This presentation describes a design tool that supports collaboration, communication and creativity in a context of highly specialized technological complexity and within a multidisciplinary teams -TechCards.

1. Ioana Ocnarescu
November, 2011
BEYOND
TECHCARDS:
INTERMEDIATE
REPRESENTATIONS TO
SUPPORT THE CREATIVE
PROCESS OF EMERGING
TECHNOLOGIES
IASDR 2011, TUDELFT (NL)

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PAPER TITLE:
Beyond TechCards: a first step toward the investigation of new
dimensions of intermediate representations to support the creative process
of emerging technologies
RESEARCH TEAM:
BEYOND TECHCARDS:
INTERMEDIATE REPRESENTATIONS TO SUPPORT THE
CREATIVE PROCESS OF EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES
Ioana Ocnarescu
Florentin Rodio
Alexis Eve
Jean-Baptiste Labrune
Carole Bouchard
Améziane Aoussat

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Alcatel-Lucent
Bell Labs
Applications Domain
DISCOVER AND OBSERVE
SCIENTIFIC FACTS
Theories, models, methods,
observations,…
1. RESEARCH & DESIGN AT BELL LABS
A RESEARCH LABORATORY IN AN INDUSTRIAL CONTEXT
INVENT
TECHNOLOGIES
The historical focus: technical innovations
in software engineering, operating
systems, physics and networks, …
IMAGINE AND CREATE
APPLICATIONS
User-centered prototypes,
technical demonstrators, …

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1. RESEARCH & DESIGN AT BELL LABS
A CASE STUDY EXAMPLE
Belgium
1 Project leader technical
3 Technical specialists
2 Designers
India
1 Technical specialist
France
1 Project leader technical
10 Technical specialists
1 Project leader design
3 Designers
1 Human centered specialist
Source Placeholder
16 Technical specialists, 6 Designers, 1 Human centered specialist
TO CREATE A TECHNICAL DEMOSTRATOR DURING 6 MONTHS

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1. RESEARCH & DESIGN AT BELL LABS
AN INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH PROJECT
Source Placeholder
UNDERSTAND TECHNOLOGY BLOCKS & CREATE USER STORIES

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2. WHEN RESEARCH HELPS INDUSTRY
TOOLS FOR COLLABORATIVE WORK
Ideo Method Cards
intermediate objects
intermediate representations
boundary objects
design artefacts
[Bertelsen, 2000], Bouchard [2005], Mer et al[1995], Moggridge [2007], Vinck [1999], Vinck [2009]

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2. WHEN RESEARCH HELPS INDUSTRY
TOOLS FOR COLLABORATIVE WORK
Source Placeholder
• ROLES:
• identification, presentation and translation;
• coordination and communication in the design process;
• to stimulate creativity, inspirational material;
• to test and prototype concepts.
• CHARACTERISTICS:
• Open objects;
• Close objects.
Ideo Method Cards

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2. WHEN RESEARCH HELPS INDUSTRY
TECHCARDS - TOOLS FOR COLLABORATIVE WORK

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1 - Title and name of the platform,
2 - Metaphorical image,
3 - Short description of the technology,
4 - Maturity level,
5 - Ownership,
6 - Technical characteristics,
7 - What to improve points,
8 - Location & contact.
2. WHEN RESEARCH HELPS INDUSTRY
TECHCARDS - TOOLS FOR COLLABORATIVE WORK

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• CONTRIBUTIONS:
• Concrete outcomes à a way to initiate communication
and collaboration in a multidisciplinary environment;
• This format helped us to visualize, materialize and
make tangible pure technological thoughts, ideas and
algorithms.
• ROLES:
• For designers: a necessity in this particular context + an
inspirational material;
• For technical specialists: a first prove of the existence
of their technology even in a conceptual way;
• For team leaders: see the overall process from the
conceptual to the concrete and allowed them to see what
could be delivered, on time, and what human resources
were required.
Share, communicate,
materialize, inspire, …
2. WHEN RESEARCH HELPS INDUSTRY
TECHCARDS - WHAT WE HAVE LEARNED?

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3. RESEARCH QUESTION AND HYPOTHESIS
Hypothesis 1.
Participants who used the TechCards will score higher on measure of fluidity
than participants who did not use the TechCards.
The creative and motivational potential of the TechCards in the
design process
Hypothesis 2.
Participants who used the TechCards will score higher on measure of
adaptation than participants who did not use the TechCards.
Hypothesis 3.
Participant who played the game will score higher on measure of creative
performance than participants who did not play the game.
Hypothesis 4.
Participant who played the game will score higher on measure of intrinsic
motivation than participants who did not play the game.

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4. THE EXPERIMENTATION
CONDITIONS AND SET-UP
1. List of technologies
simple creativity session with
16 design students divided
in 4 groups x 4 persons.
2. TechCards session
creativity session with
TechCards, no rules,
16 design students divided
in 4 groups x 4 persons.
3.Game based
TechCards session
creativity session with
TechCards with rules,
16 design students divided
in 4 groups x 4 persons.

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4. THE EXPERIMENTATION
GENERAL PROCEDURE
All participants in the study were told to enumerate
creative use-cases for a specific set of technology
The 4 rules:
1. "We need as much ideas as possible. More ideas lead to a
greater probability of finding a creative one.”
2. "All ideas are welcome, even the craziest.”
3. “Ideas proposed by someone may be combined
4. or improved by someone else.”
5. "Never criticize the ideas of others! An assessment phase will
come later.”
Timing:
25min (creativity session) + 10min (23 item questionnaire)

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4. THE EXPERIMENTATION
CREATIVE PERFORMANCE – ANALYSIS AND RESULTS
Components to measure creativity:
1. Fluency
2. Adaptation
3. Originality
4. Overall creativity
Methods:
4 one-way ANOVAs to test the difference of creative production
among three creativity sessions.

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4. THE EXPERIMENTATION
INTRINSEC MOTIVATION – ANALYSIS AND RESULTS
Scales from Intrinsic Motivation Inventory:
1. Interest / Enjoyment
2. Perceived Competence
3. Effort / Importance
4. Pressure / Tension
Methods:
4 one-way ANOVAs were used to test the difference of intrinsic
motivation and subjective experience among the three creativity
sessions.

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4. THE EXPERIMENTATION
DISCUSSIONS
Results and interpretation:
1. In both TechCards sessions we observed
more fluency and a higher number of
adapted ideas (H1 & H2).
2. We observed an increased motivation of
participants in the gaming session
compared to the other conditions. (H3)
3. We observed that in the Game condition
the creative output is significantly more
original and creative. (H4)
OBSERVATIONS, LIMITATIONS,
CONSTRAINTS, …

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4. THE EXPERIMENTATION
DISCUSSIONS
Study limitations:
1. Is the motivational effect is maintained
over time and repetitive gaming
sessions?
2. low number of use-cases
= ?
technology misunderstanding,
card incomprehension
intrinsic difficulties related to the specific
technology to generate ideas
OBSERVATIONS, LIMITATIONS,
CONSTRAINTS, …

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5. CONTRIBUTIONS AND CONCLUSIONS
PERSPECTIVES:
1. Other rules - what kind of game experience?
2. Test, explore and understand new
experimental aspects of this tool in other
projects in order to find new ways of
understanding and interacting with
technology;
3. Augment the TechCards in order to perceive
the technology in more than a visual way,
toward an interactive experience;
4. Research opportunity for innovation
management.
ALU Bell Labs
Open Days 2011

19. ioana.ocnarescu@gmail.com
November, 2011
THANK YOU! QUESTIONS?