A Method and a System for

Supporting the Process of Chance Discovery

- the process of knowledge creation in terms of Chance Discovery -

Shigeki Amitani1 and Koichi Hori2

1
Creativity & Cognition Studios,
University of Technology, Sydney
PO Box 123, Broadway, NSW 2007, Australia,
shigeki@it.uts.edu.au,
WWW home page: http://www-staff.it.uts.edu.au/~shigeki/
2
Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology (RCAST),
University of Tokyo, 153-8904, Japan

Abstract. In our research, we have developed a method and a system

for supporting the process of knowledge creation [1]. They have been
applied to exhibition design processes as an exemplar of the real world
design problems. In this paper, we are going to analyze the obtained
protocol data in exhibition design processes in terms of Chance Discov-
ery. The developed method and system successfully worked for designers
to become aware of a chance and explain its significance in exhibition
design.

1 Introduction

Though some theoretical frameworks have been proposed [2] [3] [4] and their
significances have been recognized, companies face the difficulty how to apply
the theoretical frameworks to their practices.
Some studies have included the practical aspects of knowledge creation. Card
[5] has proposed a process of knowledge creation called “knowledge crystalliza-
tion” that includes four such stages as (1) acquire information, (2) make sense
of it, (3) create something new, and (4) act on it. He developed some systems
with information visualization techniques to support the process of knowledge
creation, however, it has never been mentioned what types of information should
be acquired and how they should be obtained.
Based on the theoretical frameworks such as “design perspective of knowledge
management [3]”, we take the position that knowledge is structured dynamically
in accordance with the contexts of human practices, not static entity [6].
We have developed a method “Knowledge Liquidization & Crystallization
(KLC)” and a conceptual system “Knowledge Nebula Crystallizer (KNC) [7]”.
They have been applied to exhibition design process as an exemplar of the pro-
cess of knowledge creation [1]. The system implemented for the exhibition design
is named “Knowledge Nebula Crystallizer for Exhibition Design (KNC4ED)”.
In the research, we claimed that information with its context supports the pro-
cess of knowledge creation because it provides (1) solutions to the grounding
problem [8] [9] and (2) a way to capture situated actions [10].
In cooperation with a Japanese advertising company, visitors’ interactions
with exhibition objects and their verbal reports (protocol data) were recorded
with wearable computers [11] [12]. Visitors’ impressions at real exhibition sites
and gaps between designers’ intentions and visitors’ impressions were successfully
articulated through analyses on the obtained protocol data [1]. In the case of
exhibition, we regard the protocol data are grounded information in the real
world. In this paper, we are going to analyze the results of the user studies of
the KNC4ED in terms of Chance Discovery for exhibition designers.

2 Knowledge Liquidization & Crystallization (KLC) and

Knowledge Nebula Crystallizer (KNC)
Based on the concept mentioned in section 1, the process of knowledge creation
is defined as following four phases:

Acquisition Acquiring grounded information pieces with the contexts of human

practices
Analysis Observing and analyzing the acquired information pieces from various
viewpoints for reflective thinking
Restructure Restructuring the relationships among the obtained information
pieces
Production Producing new information artifacts for explanation on one’s ac-
tions and thoughts

Ostwald et al. [7] have suggested a concept of Knowledge Liquidization &

Crystallization and a prototype knowledge management system “Knowledge
Nebula Crystallizer (KNC)”. However, they mainly dealt with theoretical as-
pects. We are going to put them into practice. Knowledge Liquidization & Crys-
tallization are defined as follows:

– Knowledge Liquidization is the process of dissolving knowledge into small

granularity that have a core grounding in the real world and that preserve
the local semantic relationships around the core
– Knowledge Crystallization is the process of restructuring the relation-
ships among the granular units in accordance with a current context

Figure 1 shows how the KNC works. Information within the contexts of
human practices is acquired (Fig1 (1)) and dissolved into small elements and
stored in the KNC as source information for knowledge creation, not as knowl-
edge itself (2). A user inputs a keyword, then the KNC retrieves the possible
representations of knowledge crystallization suitable for the user’s current con-
text with “Dynamic Concept Base (DCB)” as stimuli (3). The DCB defines the
similarities among words excerpted from the protocol data.
 Fig. 1. The Process of Knowledge Creation and the KNC

2.1 Knowledge Nebula Crystallizer for Exhibition Design

(KNC4ED)
Overview of the Developed System As shown above, KNC4ED provides
a way to move between overview and detail, and between conceptual and real
worlds. Figure 2 shows the snapshot of KNC4ED. The system is mainly com-
posed of (1) background processors: Preprocessor and Dynamic Concept Base
(DCB) and (2) user interfaces: ChronoSpace, ContextMap, ViewpointMap, and
ControlPanel. The spatial representation has been adopted in our implemen-
tation [13] [3]. The Multi Dimensional Scaling (MDS) method [14] has been
adopted for arranging words in the space in order for the user to analyze how
the indicated words are related to each other.

Preprocessor The obtained protocol data are manually transcribed into the
format shown in Figure 3. The names of the perceived objects are the cores for
Knowledge Liquidization. The protocol data is chunked into units preserving
their local semantic relationships around the cores. The procedure to define the
similarities among the protocol data units is composed of (1) morphological
analysis with ChaSen [15] and generate index-word vector of each protocol unit,
(2) calculate inner-product of each pair of index-word vectors. (3) generate an
index-index matrix which has similarities between two words as elements (=
DCB) [16].
 
 



 

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Fig. 3. A protocol unit

Dynamic Concept Base A concept base is constructed and reconstructed dy-

namically from the obtained information pieces in order to retrieve conceptually
similar data to the input keyword, as similarities of concepts are dynamic and
dependent on contexts [17].

ViewpointMap The ViewpointMap is a tool to provide users with holistic

view of the obtained information pieces and connect users to a certain concept.
Figure 4 shows how the ViewpointMap works. The ViewpointMap retrieves (1)
the ten most frequently appearing words (Figure 4 left), (2) the ten words similar
to a double-clicked word (Figure 4 right). It also retrieves protocol data on the
ContextMap explained in the next section by selecting “Search” in the right-click
pop-up menu.
 Fig. 4. The ViewpointMap

ContextMap The ContextMap is a tool to provide users with the conceptual

chunks of the information pieces related to the concept selected on the View-
pointMap (Figure 5 left). A space on the left part of the ContextMap shows a
result of the retrieval and a list on the right side presents keywords extended by
DCB with their similarities to the input keyword.
The ContextMap allows users to rearrange the positions of protocol objects
in the space in order for users to formalize their idea incrementally [18]. Through
this interaction, the DCB is restructured.
By double-clicking on a protocol object in the ContextMap, the ChronoSpace
appears. This has a map that includes the clicked protocol data so that the
designers can proceed by continuously inter-referencing of a projected whole
and the particulars that make up the design situation [19].

ChronoSpace The ChronoSpace is a tool for enabling users to ground the

selected information on the ContextMap in the real world. It allows users to
analyze the obtained information pieces. The designer can place yellow squares
on the map in order to set the position and attach the names of the exhibition
objects. This allows to articulate concepts and to convey them to visitors using
the map as shown in Figure 5 (right).
The squares with numbers indicate positions where a visitor reported his/her
impressions, which are automatically generated by matching time-sequential pro-
tocol data with the information of yellow dots. This functionality improves the
browsability of the information.
By comparing the comment a designer attached in advance with the indicated
protocol data, the designer can check gaps between the designer’s intention and
the visitors’ impressions.
 Fig. 5. The ContextMap (left) and the ChronoSpace (right)

3 Supporting the Process of Chance Discovery for

Exhibition Design

In exhibition design, the process of Chance Discovery [20] such as (1) becoming
aware of a chance, and (2) explaining its significance are defined and realized
through (1) acquiring information pieces within the contexts of visitors’ practices
and analyzing / restructuring them, and (2) restructuring the relationships be-
tween obtained information pieces in order to produce new information artifacts
to explain designers’ intentions to their clients.
Figure 6 summarizes the relation between the process of knowledge creation
and the developed method and system components (left), and the relationship
between the process of knowledge creation and Chance Discovery (right).
Obviously becoming aware of chances starts with acquisition of information
pieces, and then analysis is required. Significant events are not always visible
as they are, but are discovered through restructuring the relationships among
information pieces. In order to explain the significance of the discovery, it is
necessary to crystallize and articulate ideas on how they are significant explicitly
in words. This process is the phase of producing information artifacts. That is, the
KLC and the KNC are capable of supporting the process of Chance Discovery.

3.1 User studies

We have conducted user studies in order to investigate the interaction between

users and the KNC. The user studies are composed of two sessions for each test
user. In the first session the test user (denoted TU-1) was asked to design a
Fig. 6. The relationships between the process of knowledge creation and KNC compo-
nents, and between the process and Chance Discovery

booth of the company S in Motor Show 20043 without KNC4ED, and with it
in the second one. The data sets that the TU-1 could refer to in both sessions
were mainly the materials used in designing the booth of the company S in the
Tokyo Motor Show 2001 such as official booth planning sheet, statistic report of
questionnaires obtained in the booth, and internet.
The task was mainly composed of the following two parts and the think-aloud
method [21] was adopted to investigate the usages of the system:

– To point out what should be reported to the clients (= the company S) and
taken into consideration for the next exhibition.
– To design a booth and to generate materials for explanation based on which
the user can produce a presentation slides4 .

3.2 Results and Discussion

In the first session, TU-1 said:

The company S is best remembered for the car L5 . ... I want to present
such image of characters that the car L currently appeals (in its com-
mercial film) with its stylishness, its sophistication and its elegance.
3
The company S is one of the Japanese car companies which is famous for its partic-
ipation in the World Rally Competition. For confidentiality reasons, the names of
the investigated booths cannot appear in this paper.
4
The material required as the output of the task did not have to be good-looking
presentation slides.
5
This car is famous as a touring wagon.
 Then she summarized her plan as follows:

Well, I still cannot complete a concrete composition, but stillness and move-
ment, though it sounds like a hackneyed phrase, the rough and rustic
character of the company S in a good sense should be expressed.

While TU-1 had a plan to implement the contrast between stillness and move-
ment, she could not complete the design of the booth in detail.
In the second session, she became aware of a chance to restructure her idea
that the car L was connected with the company S.

Becoming aware of a chance TU-1 first retrieved protocol data with the
keyword “the company S”. She rearranged the retrieved protocol objects on the
ContextMap with analyzing some of them. Through this process she discovered
that some of the subjects referred to the car C6 . Then she became aware of a
chance, that is, the fact that the car C is one of the most important elements
of the company S. This discovered fact is regarded as a chance because this
information piece has significant impact on the decision making of TU-1. She
mentioned:

In the first session I didn’t find anything about the car C in the statistical
report. I think I should change the starting point of my plan slightly.

Explaining its significance Through restructuring the information space into

almost three parts as shown in Figure 7 (left), She started to articulate the sig-
nificance of the discovered fact with using the words obtained from the retrieved
protocol data. She mentioned:

I’m surprised that it was not only one person that mentioned the car
C . It seems to be a famous historical car. If it is the origin of the
company S, not only the garage-like decoration of the booth, but also the
effort of the company S from the time the car C was developed should be
presented. That is, the car C shouldn’t be regarded as something finished
but presented as its origin. I didn’t thought about it in the first session
but the car C seems to be well known. I heard that it appeared in a TV
program, so maybe a lot of people know it. The outline of my plan doesn’t
change, but the contrast is based not only on the image of its roughness
but also its history lined with sweat and oil.

Figure 7 (right) shows a new information artifact produced by TU-17 , which

is a sketch for a presentation to explain her findings and plans to the client. In
the sketch, the word “the car C” appeared as a concrete element for her design.
6
The car C was the first car of the company S developed in 1958 based on the
technology of aircrafts.
7
This picture is the translated version of TU-1’s handwriting.
She decided to use the word “the car C” to contrast the sophisticated image
with the rough image. KNC4ED successfully supported the process of Chance
Discovery.
The system worked as a trigger for becoming aware of a chance and for
explaining its significance because the KNC4ED provided TU-1 with following
elements that could not be obtained without the system. The KNC4ED:
– Conducted Knowledge Liquidization (Otherwise the files of whole protocol
data containing the word “the company S” were retrieved).
– Provided information pieces that contained what the statistical and free-form
questionnaires report did not include.
– Defined the similarity between “the company S” and “the car C”.
– Retrieved similar information pieces defined by the DCB.
– Increases browsability by indicating relevant protocol units in a single space
according to the similarities.
– Provided explicit words usable for her explanation.

Fig. 7. Explaining the significance

4 Conclusion
In this paper, we have described how Knowledge Liquidization & Crystallization
and Knowledge Nebula Crystallizer support the process of Chance Discovery in
the case of exhibition design. Further applications are required to develop them
and to examine their effectiveness.

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