Interactive Spaces for Supporting Embodied Collaborative Design Practices

Digital technology is increasingly influencing how design is practiced. However, it is not always successful in supporting all design activities. In contrast, especially informal collaborative design methods that are typically practiced early in the design process are still poorly supported by digital tools. This thesis takes this critical gap as a central motive for investigating how digital tools can be designed to both preserve and augment existing material and social practices of collaborative design activities.

Within three case studies, new concepts for supporting collaborative embodied design practices are presented. Within the first study, the interactive space AffinityTable is discussed which was designed to support the collaborative design method affinity diagramming. A second case study presents the tool IdeaVis for supporting collaborative sketching sessions. In a third case study, support for the particular activity of documenting and organizing design artifacts is explored with the interactive space ArtifactBubbles.

As a result, this thesis delivers three types of contributions. As a first contribution, the thesis describes a novel design methodology than can be applied to related design problems. As a second contribution, new design concepts and interaction techniques are introduced that can be reused and adapted by other researchers or practitioners. Eventually, empirical data that relates to the effect of the designed methods on properties of design practice is provided. The thesis concludes with abstract design guidelines that bring together all contributions for reuse by researchers and practitioners.