Ink guides smart assistants for organizing ideas in digital workspaces
Inkitiate: Initiating and Steering Agent Assistance through Ink in a Spatial Workspace
Human-Computer Interaction
Summary
Creating and organizing ideas often involves handwriting and drawing, but people sometimes need help managing their materials. The authors studied how using handwriting (ink) can start and control a helpful assistant in a digital workspace. They built a system called Inkitiate, where users can use ink to bring in information, think with it, and organize their space while guiding the assistant’s actions. Tests showed users found it usable and easy to work with, combining writing and drawing to ask for help effectively.
What this means in practice
- •For knowledge workers: Use ink-based commands to integrate and organize research materials within a digital workspace guided by an intelligent assistant.
- •For productivity software developers: Develop tools that allow users to combine handwriting and sketches to query and steer AI helpers during brainstorming and project organization.$Commercial implications: Enables creation of advanced AI-augmented note-taking or workspace software that improves user interaction through ink input.
Authors
Liangwei Wang, Nan Chen, Luna K. Qiu, Zilong Wang, Fugee Tsung, Yuyu Luo, Yuqing Yang
Abstract
Handwriting and sketching help people develop ideas around information. As this work unfolds, users may seek assistance with finding, understanding, and organizing materials. We investigate how ink can initiate and steer agent assistance in this process. An eight-participant formative study explored desired assistance and interaction expectations, informing three connected activities: bringing materials in, thinking with materials, and shaping the space. We present Inkitiate, a spatial workspace for ink-based agent assistance in knowledge work. Through ink, users retrieve external materials, build on accumulated content and results, and reorganize the canvas, while inspecting and guiding agent actions. In a study with eighteen participants, users reported favorable usability and low perceived workload, and used retained ink and materials to develop further ink queries. An ink-query vocabulary and cases reveal how users combine linguistic and graphical expressions to direct agents. These findings inform ink-based agent interaction design for expressive requests and continued work with materials.