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From sketch artists, to researchers, students, and business professionals, everyone has a different idea of when, where and how they’d use the Livescribe smartpen. So what’s yours? Write us back by submitting a comment below. We’ll pick our favorite response on January 4, 2008 and send you a smartpen for free when we start shipping the product.
In the meantime - check out what our group friends are saying on Facebook, and have a look at what other blogs are saying:
Livescribe - Paradigm Shifting User Research Technology?
“While the [Livescribe] was not designed for user research applications, consider how it might be applied:
- During user interviews, the researcher can reference what he or she writes or sketches directly back to the interviewees words for clarity and idea expansion.
- In usability testing the facilitator can reference recorded comments directly back to a discussion guide document to quickly drill-down to supporting quotes.
- For ethnographic observations informant conversations and environmental sounds can be unobtrusively recorded while taking notes.”
Ethnography: Saved by Technology?
“Enter the [smartpen] from [Livescribe]. The [smartpen] allows us to take notes even as we capture a taped version of what is said, and then to interpolate between them as need be. The [smartpen] gives us both the topographical map and the treasure map.”
“Unfortunately, at least some of that time you really do need an accurate transcription, particularly of complex ideas that are new to you and so are hard to summarize. That’s where being able to replay just that portion of the lecture with Livescribe would be incredibly useful.”
Pen Cures Restless Mind Syndrome, Reveals Office Secrets
“For business purposes, the uses are endless. The pen can attend those mindless weekly traffic meetings on your behalf.”
“This would have been a dream device for me when I was a student. I was always sloppy with my notes and would often spend hours trying to figure out why I circled three times “War/zoo analogy”. Seemed important at the time, but when it came time to study, I’d have to put on my Sherlock Holmes hat and try to figure out what the heck it meant. With this, I could double click, rewind a few minutes and just hear it again.”
“I am the old fashion type who likes to take notes by hand rather than type through a lecture. (As a former radio journalist, I also like to have my tape recorder going to catch those important quotes!)”
Tags: business professionals, ethnography, Facebook, journalist, researchers, sketch artists, students, transcription
Jessie…
I love the blog. I added you to my digg account to bookmark it for later……
I had a major wreck on 6/6/6 on my way home from work. Due to major trauma to my limbs i lost both legs and almost all use of my hands. Several muscles from both my forearms were damaged and had to be removed. these surgeries on my arms have cost me my finger dexterity and control. ever since my accident i have spent most of my time in hospitals and therapy. i just started school on the 15th of jan to pursue my bachelors in CompSci. i am currently of sophomore and awaiting a transfer to LSU. Since i cannot write as fast as needed in my classes, i end up missing out on several parts of the class notes. I am currently shopping around for a digital voice recorder to use in class, but the Pulse Pen surpasses all the functions offered in a conventional voice recording device (and it is much more compact). although fellow students help me a lot with their notes, i would like to gain more independence in and outside classes. I think the pulse pen will be of great help in this endeavor.
I would use this pen to take notes in class and review them later at home. I would also use this pen for taking down notes during support group meetings.
Since i know several other disabled students on my campus and others through therapy i can also guarantee you some free marketing. I am also an active member of The Advocates for ADA (American Disabilities Act) and several support groups (Head and Spinal Cord Injury, Amputees Across America and Local Amputee Group.)
I greatly appreciate you considering me for your Pulse Pen Giveaway.
Thanking you for your time.
Shoeb Khan
still_kickin
I am a commercial real estate appraiser. At a property inspection I typically draw the building perimeter and rough floorplan, inserting notes about the property from visual inspection and interview the property owner or manager - sometimes all at the same time. Having one small device to tie all this together with audio from the interview and get it back on the computer would be phenomenal! Software could easily be developed/converted to read the hand drawn sketch into a floorplan sketching program - especially handy for residential appraisers.
Someone should write a grant to get these to Shoeb (above) and other disabled students!
As a physician who writes notes while interviewing patients, this pen has a number of possibilities. I am thinking that I will try it with my right (writing) hand and use the left hand on a touch screen to navigate a knowledgebase while interviewing and writing my notes. Then all I have to be able to do is listen, write and knowledge navigate at the same time. I plan to order your pen and try it out! Even if I cannot do the knowledgebase navigation at the same time I will still find some great usefulness of your technology while seeing patients in a primary care practice. Your technology could save physicians a lot of time now spent documenting the visit electronically.
As a software architect I would use this pen to translate ideas and concepts from brainstorming sessions into a solid basis for actual code construction. Others have mentioned support for UML, but I’m more interested in capturing the higher level initial design process. I often find myself translating scribbled notes and diagrams into a more formal document to get high level buy-in from management.
I would like to be able to draw diagrams and have the ability to import them directly into something like powerpoint or visio - even if only as “boxes and lines”. This would be a great head start on taking notes and translating them to presentations. It would also be nice if there was a way to tag key terms, such as underlining them, so that searching could be done on those tags. It might also be nice to be able to tag an entire section of text with a keyword for searching - draw a box around it and tag that box then all text within the box is associated with the tag.
I also think it would be good to have a way to designate text items as contact info - draw a certain kind of box or shape, and enter in data such as name, phone numbers, email, etc. and be able to automatically sync it into address books, cell phones, and other items. Same for appointments/meetings. It would also be nice if URLs could automatically be recognized and were “clickable” within the digitized version of the notes.
On a totally different track I think it would be very interesting to be able to create drawings digitally and attach audio “notes” to them, and then use the pen as a teaching/learning tool for children - this might require dot-pattern tracing paper. This would enable a teacher to “program” the pen with a set of shapes - circle, square, etc. and then give it to a student who would then try to recreate those shapes (by tracing perhaps) the pen could then play the pre-loaded audio for clues, or encouragement or other information about the shapes. This same concept could be applied to games or even a quiz where audio is played, and the answer is read to trigger success/failure audio. As a developer I’d love to try and get some of this working.
I am very surprised that no one has really mentioned reporting yet! I work in print, and this is the kind of thing that every journalist should own in the next 5 to 10 years. I’m already lugging around a measly tape recorder and a notepad to my interviews, and it can take hours to transcribe the tape afterwards. Guess what — in the world of tight deadlines, you don’t have hours!
The keys to good journalism are accuracy and efficiency. And oh, how the Smartpen will help! Not only with the report itself, but also conveying notes and information to editors, graphic designers, photographers, everyone that’s needed to tell a great story. It’s also a fantastic way to archive all your notes in a searchable format, because you will never know when you need to follow up on a story two years later. Too many reporters have their cubicles swimming in stacks of notebooks — I’ve seen plenty of near-miss avalanches in the newsroom! And because all your archives can be uploaded to a central location, every editor that sets eyes on your work can fact-check on the fly, even when you’re out on assignment or, dare I say it, long since left to go work for some other media outlet.
By the way, I’d love to see a notepad that mimic’s a reporter’s size - 4×8. Hard-cover journals are just… too… set in stone…