understand and remember material
she was learning while in medical
school. Or a person may use an
infodoodle to share a concept with
others in a report or presentation.
Finally, teams can use infodoodling
to brainstorm new ideas or solve
a problem.
Sharing the Doodle Love
But what is a doodler to do if he
or she is taking notes or sending
messages on a computer, tablet,
or cell phone? Artists own tablets
with digital pens, or install special
drawing programs on their devices.
But most people don’t use these
tools. In decades past, you might
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on a hand-written note to a friend.
Now you add an emoji to a text.
A group of graduate students
at the University of California,
San Diego, thought this was a real
loss. In their opinion, doodling
enriches communication. So they
put together a system called
UbiSketch to help make it easier to
share doodles digitally. The system
includes a special pen and paper.
The pen contains a camera that
tracks a pattern of dots embedded
in the paper. This allows the pen to
map its position on the paper to
a position on a screen. As the pen
makes real marks on the paper, it
simultaneously streams the sketch
to a smartphone. The doodler can
then tap one of several sticker-like
buttons attached to the pad of
paper to share the drawing on social
media.
The researchers ran a four-week-
long study in which ten people
agreed to sketch as they normally
would using UbiSketch instead of
a regular sketchpad. Of these ten
people, seven drew regularly, but
they rarely posted sketches online.
During the study, however, they
shared 241 doodles! And these
doodles promoted more personal,
intimate interactions than photos
or text.
The results impressed Lisa
Cowan, who led the 2011
study. “Sketches that our study
participants shared on Facebook
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more comments, and comments
of a more personal nature when
compared with photos that they
shared,” she said. In addition, the
participants felt like they could
share things in doodles that
they might not otherwise feelcomfortable posting about. One
participant who was stressed about
a deadline depicted the paper as a
monster attacking her. The doodles
expressed emotions and personality
in a way that text or even photo
updates couldn’t.
Unfortunately, UbiSketch was
just an experiment. It isn’t sold in
stores. However, digital pens and
paper are available. Plus, new apps
and programs are beginning to
incorporate options that promote
doodling. The iOS 10 operating
system, which came out in 2016,
includes an update to the messages
program called Digital Touch. On
the touch screen, users can sketch
a picture or message with their
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text message.
So, whether you choose pen and
paper or a smartphone, the means to
doodle are in your hands. It’s time to
get out there and get sketching!Kathryn HulickLVDSUROLğFGRRGOHU
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