A study of incidental notetaking to inform digital pen and paper solutions

Abstract

With the aid of digital pen and paper technologies, information written on paper can be made available digitally without an intermediary transcription step. This creates opportunities to harness paper notes in ways that are only possible with digital systems. We report on the outcomes of a user study on incidental paper-based notetaking that examined, not only the forms of notes that users take, but also if and how these are later used. Our aim was to establish how useful existing digital pen and paper solutions would be in such settings as well as informing the design of new solutions.