The EnLighTable: Design of Affordances to Support Collaborative Creativity

In this paper we discuss some interface design concepts for supporting and enhancing collaborative creativity in multi-user interactive environments. We focus on the design of affordances for direct manipulation and collaboration on table-top displays. As an application of our concepts, we introduce the EnLighTable, an appliance for creative teamwork in the selection of pictures and layout design based on a table-top touch-sensitive display. We present our rationale for the design of affordances which metaphorically relate to artifacts – and map to gestures – of the physical world. Finally we discuss the results of our first design iteration and introduce a possible future extension of the table-top appliance to other devices of an instrumented environment.