The process of arranging and grouping to allow emergence of ideas helps collaboration through interaction and consensus building. Kari Kutti concluded that, in the extreme case when sketchy bubble diagrams are merely representing abstract ideas, sketching out the bubbles with different configurations is similar to arranging objects. Tom Moran and Patrick Chiu, in their Tivoli system on the Liveboard, have combined sketching and arranging and linking, along with command gestures. Ellen Do and Mark Gross's Electronic Cocktail Napkin and James Landay's Silk system also allows gesture recognition. Information was also deemed necessary in helping seeing emergence.
Emergence happens usually after a long period of evolution in a design process.
It is sometimes a background process, a change of attitude or getting information about a new aspect or attitude for perception and interpolation or shifting context and paradigm. It sometimes involves revisiting old ideas and seeing the breakthrough or overtracing drawing to see new possibilities emerges. Hence the development of emergence-supporting interfaces will likely call on the expertise of cognitive scientists, information designers, and of course domain experts. It was fruitful to see the concept of emergence stretched and applied and examples found in a wide variety of domains. It should be supported in everyday tools.