July 13 , 2005
Andy Warr from University of Bath, UK
Enhancing Collaborative Creativity in Design
(download slides)
Abstract
The Human-Computer Interaction community has
long been concerned
with the design of usable and useful software applications and computer
systems. Terms such as 'creativity' and 'innovation' are frequently used
when referring to the design process. In this presentation we examine what
creativity is with respect to design. We review the evolution of
definitions of creativity, leading to our proposal of a unified definition.
With an understanding of creativity in design we propose a theoretical
account of why collaborative creativity should in principle be more
productive than individual creativity contradicting over 50 years of
empirical research. We explain the findings of previous research in terms
of three social influences: production blocking, evaluation and
free-riding. From this theoretical foundation we present an overview of a
number of studies we have performed looking at individual and
collaborative
creativity: an empirical experiment - the effects of operational mechanisms
on creativity, diary studies and videoed design meetings. With an
understanding of the results of our current work with propose a future
direction for our research: an observational study and evaluation of the
Envisionment and Discovery Collaboratory (EDC) at the University of
Colorado, Boulder; and the design and implementation of an open source
Private, Social, Public Design (PSPD) environment at the University of Bath
using mobile and pervasive technologies to enhance collaborative creativity
in design.
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