Proposal Defense Notes, 27 April 2004

Clayton

Constraints - Why?
Are they imposed when designing?
Is there a simpler way to animate?
Articulate principles of design-What do you expect to see and why?
Does the tool interfere? i.e. Does it encourage users to get in over their heads?
Revisit control group--Important to have a comparison to see what the confounding factors of the tool are.
Good to be data driven but also good to be prepared--seeing the differences in design & construction.

Possible complicating factor--What they do will be influenced by what they see. How will you choose examples? How will you manipulate them across your groups? [Big example space] Why is that desirable? This does connect with some of the things you want to look at. Impoverished examples would have a strong influence. Do shorter sessions and more kids.

Constraint language not obvious to Clayton. Who will care? You may not want to go there. Argue in results for the comparison. Is it easier done in formulas?

How do you decide when to enforce constraints? 2 versions of tool--one strict, one lax--configurable.

Kids make pop-ups all the time. What's the purpose of the constraints? Make foldable? Or learn constraints?

Tammy

You are already getting too little data.
Craft tool or cognitive tool? What are you evaluating? [See how they design rather than affect cognitive state.]

What's the centerpiece? Three distinct publications (What three publication might you get out of this?)

1. [System - AI journals - constraints]
2. [Design issues wrt kids-How they approach it and how they change--novice to expert]
3. [Changes in vocabulary--constraints becoming explicit]

Flesh these ideas out
Thesis question is big

Kristen's studies were close to what you need to do--talk to her.

May promote conscious vs. unconscious design.

Jim

Can you classify and organize the examples?
Is it clear that you're going to get the data you need? Know your questions going in. [Analysis guided by videos.] Include the recording tool if not onerous.
Worried about #1 bullet: build system Journal of AI research-Tool won't do it. Constraint language or constraint satisfaction? Computation geometry literature

Mitch

System clearly centerpiece.
Tool for craft not a cog sci contribution.
Unique opportunity-
Learning beyond building in arenas beyond pop-ups

1. Design space
2. Math, science, engineering. Need tightly stated design principles fo the project.

High premium on number 2. State concepts that they can learn that might be harder in other ways.

Recording tool doesn't offer a lot.
Stake a claim to a couple of things--equal angles parallel lines, Why? Grounded learning experience.

Should the system do everything? Thinker Tools has changable levels of support.
Gerhard-critics
Articulation of principles for good design 2D to 3D.

Could constraints be selectable?
Where do the constraints live? Material? People?

Mike

Work with kids and tool then introduce tool as a touchstone?
Do kids, over time, learn the implicit constraints? Users haven't see formal geometry. This would be invisible to keystrokes. If recording tool is a lot of work then drop it.

Rather than an advance in constraint algorithms, interfaces to constraint systems for construction of physical objects.

Cognition and design--incompatible constraints, constraint dependencies