the program the same way you would be writing with a pen and paper. There are no different modes for example. There is no need to explicitly switch between a drawing mode and editing mode.
The idea is to use special pen strokes to differentiate between a stroke for drawing and a stroke for editing. The picture above demonstrates how easy it is to flow between drawing and editing. The user is able to draw simple shapes, then remove lines by squiggling over them. They can format text by underlining it, and zoom in on a region by circling it twice. The developers had to find a set of pen strokes that would not be used for drawing. This took lots of time and many focus group sessions.
Although they only have a simple set of editing tools, it allows the user to create complex pictures and diagrams. This complexity mainly comes from their line snapping concept. When a user draws a line, it is snapped to a grid or another line, usually at 90 degree increments. The user is also given one alternative that best fits the line that they actually drew. Many other programs offer sever alternatives, but they found that users did not like having more than one alternative.
They attempted to make selection and fine editing natural as well. Selecting a line or vertex is very straight forward. All the user has to do is simply tap a line or point and it is selected. When a user wants to select a polygon, all they must to is tap inside the polygon and the whole shape is selected.
When there are multiple polygons in the same region that user taps, all the polygons will be selected. The user may then refine their selection, by taping inside the polygons that they wish to unselect.
Another feature they added was a floating toolbar. This toolbar allows for more complex editing that cannot be achieved with simple pen strokes. The users are able to copy and paste and edit different properties of the shape. They can change the color or thickness of the line stroke. They can do advanced things like copy-dragging where a user selects a shape, or set of shapes, then can make multiple copies directly in a row.
One feature that users enjoyed using was the ruler. Instead of having a traditional ruler along the edges of the screen, they decided to make the ruler floating, like a person would if they had one placed over a sheet of paper. The ruler allows users even more editing options. They can take a shape and mirror it over an axis.
They are able to stretch a shape in any direction linearly using the distribute feature. The best feature users like was the ability to snap multiple shapes to the rule. When users select multiple shapes and the ruler, they can align the shapes along the same edge along the ruler.
All in all, the lineogrammer programs looks very promising and is certainly a step in the direction pen based programs should be going. By attempting to make the program as easy to use as drawing on paper, they allow the users to just start using it very intuitively. If I had a touchscreen computer, and the program was widely available, I would certainly get it to give it a try.
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