Developing design concepts in a cloud computing environment: creative interactions and brainstorming modalities

Abstract

This article presents the key components required to properly understand remote creative interactions associated with three collective design stages: co-definition; the ideas co-production; and the co-evaluation in the formulation of a design concept. We compare five brainstorming modalities: traditional brainstorming—graphical interaction, reverse brainstorming, brainwriting and brainsketching—adopted by six delocalised teams working through a cloud computing environment. We analyse: co-authoring production; the ratio of ideas production according to task-goal; and the variation of brainstorming modalities. Our results show that designers work on brainstorming modalities according to the task-goal assigned, and we see that task content and the verbal and graphical communicative modes are supported by the proposed computational environment; as well as all brainstorming modalities. Because co-authoring or collective sketching are hardly possible without verbal communication support in graphical production, we propose the use of these new cloud computing functionalities to enhance the distributed design work.