Creative Collaboration with Representations: A Case Study of Interaction Design in an Interactive Space

This paper focuses on the concepts of creativity and representations produced in the context of collaborative design. More specifically, on the interplay between collaborative creation of sketches (design proposals), and argumentation and negotiation processes taking place in the design activity. The question raised in this paper is how sketches produced during a design session reflect and mediate dialogues and argumentation in the design activity and how the sketches feed into new ones. We are also interested in finding out how the characteristics presented by the artefacts in use permit coming to creative interactions. The concepts of "action context"- and "target context representations" are introduced and used to illustrate shifts of focus during a design session. We have studied a group of students working on a design task in an interactive space for two weeks. The purpose of the study was to investigate how an environment meant to support collaborative work and learning support collaborative and creative learning of interaction design. The results obtained indicate that students attending a course on interaction design often ignored, forgot or at least did not pay enough attention to target representations. Furthermore the results suggest that "action context representations" to a large extent occupy student activities as a result of either complex technology or as a result of the students thrust to do something instrumental. We suggest that technological support for collaborative learning of design should have some kind of reminder of the mapping, or interplay, of design proposals and the target context representation.