SpaceInk: Making Space for In-Context Annotations

Hugo Romat, Emmanuel Pietriga, Nathalie Henry-Riche, Ken Hinckley, Caroline Appert
UIST 2019
When editing or reviewing a document, people directly overlay ink marks on content. For instance, they underline words, or circle elements in a figure. These overlay marks often accompany in-context annotations in the form of handwritten footnotes and marginalia. People tend to put annotations close to the content that elicited them, but have to compose with the often-limited whitespace. We introduce SpaceInk, a design space of pen+touch techniques that make room for in-context annotations by dynamically reflowing documents. We identify representative techniques in this design space, spanning both new ones and existing ones. We evaluate them in a user study, with results that inform the design of a prototype system. Our system lets users concentrate on capturing fleeting thoughts, streamlining the overall annotation process by enabling the fluid inverleaving of space-making gestures with freeform ink.
Techniques evaluated in the user study
Touch-based + Before
Touch-based + After
Pen-based + Before
Pen-based + While
Pen-based + After
Side of Paragraph
Between Lines
Wrapped in paragraph
Between Words
Screenshots from the user study
Touch-based + Before
Touch-based + After
Pen-based + Before
Pen-based + While
Pen-based + After
...
Participants' ratings