Drawing and Design Intentions

An Investigation of Freehand Drawing Conventions in Design

Ellen Yi-Luen DO, Mark D. Gross, and Craig Zimring

Designers use drawings to explore alternatives and to test their ideas employing different symbols and configurations for different design concerns, or tasks. We argue that designer's attention to, and interest in, these various tasks can be determined by examining the drawing symbols and spatial arrangements. We have conducted several empirical studies on design and drawing to determine whether, and to what extent, it is possible to infer, interpret, or even guess what a designer was thinking about by looking at the drawings she has made.