SNARF Taxonomies for Sketching Novel and Realistic Functionality

Abstract

Paper prototyping is often used during the critical stage of early design. While paper prototyping requires a small time investment, it can fail to accurately convey the application s behavior. Existing computerized tools allow designers to express both appearance and interactions through sketching; designers may even execute their sketches. However, these tools have limitations, such as scalability and an inability to represent some complex behaviors. By asking users to sketch interfaces that are complex and novel, we developed a family of sketching taxonomies. We also created a set of suggested design notations based on the specific behaviors and characteristics users sketched. Furthermore, we developed an iterative user-centric approach that can be used to expand and refine the SNARF taxonomies and suggested notations. Most users, given these suggested notations were able to double their sketched behavior. This result suggests our notations would be a welcome addition to any sketch-based tool. We also identified the potential of color as a linking mechanism.