Sketch interpretation in design communication

Designers need to communicate their ideas to others. But these ideas can be fluid, vague, provisional, and involve a mixture of degrees of detail and levels of abstraction. Expressing and interpreting imprecision and uncertainty is a challenge for human-computer interaction when designers use CAD systems. It is also a problem for communication between different members of design teams. Sketches are both a tool and a source of confusion for conveying provisionality and uncertainty. Freehand sketches are a fast and powerful medium for expressing design ideas; their inherent imprecision and ambiguity facilitates idea generation by allowing designers to see variations and re-interpret their own sketches. But misinterpretation of sketches is a major cause of communication failure in design teams. This paper presents an analysis of imprecision in sketch-based communication. It is intended as a foundation for technological and organisational approaches to improving communication in design teams.