Abstract
This paper focuses on the creative side of collaboration and proposes a support method that enhances designers' creativity during collaborative design projects. In order to support creative group activity during such endeavors, the support method makes visible the interactive communication processes from two viewpoints, one global, and the other local. In the global view of communication flow, the transition of topics and the relationships between topics are displayed, whereas the local view displays the details of each communication process. Both of these viewpoints have two inherent merits, the first of which is to help designers clearly understand the flow of interactive communication processes. The second merit derives from sharing the process of exploring new ideas. Furthermore, in order to enable the smooth operation of the support method, a computerized system based on the proposed method was constructed. When an operator inputs details of the communication processes into the system, they are automatically recorded and displayed for the design team members in a useful form according to the proposed method.
