Can You Sketch in 3D? Exploring Perceived Feasibility and Use Cases of 3D Sketch Mapping

Sketch mapping is a research technique that has been widely used to study what people think about the spatial layout of an environment. One of the limitations of the current practice of sketch mapping is that the interface (a pen on paper or digital tablets) forces people to draw on 2D surfaces even when the information to be represented is 3D. For the purpose of studying the 3D aspect of spatial understanding, the recent advancements in extended reality (XR) technologies including virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality are interesting as they provide novel ways to create 3D sketches. In this paper, we investigate how the concept of 3D sketch mapping using XR is perceived by users and explore its potential feasibility and use cases. For this, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 27 participants from three domains: aviation, architecture, and wayfinding. Our findings show that the concept is well-perceived as an intuitive way to externalize the 3D aspect of spatial information, and it has the potential to be a research tool for human cognition research as well as a practical tool that can provide added value in different professional activities.