Electronic Cocktail Napkin

When we get together after work and talk about a design, we might use a cocktail napkin to make diagrams and sketches. The Electronic Cocktail Napkin supports this kind of collaborative design discussion by enabling two or more users to share a drawing space.

Two users work together using two tablets

We built two versions. In one version (shown above) two designers work on separate digitizing tablets, sharing a drawing screen. In the other version, the designers share a tablet. In both versions, the Electronic Cocktail Napkin remembers who drew each glyph, but it does not attempt to manage the collaboration.

Graphical Conversation

The drawing is tagged with audio clips

We experimented with the Macintosh's audio recording to eavesdrop on the designer's conversation. Drawings are only part of a conversation, and many meanings are made clear verbally. We tagged each glyph with a snippet of audio recorded as the drawing was made. You can later point to a glyph and hear the audio.