“Satisfaction with web-based meetings for idea generation and selection: the role of instrumentality, enjoyment, and interface design”

Dissertation defended by Alex Ivanov
September 28, 2009
School of Interactive Arts + Technology
Simon Fraser University, BC, Canada

 

Electronic brainstorming systems (EBS) allow virtual teams to efficiently generate and evaluate ideas in real-time. Yet, despite the productivity gains from using such groupware, team members have found EBS to be no better than instant messanger, and certainly less satisfying than face-to-face (F2F) brainstorming.

How can the EBS process be made more enjoyable, without sacrificing productivity?

An ethnographic study of teamwork at the design consultancy IDEO tells us that F2F brainstorms—which serve as prestige auctions among employees—are everybody’s favorite activity. Now, clearly IDEO is not representative of knowledge work in general; nor can we expect EBS to support the social cues and affect inherent in collocated interaction. But perhaps it can do more than merely circulate sheets of anonymously-typed and commented ideas. True, anonymity does promote the expression of opinion, but burying individual input within a multi-page document is hardly the most engaging conversational environment.

Consider the classic ‘tug-of-war’ rope pulling task. Tons of studies have shown that many of us do not pull all their weight in the task, when our input cannot be easily identified and evaluated. Similarly, recent studies have found contribution rates to an online community to be positively related to the extent submissions are perceived to be important or unique. Perceived uniqueness, alongside other group factors such as size, forms perceptions of effort indispensability of one's effort, similar to what in my thesis I propose as perceiced instrumentality. (Note how such perception is made up of one's own assessment of the quality of their contribution, plus his or her perception of how others assess that quality. The latter, in fact, is what really counts in one's image management or status seeking concerns.)

I hypothesized that making individual contribution in an EBS session visually more salient could lead to increased reports of satisfaction. My method of inducing such perceptions was via graphic enhancements of an EBS interface, to be deployed in realistic group problem-solving sessions. Shown below is one of these sessions with that interface.

Next to the common chat area, and with clearly identified virtual identities, members are each given ownership of a highly visible pair of cells. This is where each participant displays their proposal with a picture as well as text. Each proposal is then graphically evaluated within the team. Scores are cast as voters’ die icons, and plotted in grids next to each contribution. The three fullest grids signify the team’s final set of proposals.

20 student teams were given half an hour to complete this process, followed by a survey. I examined all responses with inferential statistics, but to my chagrin, the hypothesized construct of Perceived Instrumentality did not significantly correlate with any measure of Satisfaction. On the plus side, reported task Enjoyment was positively correlated to perceptions of the EBS interface Design. It also appeared this was due to the dice and voting system (rather than just via the pretty colors, as one would be tempted to surmise).

Those interested to actually download the thesis should be relieved to know the document is only 100 pages, yet under 5 Mb. In addition to all the theory and stats, the document describes several of my other EBS prototypes as well. (One of these you can actually try here, by starting a session.)