Exploring Constrained Creative Communication: The Silent Game as Model for Studying Online Collaboration

Creative collaboration via online tools offers a less ‘media rich’ exchange of information between participants than face-to-face collaboration. The participants’ freedom to communicate is restricted in means of communication, and rectified in terms of possibilities offered in the interface. How do these constrains influence the creative process and the outcome? In order to isolate the communication problem from the interface- and technology problem, we examine via a design game the creative communication on an open-ended task in a highly constrained setting, a design game. Via an experiment the relation between communicative constrains and participants’ perception of dialogue and creativity is examined. Four batches of students preparing for forming semester project groups were conducted and documented. Students were asked to create an unspecified object without any exchange of communication except the placement of LEGO™ bricks.