Embodying Diagramming through Pen + Touch Gestures

Ideation, the process of generating new ideas, is central to design tasks in which the goal is to find novel solutions around a set of requirements. Designers create diagrams as external representations of ideas. Ideas and the design process from which they emerge are embodied by both the gestures used to create diagrams and the diagrams themselves. Interaction design needs to leverage embodiment to support creative cognitive processes. We hypothesize that expressive embodied gestures for transforming diagrams will stimulate design ideation. We introduce new bimanual gestures for creating diagrams. We posit implications for the design of gestural interaction to support design ideation.