Edgar Pérez’s research while affiliated with Université de Montréal and other places

This paper presents a case study comparing the HIS (Hybrid Ideation Space), a system allowing designers to be physically immersed in their sketches and physical models, and VyewTM, a whiteboard software, in local and remote design collaboration; aiming to see if immersion benefits collaborative ideation. Three methodological tools were used: Design Conversations (Collaborative Ideation Loop “CI-Loop”, Collaborative Conversations “CC” and Collaborative Moving “CM”), Workload using NASA TLX and Design Flow for the designers’ experience. Local collaboration results appear to have benefited from immersion while remote results were mitigated by participant issues. However, looking deeper into users’ experience explains the impact of immersion.

Designers interact with a wide range of design tools, in a variety of ways, in order to support their work. Any attempt to produce digital tools aimed at supporting ideation raises the question of the kind of information considered account and what is appropriate to the needs and expectations of designers. We developed and implemented an assessment method for digitally supported conceptual design based on reflective conversation, flow, cognitive ergonomics and activity theory. our approach opens up the evaluation spectrum to include parameters beyond performances factors for conceiving new digital design tools. this assessment approach considers user (the designer), action (idea-tion) and object (the tool) in the ideation process, namely the designer's experience interrelated to the needs of the task and the characteristics of the tool. In this paper we present the results of several research pro-tocols in which we observed, analyzed and successively acted upon five different stages of the interface of a design tool as it was being devel-oped, the Hybrid Ideation Space (HIS). taken as a whole, these results suggest the limits and support of designers' optimal relationship with an ideation interface.

To ideate, to exteriorize a concept, designers talk and put qualitative and ambiguous mental images in external representations. Verbalization on its own or combined with these representations drives ideation and is the most common means of externalizing design intentions in collaborative settings. This paper presents in detail the different elements of the design conversation in a remote setting: Collaborative Ideation Loops, Collaborative Conversations and Collaborative Moving. They occurred while using the interconnected Hybrid Ideation Space (HIS) in the context of a multidisciplinary ad-hoc project between two universities located in different countries. We ran a research protocol in the format of a design charrette where two teams (team a: two architecture students, team b: two industrial design students) participated in the ideation of a bus shelter. This case study shows the relevance in particular of these elements of design conversations, as methodological tools to better assess and understand collaborative ideation process using computer-mediated collaborative environments.

Sketches are used in design to support ideation, communication, and collaboration because of their abstraction, ambiguity and inaccuracy. Design collaboration using freehand sketches is possible through whiteboard software over Internet. Although designers can co-design and share design referents through this tool, their sketch retains the same scale problems as on paper : by not being confronted to life-size representations, designers can cheat themselves while sketching without references, by distorting perspective views. In 2007, we developed a system (Hybrid Ideation Space—HIS) that allows designers to be physically immersed in their sketches and physical models, literally inside their life-size, real-time representations while sharing them remotely to another HIS. This paper presents a case study comparing the HIS and a whiteboard software (VyewTM) in local and remote design collaboration. With this initial observation, we wanted to see if immersion benefits to collaborative ideation. Three methodological tools were used : the Design Flow pertaining to the designers’ experience, the Collaborative Ideation Loop (CI-Loop) for the design collaboration process and the NASA TLX to measure the workload. The local collaboration results show a benefit from immersion while remote results were mitigated because of participant issues.

professional or school design studios are essential environ-ments for design supporting free exploration of materials and repre-sentations, analogue or digital. New technologies have moved into the studio with mixed results. paradoxically, the use of portable computers, using Internet as collaboration channel, has actually individualized the design work and limited the support to co-creation, reinforcing indi-vidual work. the Augmented Design Studio argues for the implemen-tation of hybrid technology, such as the Hybrid Ideation Space (HIS), in the design studio to compensate for the absence of collective local or remote efficient ideation space. This paper presents a case study showing the primary results of distant synchronous and asynchronous design collaboration supported by the interconnected HIS during an ad-hoc project and assessed by the improved Collaborative Ideation loop (CI loop) methodology. the HIS was installed in two universi-ties located in different countries. We ran a research protocol in the format of a design charrette where two teams (team a: two architec-ture students, team b: two industrial design students) participated in the ideation of a bus shelter. this case study shows that teams were able to co-design while they were virtually "teleported" into each other's representations.

To ideate, designers talk and exteriorize ambiguous mental images in external representations. Ver- balization is the most common means of externalizing design intentions during collaborative design. This paper presents the different elements of Design Conversation: Collaborative Ideation Loops, Collaborative Conversations and Collaborative Moving. They were observed using the intercon- nected Hybrid Ideation Space (HIS) in the context of a multidisciplinary collaborative case study. In this project, two teams of students from two universities designed a bus shelter. This study highlights the relevance of these elements of Design Conversation as methodological tools to assess and under- stand the ideation process using computer collaborative environments.

We describe the signs of Collaborative Ideation (CI) that have been observed in face-to-face design settings using two methodological tools, the CI Loop and the Design Flow pattern. The CI Loop, which includes body gestures, was first observed in this study and captures the participants' design conversation while collaborating. The Design Flow assesses the designer's experience while designing. The main goal is to better understand collaborative ideation, from the user's experience point of view, in order to better assess collaborative design tools. We present two protocols (short with students; long with professionals) done in the Hybrid Ideation Space (HIS), a face-to-face CI tool. The HIS has previously been evaluated and compared to traditional and digital tools, and appears to enhance the collaborative ideation process. This study also proposes an eventual relationship between CI Loop and Design Flow pattern at micro (during a minute) and macro levels (during a longer period).

This paper presents the results of a comparative study between traditional analogue tools (sketches and physical models), a CAD software (digital) and a hybrid tool (digital and analogue) that allows immersive freehand sketching and model making (the Hybrid Ideation Space), in order to assess their respective abilities to support collaborative ideation. By comparing these tools, we were able to better understand the relationship between the activity of collaborative ideation, the tools that support it and the experience of the designer in order to provide principles for the development of collaborative tools in design.

RESUME Cet article documente une étude sur le travail d'idéation collaborative dans l'Espace hybride d'idéation. Nos ob-servations se concentrent sur la nature collaborative du design conceptuel, comme processus social fait à travers des gestes et des représentations graphiques et verbales qui permettent la négociation et la prise de décisions. Deux groupes différents d'usagers ont participé à cette étude : une courte expérience (20 minutes) avec des étu-diants de design travaillant en paires et une expérience longue (6 heures) avec une équipe de designers praticiens. Nous avons observé que les membres de l'équipe participaient de manière égale dans la conversa-tion réflexive quand ils étaient à l'intérieur de l'esquisse immersive, l'un(e) manipulant le crayon numérique, l'autre le pointeur laser. MOTS CLES : Outils de design conceptuel collaboratif, Espace hybride d'idéation, Design comme processus so-cial, conversation de design. ABSTRACT This paper documents a study on collaborative ideation in the Hybrid Ideation Space. Our observations focused on the collaborative nature of conceptual design, as a so-cial process through gestures, graphical and verbal repre-sentations, allowing negotiation and decision-making. Two different groups of users participated in this study: a short-term experiment (20 minutes) involving design students working in pairs and a long-term experiment (6 hours) with a team of design practitioners. We have ob-served that team members participated equally in the re-flective conversation while inside immersive sketches, one using the digital pen, the other, the laser pointer.

Ideation is still done with traditional analog manual tools because current computer interfaces are inconsistent with the needs of designers. The Hybrid Ideation Space (HIS) was developed to respond to this lack by augmenting analog tools with digital capabilities respecting the designer's needs for uninterrupted reflective conversation with the representation that should, in turn, enrich ideation. To assess ideation, we have developed the notion of Design Flow, which considers the pattern of multiple dimensions involved in ideation. Design practitioners testing the HIS showed that ideation was well supported in synchronous, individual or team settings.