Designing for collaborative creative problem solving

Abstract

Collaborative creativity is traditionally supported by formal techniques, such as brainstorming. These techniques improve the idea-generation process by creating group synergies, but also suffer from a number of negative effects [12]. Current electronic tools to support collaborative creativity overcome some of these problems, but introduce new ones, by either losing the benefits of face-to-face communication or the immediacy of simultaneous contribution.Using an interactive environment as a test bed, we are investigating how collaborative creativity can be supported electronically while maintaining face-to-face communication. What are the design-factors influencing such a system?We have designed a brainstorming application that uses an interactive table and a large wall display, and compared the results of using it to traditional paper-based brainstorming in a user study with 30 participants. From the considerations that went into the design and the observations during the study we derive a number of design guidelines for collaborative systems in interactive environments.

Requirements Engineering as Creative Problem Solving: A Research Agenda for Idea Finding

“…More research-based tools are also available. For example Hilligies et al [25] developed new technologies to enhance exploratory creativity techniques such as brainstorming without losing the advantages of face-to-face communication. Their application combines an interactive table and a large digital wall display that enables active engagement with brainstormed content, shown on the right-hand side of Figure 1.…”

AffinityTable - A Hybrid Surface for Supporting Affinity Diagramming

“…1, c) due to the distance between these work surfaces. Like other researchers [5,6], we also consider personal workspaces as essential for the efficiency of creative group work as they moderate social factors like evaluation apprehension by providing a semi-private retreat from the group. Other social factors like production blocking and free riding are partly addressed by the design technique itself.…”

“…Pictionaire [4] uses overhead image capture and projection to combine physical artifacts with digital annotations for collaborative design work on a hybrid tabletop system. BrainStorm [5] combines multiple pen-operated displays to support brainstorming processes. Digital notes are created on an interactive table and transferred to a wall projection for discussion and clustering.…”

Systematic Integration of Solution Elements: How Does Digital Creativity Support Change Group Dynamics?

“…There are multiple concepts that support both individual as well as collaborative aspects of the creative process [4,14,16,18]. While some concepts provide shielded, private space for undisturbed, individual work [14,16], other implementations provide private, non-shielded space for individual content creation [4,18].…”