Brainstorming for Sensemaking in a Multimodal, Multiuser Cognitive Environment

This paper discusses a user study conducted on a brainstorming tool for brainstorming in intelligence analysis, situated in a cognitive and immersive system. The cognitive and immersive room is comprised of gesture technology, voice input, tablet input, and a 360 display to allow for group discussion and interaction. The brainstorming tool design is informed by sensemaking theory as defined by Pirolli and Card [1]. The basis for the digital brainstorming tool in our cognitive immersive environment is a structured analytic tool already in use by the intelligence analysis domain. We anticipate that this design will capitalize on cognitive familiarity to enable a more approachable design and facilitate a smoother and more useful tool. The user study (n = 26) is an A/B study conducted to compare the capabilities of the analog brainstorming tool with the digital brainstorming tool, and understand how the multimodal interaction system impacts brainstorming.