DICTAMEN DE AUDITORÍA DE LA PASTEURIZADORA EL RANCHITO

storage, distributed information access, and the possibility to review previous processes or to undo certain actions. Thus, this section discusses the design challenge of embedding digital technology in a collaborative creative process without causing communication breakdowns, while still taking advantage of some of the qualities of Electronic Brainstorming Systems (EBS).

The issue of more fluid interaction with large, high-resolution displays that support creative group processes has been treated in [GSW01, KNF+01]. A summary of recent advances in the field of interaction techniques for large displays can be found in Czerwinski et al. [CRM+06]. Most of this research has focused either on the properties and design implications for vertical large displays [RCB+05] or on the influence of horizontal displays on co-located collaborative work [SGM03].

Probably most related to our work, especially with regards to our attempts at blurring the line between the physical and the digital, is theDesigners’ Outpostby Klemmer et al. [KNF+01]. TheDesigners’ Outpostis a support tool for web designers that combines the benefits of a large, vertical workspace, the flexibility of physical media (post-its) and the benefits of electronic media to annotate and structure information. A SmartBoard [SMA03] is augmented with a computer vision system to capture physical media that can be attached to the display and to capture in- teraction with tangible interface elements such as a physical rubber and a move tool. In many ways this system served as inspiration for theBrainstormsystem discussed in this chapter, only that we were interested in building a purely virtual interface, fully harnessing the benefits of the digital. Of course one of the design goals forBrainstormwas to mimic the flexibilityafforded by lightweight physical artifacts such as post-it notes. However, in Section3.5we shall learn that we only succeeded partially.

Contribution Statement: Most of the work discussed in this Section has been published in [HTB+07]. I am the first author on that publication and I have ini- tiated and lead the project. As with any other scientific publication all of my co- authors have contributed significantly. Sebastian Boring has built and implemented many aspects of the interactive wall display used in this project [BHB07]. David Kim has contributed to the implementation and user study. All other authors have had significant input on the design of the system and the study as well as on writing the paper.

3.2

A Side Note on Brainstorming

Brainstorming is a technique for divergent thinking. It can be individual, although the term more usually refers to a group process for generating as many ideas or options as possible in response to an open question. Thus, it is frequently used for collaborative creative problem solving and it builds on a few main principles: i.e., quantity over quality of ideas, elaboration on others’ ideas, and absence of criticism [Osb53]. The technique relies on the communication among group members to stimulate idea generation, and on coordination to maximize the individuals’ involvement and interpretation of ideas in order to create new intellectual associations, i.e., to increase the production of ideas.

38 3. Gesture based Interaction on Tabletops

Although Osborn [Osb53] claimed synergy effects of brainstorming, which positively affect the productivity of ideas, other studies (e.g., [DM87], [DR04]) have shown that these benefits are apparently outweighed by several negative social implications of the technique, such as appre- hension of social judgments in face-to-face conditions. Those studies claim that nominal brain- storming groups (aggregating ideas from separate individuals) outperform face-to-face groups. In this context, EBSs that support distributed collaborators have been successful in increasing productivity of ideas, apparently because they allow for anonymity, which reduces evaluation apprehension.

On the other hand, face-to-face collaborative creative problem solving is still common in practice, and its value is probably not to be associated with the number of generated ideas only. The individuals’ subjective perception of the outcome of the process plays indeed an important role as well, and depends on the degree to which personal interests are represented and valued in the group’s output. Furthermore, the face-to-face brainstorming situation has qualities which, in the long run, might even outweigh pure productivity measurements, namely the positive social aspects of team building, group awareness, and a shared sense of achievement.

In such contexts of face-to-face brainstorming, EBSs seem to perform poorly in comparison to nominal (i.e., distributed) brainstorming settings because of their disruptive effect. Using single-user systems, such as laptops, in a co-located collaborative setting leads, in most cases, to a communication breakdown since the user’s concentration has to shift away from the group toward the device in order to use it. Furthermore, the size of a personal computer screen or the keyboard, as well as the turn taking implied by devices for single usage, seem to hinder the communication process.

For this reason, in face-to-face contexts digital technology is often absent or shut down be- cause it results disruptive of the group communication and of the “creative flow” [Csi96]. There- fore, instead of relying on digital technologies, co-located creative meetings commonly rely on the physical benefits (e.g., gathering around a shared space) and social benefits (e.g., having equal access to information) afforded by physical surfaces, such as tables and walls, to exchange and visualize different types of information artifacts (e.g., post-its, paper documents, pictures, etc.) in an immediate way. The results of such processes are often turned into a digital format in the end, by taking pictures of whiteboards and posters, or typing notes in digital documents in order to distribute and archive those results. Several transitions from physical to digital media occur which require additional work, and are mostly unable to capture and represent how the creative process has unfolded in time.

Considering this trade-off between the social and physical benefits of face-to-face collabora- tion, and the benefits of storage in digital format provided by EBSs, the design of theBrainstorm electronic system tries to combine those benefits in order to:

• _{maintain the social benefits of face-to-face collaborative creativity: These depend on the}

individuals’ subjective perception of the group process.

• _{exploit the benefits of EBSs which are normally recognized in distributed collaboration,}

such as the capability to archive and easily review the collaborative process in different locations and points in time.