Introduction to this special issue on sensemaking

Abstract

This special issue on sensemaking brings together articles representing some of the significant paths taken by HCI sensemaking research since the 1990s. One thrust is the continued development of rich interaction techniques and tools to support users ability to create and shape external representations of knowledge that ultimately support more effective situation awareness and understanding. Another is the rise of increasingly social or collaborative sensemaking systems. This special issue originated in a workshop held at the ComputerHuman Interaction Conference in 2008, which recognized the growing problem of understanding too much information.