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This paper presents results of the longitudinal usability and network trials that took place throughout the COVEN (COllaborative Virtual ENvironments) Project. To address the lack of understanding about usability design and evaluation for collaborative virtual environments (CVEs), a deductive analysis was used to systematically identify areas of inquiry. We present a summary of the analysis and the resulting framework through which various complementary methods were utilized during our studies. The objective of these studies was to gain a better understanding about design, usability, and utility for CVEs in a multidisciplinary setting. During the studies, which span four years, we undertook longitudinal studies of user behavior and computational demands during network trials, usability inspections of each iteration of the project demonstrators, consumer evaluations to assess social acceptability and utility of our demonstrators, and continuous preparations of design guidelines for future developers of CVEs. In this paper, we discuss the need for such activities, give an overview of our development of methods and adaptation of existing methods, give a number of explanatory examples, and review the future requirements in this area.

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COVEN (Collaborative Virtual Environments) is a European project that seeks to develop a comprehensive approach to the issues in the development of collaborative virtual environment (CVE) technology. COVEN brings together twelve academic and industrial partners with a wide range of expertise in CSCW, networked VR, computer graphics, human factors, HCI, and telecommunications infrastructures. After two years of work, we are presenting the main features of our approach and results, our driving applications, the main components of our technical investigations, and our experimental activities. With different citizen and professional application scenarios as driving forces, COVEN is exploring the requirements and supporting techniques for collaborative interaction in scalable CVEs. Technical results are being integrated in an enriched networked VR platform based on the dVS and DIVE systems. Taking advantage of a dedicated Europe-wide ISDN and ATM network infrastructure, a large component of the project is a trial and experimentation activity that should allow a comprehensive understanding of the network requirements of these systems as well as their usability issues and human factors aspects.

This paper describes two methods for analyzing interactions in collaborative virtual environments (CVEs): one whereby quantitative data are captured, interaction is categorized into a number of activities, and statistical analysis can be performed on frequencies and sequences of events. The other is based on the transcription of individual fragments of interaction, which are analyzed in terms of their key dynamics. The two methods each have their strengths and weaknesses, especially in terms of generalizability and the lessons we can derive from them. Both also point to different problems that need to be addressed in methods for analyzing interactionsuch analysis being, in turn, a precondition for improving the usability of CVEs. The paper concludes with an argument for a combination of the two methods, and some reflections about the relationship between the analysis of interaction and the usability of CVEs.