Sketch Recognition Design Considerations and Improvements to Mechanix

10 Principles of Things a Sketch System Should Do:

1. Be reliable.
2. Have smooth feedback between where my pen is and what is drawn on screen.
3. Give feed back if a gesture is or is not accepted.
4. Have clear instructions.
5. Have simple gestures.
6. Adapt to different users.
7. Gestures should try to be related to what they do if possible.
8. Not too many gestures.
9. Should be able to undo easily.
10. Utilize the strengths of sketching.

10 Principles of Things a Sketch System Should Not Do:

1. Should not lag.
2. Have complicated gestures.
3. Have too many gestures.
4. Have not enough gestures to do what you want to do.
5. Accept incorrect gestures / input.
6. Try to use sketching for something that it would be terrible for.
7. Have convoluted instructions.
8. Make too many assumptions about the user.
9. Reject correct gestures / input.
10. Have too many gestures that don't relate well to what they do.

Five suggestions for improvement to Mechanix

1. Improve client-server lag.
2. Have more robust shape recognition. Shape creation was too dependent on node order and shapes I thought were correct were not recognized.
3. Able to sketch the labels / letters.
4. Accept gestures for labeling instead of rollout menu.
5. Have a mask for selection or input. ...I'm drawing / erasing only (trusses, forces,... labels)