OUGD505: Designing for Collaboration

Throughout research, several theorists have observed that collaboration involves capturing and displaying ideas and so designers need to acknowledge the importance of providing a means of generating, capturing and displaying information within collaborative teams. For example, Schrage (1998) comments that “there needs to be a space – physical or electronic – where the ideas and symbols are displayed and shared so that everyone can participate on an equal footing”.

- Donald Broadbent's theory (1958) states that people can perform better if they are stimulated or motivated (which increases their level of arousal) but only up to a limit as

too much stimulation can lead to stress and thus reduce performance.   

- G.S Brager, 2000 (et al) suggest that innovation thrives on all sorts of interaction so we
should “increase opportunities for spontaneous encounters (‘casual collisions’) 

-New personal technology such as Skype & FaceTime on phones also facilitate a face-to-face meeting, highlighting the benefits advancing. technology can be, meetings are now available anytime and anywhere for one-to-one interactions. 

-Transitions between concurrent and collaborative work must be seamless in order to minimize obstacles for communication 

Designing for Collaborative Creative Problem Solving - research study conducted in 2007 by Otmar Hilliges, Lucia Terrenghi, Sebastian Boring, David Kim, Hendrik Richter, Andreas Butz for Media informatics, Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich, mainly focusing on HOW creative idea's come about, and what we can do to facilitate them.

The paper explores collaborative and creative problem solving, epxploring a set of pre-determined design goals for electronic systems to support this process. Guided by these goals, a electronic brainstorming system has been designed and built into an an interactive environment, using a tabletop and a large wall display. Throughout the paper they discussed the design decisions they made. The system was evaluated in a user study with 30 participants in order to verify the success of the design choices and their influence on the brainstorming process (the main topic of investigation). 

They found that the quality and number of ideas generated within the electronic  system was similar to classical paper-based brainstorming, with the additional advantage of storing ideas and processes which is a benefit within digital systems and file saving websites. In addition the design of the system, which did not disrupt, but rather support social interaction aided this process, as naturally brain storming is an act we consider to do mostly quickly, with pan and paper.  From the results of this study and a number of observations made throughout the process, a list of design considerations was created, aiding others to design future collaborative systems for similar socio-technical settings.

I have highlighted the above information from a screenshot from O. Hilliges et al. (2007) as deeply relevant to my specific problem, being that of collaboration within the creative industries as a reinterpretation of the existing digital platform.

Study into how different modes of communication alter the engagement and productivity with regards to brainstorming. The results show that Electronic communication has proven to be successful, with face to face interaction still featuring as a high necessity despite the digital (often non-face-to-face) platform.

References:

http://www.workplaceunlimited.com/The%20Psychology%20of%20Collaboration%20Space%20Full%20Paper.pdf

Brager G, Heerwagen J, Buaman F, Huizenga C, Powell K, Ruland A & Ring E (2000) Team Spaces and Collaboration: Links to the Physical Environment, Final Internal Report, Centre for the Built Environment.

Broadbent D (1958) Perception and Communication, Pergamon Press, London.

Schrage M (1998) Delivering Information Services through Collaboration, Hardin SR (Ed), Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 24 (6), 6–8