Firestorm: a brainstorming application for collaborative group work at tabletops

The tabletop computer interface has the potential to support idea generation by a group using the brainstorming technique. This paper describes the design and implementation of a table-top brainstorming system. To gain insights into its effectiveness, we conducted a user study which compared our system against a more conventional approach. We analysed the processes and results with the goal of gaining an understanding of the ways a tabletop brainstorming system can support the phases of this activity. We found that our tabletop interface facilitated the creation of more ideas and participants tended to create more categories. We observed that the tabletop provides a useful record of the group processes and this is valuable for reviewing how well a group followed recommended brainstorming processes. Our contributions are a new table-top brainstorming system and insights into the nature of the benefits a tabletop affords for brainstorming and for capturing the processes employed by a group.