Idea Management in a Shared Drawing Tool

The generation of design ideas in group discussion is a complex and dynamic process. Some design ideas are accepted; others are rejected; many others are modified and combined. The fluent expression of ideas and the ability to interact and build on representations created by others contributes significantly to the idea generation process. Computerized shared drawing tools support this fluency and interaction, but such tools need to aid not only the drawing process but also the management of design ideas during group interaction. This paper lays the groundwork for the design of the idea management portion of a shared drawing tool. It presents a taxonomy of group idea management activities, identifies user requirements in support of these behaviours, and illustrates how the user requirements are satisfied by features in CaveDraw, an experimental shared