Annotations

There are several functions annotations fulfill. All functions have one thing in common namely that the process of annotating is always done besides an users action. The attention while annotating a text for example resides on the text. Or the focus of annotating in a collaborative situation (reviewing, creating) lies on the talk and not on the annotation action. Annotating is mostly defined as an unconscious act which is done parallel to something. Since computer interaction is mostly done in a serial way a digital annotation system needs to translate a real world parallel workflow into a serialized computer workflow. The key on this translation lies in the amount of attention the annotating process consumes. Thus the digital annotation system should not glance with its rich set of features it should rather focus on providing the right tools in the right moment to keep the users attention on the subject he/she is working on right now. This approach is very different to the existing annotation possibilities.
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Layer

One property of real world annotation is its all time presence. There is no need to transform a sheet of paper into something different for simply highlighting some words for example. Nearly every kind of pen works on nearly every kind of paper. This is part of the unconscious annotation process. Thus the digital annotation system should not necessarily be an own application which can open all kinds of documents. It needs to be working inside every application with every kind of content inside the document window.
Neon is based on a transparency foil which can slide out of the title bar of every document window. This transparency foil is the the annotation layer where the user can easily work on without touching the original content. The advantages gained by the foils affordances are that each foil

1. has automatically an owner/author,
2. creates a consistent private space to act in,
3. distinct between annotation and original content and
4. communicates a consistent behavior throughout different applications

This layer will play a key role in the task of translating the parallel annotation workflow into the serial digital world.

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Input Model

As mentioned earlier Neons characteristics are not its rich set of features or its similar look to paper like annotations. Neon focusses on consuming the least amount of attention for controlling the annotation interface.
My first Neon approach included a free form ink pencil which worked similar to real world pencils or popular Adobe Photoshop brushes to allow the user to draw every possible shape. It is a popular approach other digital annotation system follows. This approach tries to imitate the visual appearance of real world annotations to eventually accomplish the same functions and goals of annotations on paper. Obviously this does not work, since drawing with the gross control of the whole hand covering the mouse is not very effective in comparison to the fine control of a pencil with the human fingertips.
Annotations are very individual in their form and thus it is impossible to create palettes or toolbars with all kind of pre-drawn shapes to avoid the pencil approach. The solution lies in an analyzes of the users intention of annotations. This procedure revealed the tools needed to let the user annotate a given text without distracting him/her from the reading process. Basically there are Highlights, Emphasizers and Connectors. By assigning these three categories a visual appearances nearly all kinds of annotations are possible.

The basic interaction works as follows: The user selects a portion of text and then assigns an appearance to it. He/she does not need to worry about drawing a ‘question mark’, ‘bracket’, etc. The computer will draw them on the users command.
If there is no text selection possible the user will get a free form ink cursor which lets him draw on images the way a real life pencil would do. Images can not reflow or change their appearance thus the anchoring of annotations is fairly easy.

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Final words

There are a lot of other features build into this annotations system (i.e. the sharing of annotations) but discussing them all would break the frame. You are welcome to download the complete thesis pdf or take a look at an excerpt of the Neons video presentation. This short video shows the input model mentioned above. You will see how the Neon layer is invoked, how the user assigns appearances to selections, how he/she is connecting text with highlights, how the selecting process works, that each ‘appearance’ allow multilple clicks to increase the level of importance for that annotation and finally the video will show how annotations can be edited.