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I. Précis We are investigating collaborative environments that support early phase design. A detailed project proposal outlining the theoretical motivation and conceptual framework can be accessed below (III. Background Research). The concept is to have a dynamic website which specifically supports brainstorming sessions of which early phase design is our priority. This Independent Research phase will review existing environments/methods used in brainstorming sessions. II. Framework A wiki type portal is our current design. The environment will support scratch pad style note-taking - both graphically and standard text support, persistence and tracking for workspaces and sessions. Real-time synchronicity might be difficult to implement in the given time frame and not a priority at this point. Multiple users log into this portal and can start/join a brainstorming session. (1) Users work/interact primarily with their personal workspaces and have an option project (merge) or directly edit to public design space while making a presentation or whenever it is necessary to have audience participants are working on face-to-face design (large displays will project the public spaces) (2) Tracking and Indexing sessions will be a priority. An embedded search engine (Microsoft Live/Google) will provide immediate access (without having to navigate away from the workspace) to previous sessions or any information the participants need to research. A database will enforce version control. (3) Post-It feature in the interface design, which can support both sketch and text, as well as images and URLs. (4) Designers can: post new design with sketches, texts or possibly animations make comments to others’ design modify others’ design (5) Accordingly, the system can: Trace how long each designer will use the system (the assumption is everyone logs in when they are working on a certain project) Trace how much a designer contributes to a design (except for the duration). The criterion is based on if some ideas will be preserved to the last, or if other people value his/her contribution, such as how many times an idea has been cited or how often people take a look at a certain sketch etc. Provide some evaluation tools to analyze data and make graphs (optional) Aid designers in moving from brainstorm idea-to-idea using some artificial intelligence methods.
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