Towards an instrument for measuring sensemaking and an assessment of its theoretical features

This paper reports the result of a study that we conducted to develop an instrument for measuring sensemaking and to understand how sensemakers conceptualise the sensemaking that they are doing. To address these aims we conducted a review of how sensemaking is described in the literature and derived a series of features. These were used to construct a questionnaire, which we deployed in an experimental study in which participants performed a sensemaking task. The results help to validate the questionnaire and provide insights into how users think about the experience of sensemaking.

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Author and article information

Contributors

Kholod Alsufiani

Simon Attfield

Leishi Zhang

Conference

Publication date: July 2017

Publication date (Print): July 2017

Pages: 1-5

Affiliations

[0001]Middlesex University

London,UK

Article

DOI: 10.14236/ewic/HCI2017.86

SO-VID: a9b9a004-989d-4b00-851d-b9e75a7c8d96

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Conference name: Proceedings of the 31st International BCS Human Computer Interaction Conference (HCI 2017)

Conference acronym: HCI

Conference number: 31

Conference location: Sunderland, UK

Conference date: 3 - 6 July 2017

Conference sponsor: Electronic Workshops in Computing (eWiC)

Conference theme: digital make-believe, with delegates considering our expansive

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1477-9358 BCS Learning & Development

Self URI (article page): https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.14236/ewic/HCI2017.86

Self URI (journal page): https://ewic.bcs.org/

reference

S. AttfieldA. Blandford 2009 Improving the Cost Structure of Sensemaking Tasks: Analysing User Concepts to Inform Information System Design, in: Human-Computer Interaction - INTERACT 2009 Presented at the IFIP Conference on HumanComputer Interaction Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg 532 545
B. Dervin 1998 Sense- making theory and practice: an overview of user interests in knowledge seeking and use. J. Knowl. Manag 2 36 46
P. PirolliS. Card 2005 The sensemaking process and leverage points for analyst technology as identified through cognitive task analysis Presented at the Proceedings of International Conference on Intelligence Analysis
S. RomanelloB. DervinR. Fortner 2003 SenseMaking as a Methodology to Inform Interdisciplinary Communication of Science Presented at the EGS -AGU - EUG Joint Assembly 56
D.M. RussellM.J. StefikP. PirolliS.K. Card 1993 The Cost Structure of Sensemaking, in: Proceedings of the INTERACT ’93 and CHI ’93 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI ’93 ACM, New York, NY, USA 269 276
N. SelvarajS. AttfieldP. PassmoreB.L.W. Wong 2016 How Analysts Think: Think-steps as a Tool for Structuring Sensemaking in Criminal Intelligence Analysis, in: 2016 European Intelligence and Security Informatics Conference (EISIC) Presented at the 2016 European Intelligence and Security Informatics Conference (EISIC) 68 75
J. StaskoC. GörgZ. Liu 2008 Jigsaw: Supporting Investigative Analysis Through Interactive Visualization. Inf. Vis 7 118 132
K.E. Weick 1995 Sensemaking in Organizations SAGE
K.E. WeickK.M. SutcliffeD. Obstfeld 2005 Organizing and the Process of Sensemaking. Organ. Sci 16 409 421
J.S. YiY. KangJ.T. StaskoJ.A. Jacko 2008 Understanding and Characterizing Insights: How Do People Gain Insights Using Information Visualization?, in: Proceedings of the 2008 Workshop on BEyond Time and Errors: Novel evaLuation Methods for Information Visualization, BELIV ’08 ACM, New York, NY, USA 4:1 4:6

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[1] S. AttfieldA. Blandford 2009 Improving the Cost Structure of Sensemaking Tasks: Analysing User Concepts to Inform Information System Design, in: Human-Computer Interaction - INTERACT 2009 Presented at the IFIP Conference on HumanComputer Interaction Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg 532 545

[2] B. Dervin 1998 Sense- making theory and practice: an overview of user interests in knowledge seeking and use. J. Knowl. Manag 2 36 46

[3] P. PirolliS. Card 2005 The sensemaking process and leverage points for analyst technology as identified through cognitive task analysis Presented at the Proceedings of International Conference on Intelligence Analysis

[4] S. RomanelloB. DervinR. Fortner 2003 SenseMaking as a Methodology to Inform Interdisciplinary Communication of Science Presented at the EGS -AGU - EUG Joint Assembly 56

[5] D.M. RussellM.J. StefikP. PirolliS.K. Card 1993 The Cost Structure of Sensemaking, in: Proceedings of the INTERACT ’93 and CHI ’93 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI ’93 ACM, New York, NY, USA 269 276

[6] N. SelvarajS. AttfieldP. PassmoreB.L.W. Wong 2016 How Analysts Think: Think-steps as a Tool for Structuring Sensemaking in Criminal Intelligence Analysis, in: 2016 European Intelligence and Security Informatics Conference (EISIC) Presented at the 2016 European Intelligence and Security Informatics Conference (EISIC) 68 75

[7] J. StaskoC. GörgZ. Liu 2008 Jigsaw: Supporting Investigative Analysis Through Interactive Visualization. Inf. Vis 7 118 132

[8] K.E. Weick 1995 Sensemaking in Organizations SAGE

[9] K.E. WeickK.M. SutcliffeD. Obstfeld 2005 Organizing and the Process of Sensemaking. Organ. Sci 16 409 421

[10] J.S. YiY. KangJ.T. StaskoJ.A. Jacko 2008 Understanding and Characterizing Insights: How Do People Gain Insights Using Information Visualization?, in: Proceedings of the 2008 Workshop on BEyond Time and Errors: Novel evaLuation Methods for Information Visualization, BELIV ’08 ACM, New York, NY, USA 4:1 4:6

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