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only interactions with individual sheets of paper and not interactions that span mul-
tiple pages. As discussed in Section 1.1, main advantages of paper are precisely
these multi-page interactions. In the following, we will present a generic interaction
model that accounts for this dimension.
3.3 An Ecological Perspective of Document Work
Before modeling paper-based interactions and combined paper-and-digital informa-
tion in the following sections, we first address what is the general setting we design
for. Which general perspective should designers take when they design Pen-and-
Paper User Interfaces?
Traditional cognitive approaches to human-computer interaction mainly focused
on how an isolated user utilizes a computer system for performing an isolated task
[125]. Transferred to our domain this could for instance mean that one designs a
Pen-and-Paper User Interfaces that supports an individual user in one specific activ-
ity with one document, such as reading and commenting the document.
In this section we advocate a different perspective on document work. In our
analyses of how university students use documents [145, 144, 143, p. 19 sqq.], it
became obvious that working with documents was neither an individual activity nor
restricted to using a single document. In contrast, students (and instructors) were in
a permanent collaborative exchange, during and after courses. For instance students
handed over notes taken during a lecture, jointly prepared for exams and discussed
solutions of exercises. Very frequently, students concurrently used multiple docu-
ments in a tightly integrated way, for instance for combined reading and writing
or for integrating knowledge from various document sources. This also involved
simultaneous use of printed and digital documents. Similar findings have been re-
ported in literature which analyzed other workplace settings (e.g. [131]). In sum-
mary, document work often takes place in a setting that encompasses multiple users
and multiple documents. Individual activities occur in a complex network of users,
documents, interleaving tasks and collaborative practices.
For this reason, a systemic viewpoint seems most appropriate for the design of
PPUIs. We call this an ecological perspective . This perspective surpasses the view
of individual users and individual tools. It is the integrated, systemic analysis of
the elements of a particular knowledge work setting. This system consists of the
users ,ofthe physical and digital artifacts and tools ,ofthe practices of using these
artifacts and tools, of the relations between users as well of the relations between
artifacts and tools . For instance, in our field of application, main elements of such
an ecology are documents in physical or digital form, physical and digital tools that
support working with these documents (e.g. pencils, rubbers, ring binders, digital
pens, computers, mice, screens, printers and printed tools), users, practices as well
as the relations between documents, between users, between documents and tools
and between users and documents. These elements are depicted in Figure 3.5.
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