During brainstorms we often blank off. It seems like we're lost in a personal space unaware or unable to follow what is being spoken of. This project explores this period of activity within brainstorms.
Research Method
We initiated and sat through a few brainstorm discussions. We identified a few participants who seemed a bit distracted during the discussions. Post the session, we spoke with those participants to understand what they were thinking of when they lost track of the discussion.
Insights from Participant Discussions
1. External distractions : Some participants lost track of a discussion upon receiving a message or an interruption on the phone.
2. Declining Interest : When a point was pursued that the participant felt no connection to, he argued at first and when the majority wasn't on his side he decided to either give into the point or not pay attention to its proceedings.
3. Intermittent Inputs : Some participants chose to provide intermittent inputs. These inputs were sometimes on tangential thoughts which were then argued and agreed upon as a new thought to the ongoing discussion. Some tangential thoughts however were too far-fetched or had known implications and were therefore rejected early.
Redefining Insights
At any point during a brainstorm or discussion a participant wishes for a level of control over the ongoing activity. This control comes from either adding inputs to a thought, or being able to argue it thoroughly. The first and foremost however is to understand the thought being spoken of.
Clusters of unity in a discussion are healthy to carry ideas forward. When an idea reaches a consensus, it becomes important to dig as deep as possible to understand the problem that is being dealt with.
Design Intervention
After studying the brainstorm activity, we realised there is a need for a tool that allows individuals to gain control over the emerging conversations in a brainstorm at their own pace. This tool should therefore have the flexibility for the following allow new thoughts and ideas to emerge and see how they fit in what is being spoken of
dig deeper into a certain train of thought that one can relate to have the capacity to zoom in and out of areas that have been discussed. Thus, Mapatok was conceptualised. It serves as an aide to stimulate conversations by being a tool that can be referenced when one feels lost during brainstorm sessions.
The Way Forward
At the moment we have envisioned Mapatok with keywords as we're bound in our understanding of newer patterns of search. If we understand brainstorms at much deeper levels and across a variety of fields we would be able to get an idea of more search patterns that can emerge for situations such as this.
