On the Impact of Chat Communication on Computer-Supported Idea Generation Processes

It has been shown that traditional forms of communication negatively affect idea generation processes. Creativity support systems can help to avoid these impacts and provide alternative means of interaction for which the known negative affects do not apply. In this paper, we investigate the impact of chat communication on computer-supported idea generation processes. The results show that idea quantity, quality and group satisfaction are not affected by the option to use a chat as an additional communication channel. This implies that positive as well as negative influence factors of communication described in previous studies seem to offset each other in computer-supported idea generation processes. We discuss several of these potential positive and negative influence factors. Furthermore, we discuss why a chat feature can help to lower acceptance barriers for creativity support systems.