Hive-Mind Space Model for Creative Collaborative Design

The complexity of design problems and the expanding scale of design projects require more comprehensive knowledge than any individual can possess, which therefore mandates that multidisciplinary design teams collaborate. However, communication gaps arise among diverse design teams during the collaborative design process. Moreover, the co-evolution of design communities and their systems requires an open software-development environment to support emerging needs. To tackle these issues, the hive-mind space (HMS) model is being proposed to support collaborative design and to foster creativity among design teams. This paper describes overall HMS structure and highlights its mediation mechanism, which overcomes communication gaps by exchanging virtual boundary objects to achieve shared understanding during the collaborative design process. Two concrete cases are presented to illustrate how the HMS model has been implemented, bringing together diverse design communities and giving them the chance to construct their own situations. This allows them to control how problems are described, thus spurring their creativity to life.