Skip to main content
Springer Nature Link
Log in

Enhancing Consensus-Building in Collaborative Design: A Systematic Review of Digital Design Tools

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Cross-Cultural Design (HCII 2025)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 15784))

Included in the following conference series:

  • 204 Accesses

  • 1 Citation

Abstract

Designers frequently collaborate with diverse stakeholders to generate, evaluate, and select ideas for further development. However, achieving consensus within a team can be challenging, particularly as team size and variety of perspectives grow. This study presents a systematic review of digital tools, developed through empirical HCI research published between 2011 and 2024, that support teams in building consensus. Integrating perspectives from both HCI and Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), we examine how these tools address the multifaceted process of consensus-building, including emotional, social, and procedural dimensions. Key elements analyzed include design features and mechanisms, target users, team size, and tool usage context. Additionally, we map tool features to consensus-building strategies to illustrate how theoretical approaches can be practically applied, and highlight opportunities—particularly AI-driven enhancements—for designing future digital tools that better support team consensus-building efforts.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+
from €39.99 /Month
  • Starting from 10 chapters or articles per month
  • Access and download chapters and articles from more than 300k books and 2,500 journals
  • Cancel anytime
View plans

Buy Now

Chapter
EUR 29.95
Price includes VAT (Germany)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
EUR 60.98
Price includes VAT (Germany)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
EUR 79.17
Price includes VAT (Germany)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

') var buybox = document.querySelector("[data-id=id_"+ timestamp +"]").parentNode var buyingOptions = buybox.querySelectorAll(".buying-option") ;[].slice.call(buyingOptions).forEach(initCollapsibles) var buyboxMaxSingleColumnWidth = 480 function initCollapsibles(subscription, index) { var toggle = subscription.querySelector(".buying-option-price") subscription.classList.remove("expanded") var form = subscription.querySelector(".buying-option-form") var priceInfo = subscription.querySelector(".price-info") var buyingOption = toggle.parentElement if (toggle && form && priceInfo) { toggle.setAttribute("role", "button") toggle.setAttribute("tabindex", "0") toggle.addEventListener("click", function (event) { var expandedBuyingOptions = buybox.querySelectorAll(".buying-option.expanded") var buyboxWidth = buybox.offsetWidth ;[].slice.call(expandedBuyingOptions).forEach(function(option) { if (buyboxWidth buyboxMaxSingleColumnWidth) { toggle.click() } else { if (index === 0) { toggle.click() } else { toggle.setAttribute("aria-expanded", "false") form.hidden = "hidden" priceInfo.hidden = "hidden" } } }) } initialStateOpen() if (window.buyboxInitialised) return window.buyboxInitialised = true initKeyControls() })()

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Tseng, Y.-C., Chang, Y.-Y.: Enhancing interdisciplinary co-design with human-AI multi-agent collaboration. In: Rau, P.-L. P. (ed.) HCII 2025. LNCS, vol. 15783, pp. 396–410. Springer, Cham (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-93733-0_25

  2. Tseng, Y.-C., Chen, S., Mah, K.-H., Chen, Y.-C.: Designing a collaborative chatbot for diabetes team care: an iterative, human-centered AI design approach. In: Rau, P.-L. P. (ed.) HCII 2025. LNCS, vol. 15785, pp. 1–16. Springer, Cham (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-93736-1_17

  3. Tseng, Y.-C., Jarupreechachan, W., Lee, T.-H.: Understanding the benefits and Design of Chatbots to meet the healthcare needs of migrant workers. Proc. ACM Hum. Comput. Interact. 7, 1–34 (2023)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Yuan, C.W., Tseng, Y.-C., Strong, C.: Understanding and designing multi-level preventive medication support against HIV for men who have sex with men in Taiwan. Proc. ACM Hum. Comput. Interact. 7, 1–30 (2023)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Lee, T.-H., Jarupreechachan, W., Tseng, Y.-C.: Exploring low-income migrant workers’ health information-seeking behavior during COVID-19 in Taiwan: a qualitative study. Digit. Heal. 8, 20552076221133764 (2022)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Kuo, H.-C., Tseng, Y.-C., Yang, Y.-T.C.: Promoting college student’s learning motivation and creativity through a STEM interdisciplinary PBL human-computer interaction system design and development course. Thinking Skills & Creativity. 31, 1–10 (2019)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Hargadon, A., Sutton, R.I.: Technology brokering and innovation in a product development firm. Adm. Sci. Q., 716, 716–749 (1997)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Tseng, Y.-C.: How design with intent cards facilitate behavioral design ideation for humanities, design, and engineering students. In: International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, pp. 183–199. Springer (2020)

    Google Scholar 

  9. Yuan, C.W.T., Liu, Y.-H., Wang, H.-C., Tseng, Y.-C.: Gender effects on collaborative online brainstorming teamwork. In: Extended Abstracts of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, p. LBW2622. ACM (2019)

    Google Scholar 

  10. den Otter, A., Emmitt, S.: Design team communication and design task complexity: the preference for dialogues. Archit. Eng. Des. Manag. 4, 121–129 (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Stempfle, J., Badke-Schaub, P.: Thinking in design teams - an analysis of team communication. Des. Stud. 23, 473–496 (2002)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Briggs, R.O., Kolfschoten, G.L., Vreede, G.-J.D.: Toward a theoretical model of consensus building. In: AMCIS 2005 Proceedings, p. 12 (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  13. Wang, C.-L., Tseng, Y.-C.: “I don’t want to be pitied by a bot”: Understand how to design chatbots to support people being ghosted on dating applications. In: Extended Abstracts of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp. 1–8 (2024)

    Google Scholar 

  14. Zilouchian Moghaddam, R., Nicholson, Z., Bailey, B.P.: Procid: Bridging consensus building theory with the practice of distributed design discussions. In: Proceedings of the 18th ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing, pp. 686–699 (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  15. Innes, J.E.: Consensus building: clarifications for the critics. Plan. Theory. 3, 5–20 (2004)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Moscovici, S., Doise, W.: Conflict and Consensus, A General Theory of Collective Decisions. Sage Publications Ltd (1994)

    Google Scholar 

  17. Scott, J., Flanigan, E.: Achieving Consensus: Tools and Techniques. Crisp Pubublications (1996)

    Google Scholar 

  18. Williams, R.B.: More Than 50 Ways to Build Team Consensus. IRI/Skylight Publishing, Inc., Palatine (1993)

    Google Scholar 

  19. Wu, H.-J., Yu, Y.-F., Ku, S.W.-W., Tseng, Y.-C., Yuan, C.-W., Li, C.-W., Huang, P.-H., Ko, N.-Y., Anderson, P.L., Strong, C.: Usability and effectiveness of adherence monitoring of a mobile app designed to monitor and improve adherence to event-driven and daily HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis among men who have sex with men in Taiwan. Digit. Heal. 8, 20552076221102770 (2022)

    Google Scholar 

  20. Hsieh, G., Halperin, B.A., Schmitz, E., Chew, Y.N., Tseng, Y.-C.: What is in the cards: Exploring uses, patterns, and trends in design cards. In: Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp. 1–18 (2023)

    Google Scholar 

  21. Michaelis, C., Lindman, J., Tseng, Y.-C.: Quic: efficient chat-based decision-making for democratic participation in organizations using the Evocracy protocol. In: International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction. Springer (2025)

    Google Scholar 

  22. Page, M.J., McKenzie, J.E., Bossuyt, P.M., Boutron, I., Hoffmann, T.C., Mulrow, C.D., Shamseer, L., Tetzlaff, J.M., Akl, E.A., Brennan, S.E., Chou, R., Glanville, J., Grimshaw, J.M., Hróbjartsson, A., Lalu, M.M., Li, T., Loder, E.W., Mayo-Wilson, E., McDonald, S., McGuinness, L.A., Stewart, L.A., Thomas, J., Tricco, A.C., Welch, V.A., Whiting, P., Moher, D.: The PRISMA 2020 statement: an updated guideline for reporting systematic reviews. Int. J. Surg. 88, 105906 (2021)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Easterday, M.W., Lewis, D.R., Fitzpatrick, C., Gerber, E.M.: Computer supported novice group critique. In: Proceedings of the 2014 Conference on Designing Interactive Systems, pp. 405–414. Association for Computing Machinery, Vancouver, BC (2014)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  24. Gumienny, R., Dow, S.P., Meinel, C.: Supporting the synthesis of information in design teams. In: Proceedings of the 2014 Conference on Designing Interactive Systems, pp. 463–472. Association for Computing Machinery, Vancouver, BC (2014)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  25. Liu, W., Xiao, S., Browne, J.T., Yang, M., Dow, S.P.: ConsensUs: supporting multi-criteria group decisions by visualizing points of disagreement. Trans. Soc. Comput. 1, Article 4 (2018)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Lopez, M.G., Ruiz, G.R., Luyten, K., Haesen, M., Coninx, K.: Re-thinking traceability: a prototype to record and revisit the evolution of design artefacts. In: Proceedings of the 2018 ACM Conference on Supporting Groupwork, pp. 196–208. Association for Computing Machinery (2018)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  27. Shamekhi, A., Bickmore, T.: A multimodal robot-driven meeting facilitation system for group decision-making sessions. In: 2019 International Conference on Multimodal Interaction, pp. 279–290. Association for Computing Machinery, Suzhou (2019)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  28. Hong, S., Suh, M., Kim, T.S., Smoke, I., Sien, S., Ng, J., Zachry, M., Kim, J.: Design for collaborative information-seeking: understanding user challenges and deploying collaborative dynamic queries. Proc. ACM Hum. Comput. Interact. 3, Article 106 (2019)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Yen, Y.-C.G., Kim, J.O., Bailey, B.P.: Decipher: an interactive visualization tool for interpreting unstructured design feedback from multiple providers. In: Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp. 1–13 (2020)

    Google Scholar 

  30. Bawabe, S., Wilson, L., Zhou, T., Marks, E., Huang, J.: The UX factor: using comparative peer review to evaluate designs through user preferences. Proc. ACM Hum. Comput. Interact. 5, Article 476 (2021)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  31. Kim, S., Eun, J., Seering, J., Lee, J.: Moderator Chatbot for deliberative discussion: effects of discussion structure and discussant facilitation. Proc. ACM Hum. Comput. Interact. 5, Article 87 (2021)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  32. Kim, T.S., Goyal, N., Kim, J., Kim, J., Hong, S.R.: Supporting collaborative sequencing of small groups through visual awareness. Proc. ACM Hum. Comput. Interact. 5, Article 176 (2021)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  33. Hughes, M.A., Roy, D.: Keeper: A synchronous online conversation environment informed by in-person facilitation practices. In: Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, p. Article 170. Association for Computing Machinery, Yokohama (2021)

    Google Scholar 

  34. Tian, S., Zhang, A.X., Karger, D.: A system for interleaving discussion and summarization in online collaboration. Proc. ACM Hum. Comput. Interact. 4, Article 241 (2021)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  35. Shin, J., Hedderich, M.A., Lucero, A., Oulasvirta, A.: Chatbots facilitating consensus-building in asynchronous co-design. In: Proceedings of the 35th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology, p. Article 78. Association for Computing Machinery, Bend, OR (2022)

    Google Scholar 

  36. Bagmar, A., Hogan, K., Shalaby, D., Purtilo, J.: Analyzing the effectiveness of an extensible virtual moderator. Proc. ACM Hum. Comput. Interact. 6, Article 18 (2022)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  37. Khadpe, P., Kulkarni, C., Kaufman, G.: Empathosphere: promoting constructive communication in ad-hoc virtual teams through perspective-taking spaces. Proc. ACM Hum. Comput. Interact. 6, Article 55 (2022)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  38. Chen, X., Li, S., Liu, S., Fowler, R., Wang, X.: MeetScript: designing transcript-based interactions to support active participation in group video meetings. Proc. ACM Hum. Comput. Interact. 7, Article 347 (2023)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  39. Wang, L., Li, H., Wu, T., Yang, F., Yang, Y., Huang, J., Tian, F.: Extrovert increases consensus? Exploring the effects of conversational agent personality for group decision support. In: Proceedings of the Eleventh International Symposium of Chinese CHI, pp. 127–138. Association for Computing Machinery, Denpasar (2024)

    Google Scholar 

  40. Gao, J., Guo, Y., Lim, G., Zhang, T., Zhang, Z., Li, T.J.-J., Perrault, S.T.: CollabCoder: A lower-barrier, rigorous workflow for inductive collaborative qualitative analysis with large language models. In: Proceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, p. Article 11. Association for Computing Machinery, Honolulu (2024)

    Google Scholar 

  41. Pham, T.V., Weisswange, T.H., Hassenzahl, M.: Embodied mediation in group ideation—A gestural robot can facilitate consensus-building. In: Proceedings of the 2024 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference, pp. 2611–2632. Association for Computing Machinery, Copenhagen (2024)

    Google Scholar 

  42. Park, G.W., Panda, P., Tankelevitch, L., Rintel, S.: The CoExplorer Technology probe: A generative AI-powered adaptive interface to support intentionality in planning and running video meetings. In: Proceedings of the 2024 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference, pp. 1638–1657. Association for Computing Machinery, Copenhagen (2024)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the National Science and Technology Council, Taiwan (Grant Numbers 112-2410-H-007-061-MY3 and 112-2221-E-007-076-MY3).

Disclosure of Interests

The authors have no competing interests to declare that are relevant to the content of this article.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan

    Cai-Ling Wang & Yuan-Chi Tseng

Authors
  1. Cai-Ling Wang
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Yuan-Chi Tseng
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yuan-Chi Tseng .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

    Pei-Luen Patrick Rau

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2025 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this paper

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this paper

Wang, CL., Tseng, YC. (2025). Enhancing Consensus-Building in Collaborative Design: A Systematic Review of Digital Design Tools. In: Rau, PL.P. (eds) Cross-Cultural Design. HCII 2025. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 15784. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-93739-2_16

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-93739-2_16

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-031-93738-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-93739-2

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics