The idSpace creativity support platform: evaluating for co-creating

Abstract

Innovation, in general, requires team work among specialist of different disciplines. IdSpace, an internet-based, creativity support platform offers its users a variety of creativity techniques, pedagogical approaches and context aware use of available information on projects, people and techniques. The platform follows a general process metaphor with specialised modules for specific parts, i.e. it starts with defining the problem to be addressed and through a sequence of steps it concludes with a proposed solution. The platform is the result of a complex, creative design and development process by a multi-disciplinary team. The evaluation is an essential part of this process. The overall result is not merely the sum of the quality of its individual parts. It requires a realistic usage scenario, a focus on the integral platform, and a common user and expert user perspective. Equally important, it requires the involvement of the whole design and development team to ensure a shared understanding to steer and prioritise further developments. This paper introduces the idSpace platform and the evaluation approach followed taking into account its complexity. It discusses the results of the evaluation both with respect to the idSpace platform and with regard to the evaluation design followed and its use for other complex design and development projects.