SenseMaking

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Sense-Making

• Valentina Grigoreanu

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Origins of Sense-Making

• Brenda Dervin Bio
• Communication (1972)
• For the design of communication systems that
  respond to human needs
• E.g. Creating user-friendly library systems by
  watching librarians conducting reference
  interviews.

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Sense-Making Question from the Course Emails

• I do not agree with what the author says that
  "analysis is something that happens mostly in the
  analyst's head and it causes cognitive biases."
• And, a lot of good studies have been derived
  without sense-making software tools. Doesn't the
  study overlook traditional processes?
• Before researchers derive analysis, they collect
  a lot of information and collaborate with other
  ones. While they are doing this process, their
  biases can be gone and they can have more
  perspectives. That is kind of my experience that
  while I am discussing and searching about
  something, I can change my mind and realize that
  my knowledge was wrong and I become having new
  knowledge.

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Core Assumptions

• Weicks seven aspects of Sensemaking Weick
  1995
• Grounded in identity construction no sensemaker,
  there can be no sensemaking sense is in the eye
  of the beholder.
• Retrospective makes only the past clearer.
• Enactive and sensible environments. People and
  their environments are intertwined (enactment).
• Social process what a person does depends on
  others, pay attention to cues for coordination
  such as generalized other, prototypes,
  stereotypes, and roles.
• Ongoing process no start and stop.
• Focused on and by extracted cues Own filter
  determines received cues.
• Driven by plausibility rather than accuracy
  Alternatives are often not taken into account.

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Sense-Making Question from the Course Emails

• I do not agree with what the author says that
  "analysis is something that happens mostly in the
  analyst's head and it causes cognitive biases."
• And, a lot of good studies have been derived
  without sense-making software tools. Doesn't the
  study overlook traditional processes?
• Before researchers derive analysis, they collect
  a lot of information and collaborate with other
  ones. While they are doing this process, their
  biases can be gone and they can have more
  perspectives. That is kind of my experience that
  while I am discussing and searching about
  something, I can change my mind and realize that
  my knowledge was wrong and I become having new
  knowledge.

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Sense-Making v. Other

• Earlier (in Communication)
• What it is For the design of communication
  systems that respond to human needs
• What it is not Transmissive model information
  Shannon-Weaver approach.
• Now (for my CS work)
• Traditional Conduct usability studies to see how
  existing software can be improved (small
  incremental changes).
• Sensemaking Build software around how people
  think (possibly huge changes).

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Sense-Making Question from the Course Emails

• I do not agree with what the author says that
  "analysis is something that happens mostly in the
  analyst's head and it causes cognitive biases."
• And, a lot of good studies have been derived
  without sense-making software tools. Doesn't the
  study overlook traditional processes?
• Before researchers derive analysis, they collect
  a lot of information and collaborate with other
  ones. While they are doing this process, their
  biases can be gone and they can have more
  perspectives. That is kind of my experience that
  while I am discussing and searching about
  something, I can change my mind and realize that
  my knowledge was wrong and I become having new
  knowledge.

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Todays Sense-Making
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Sense-Making Tidbits

• Users perform operations to gain successive
  understanding of the information.
• Sensemaking is about planning, not retrieving
  from memory.
• Experts have expertise schemas.
• Oftentimes, it is the lack of features that
  triggers sensemaking.
• Two main loops foraging loop and sensemaking
  loop.

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Sense-Making and Spreadsheet Debugging Strategies

• RQ1 Where do strategies come into play in the
  overall problem-solving process?
• Is the Evidence File biased toward a particular
  strategy already?
• RQ2 What about the strategies we have found so
  far?
• RQ3 Can features (including explanations) be
  designed to take a persons cognitive level into
  account?
• A1 Support every level (make sure some are not
  ignored).
• A2 Recognize which step the user is on and
  support that step.
• RQ4 Are there gender differences in how
  problem-solvers traverse the model?
• Presentation choices
• This formula is buggy.
• This is the correct formula.

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References

• http//www.comm.ohio-state.edu/People/Faculty/Bren
  daDervin.aspx
• W Weick, K. E. (1995). Sensemaking in
  organizations. Thousand Oaks, CA Sage. P. 61-62.
• Pirolli, P., and Card, S. The sensemaking
  process and leverage points for analyst
  technology as identified through cognitive task
  analysis. Proceedings of the 2005 International
  Conference on Intelligence Analysis, 2005.