Embedding Thinking Strategies within a Tangible Tree to Orchestrate Small Group Brainstorming

Small group brainstorming has been widely used for learning, business, and marketing, but most of the time, group brainstorming is ineffective. New technologies, especially tangible user interfaces, open new potentials for improving the group brainstorming experience. In this paper, we designed and developed a tangible device named IdeaTree to improve small group brainstorming. IdeaTree encapsulated the famous group brainstorming theory Six Thinking Hats [22] to orchestrate the brainstorming processes. We conducted within-subject user studies with 32 participants and one group moderator. Each group had three users who used traditional paper-pen and IdeaTree to brainstorm. The results showed that small group brainstorming with IdeaTree a) created and orchestrated a productive brainstorming process; b) did not influence participants' overall talking time but equalized the group conversation; c) significantly increased participants' sense of immersion and social interaction. Our main contribution is that IdeaTree was a meaningful exploration to make the communicative and collaborative space benefit from the tangible advantages.