Remarkable objects : supporting collaboration in a creative environment

In this paper, we report the results of a field trial of a Ubicomp system called CAM that is aimed at supporting and enhancing collaboration in a design studio environment. CAM uses a mobile-tagging application which allows designers to collaboratively store relevant information onto their physical design objects in the form of messages, annotations and external web links. The purpose of our field trial was to explore the role of augmented objects in supporting and enhancing creative work. Our results show that CAM was used not only to support participants' mutual awareness and coordination but also to facilitate designers in appropriating their augmented design objects to be explorative, extendable and playful, supporting creative aspects of design work. In general, our results show how CAM transformed static design objects into 'remarkable' objects that made the creative and playful side of cooperative design visible.