The pen stirs creativity... maybe
A story making its way though the Tablet PC (http://www.jkontherun.com/2008/10/paper-and-penci.html) community (http://www.gottabemobile.com/Paper+And+Pen+Better+For+Your+Brain+Than+Software.aspx) this week concerns a doctoral thesis (http://en.scientificcommons.org/30004846) that concludes a user-friendly interface, such an icon- and menu-based computer system, inhibits problem solving performance, and interface designers should be mindful of the thin line between making a task easy and pushing a user to adopt a certain approach.
At least that's what I got out of it. I found the material too dense to boil down after a casual reading, so I focused on the conclusions. In my defense, I work for a scientific journal with a soft limit of 8 pages per article. Snacking on 8-page nuclear medicine articles (http://jnm.snmjournals.org/) all day is poor preparation for a 130-page psych banquet. But I digress...
Anyway, apparently the study found that an open-ended user interface, like pen and paper, was more mentally stimulating than a limited interface, like a modern computer graphical interface. Others have extended the theory to the pen-input system of the Tablet PC. I agree with the inference but only to a degree.
In the way you can freewrite on a screen, like pen on paper, the theory applies to the tablet. However, if you only use it to tap icons and input text, same as you would with mouse and keyboard, you're still bound by the icon and menu system. Thus, using pen input is not a liberating experience in itself. Rather, as with most things, it's how you use it.
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Labels: Tablet PC
The pen stirs creativity... maybe
posted by Sumocat at 10/07/2008 07:11:00 PM
2 Comments:
Sumocat -
My own experience lends itself to your conclusion on this article. I use my TX2000z to work through law school. I have all the texts scanned. I often make screen shots of cases, treatises, laws, etc. and paste them into my Onenote pages for quick access during class. My experience is that no matter how hard I try to make major points stand out (bold, underline, different colors) my mind just can't quickly read it, process it, undrestand it, and move on quite like I can with ink. With several paragraphs on different aspects of some law, if I begin each paragraph with a hand written title and underline it, it is muy bueno. I can quickly see each topic and move to the next if it is not something I am searching for. If it is a bold faced text title instead, I spend a lot of time scrolling up and down over and over, inevitably going past the paragraph I am searching for, several times.
-tabletlawstudent
By
McKay Whitney, at 10/21/2008 08:33:00 AM
Nice to have input from someone with a legal background. I've tossed the idea around with my wife who has her paralegal certificate and works with legal documents, but doesn't work extensively in law. She too is a big believer in the pen (though sadly on paper). Thanks for the corroboration.
By
Sumocat, at 10/21/2008 08:57:00 AM
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