Mechanisms for collaboration

Abstract

Multi-user interfaces are said to provide 'natural' interaction in supporting collaboration, compared to individual and non-co-located technologies. We identify 3 mechanisms accounting for the success of such interfaces: high awareness of others' actions and intentions, high control over the interface and high availability of background information. We challenge the idea that interaction over such interfaces is necessarily 'natural' and argue that everyday interaction involves constraints on awareness, control and availability. These constraints help people interact more smoothly. We draw from social developmental psychology to characterize the design of multi-user interfaces in terms of how constraints on these mechanisms can be best used to promote collaboration. We use this framework of mechanisms and constraints to explain the successes and failures of existing designs, then apply it to three case studies of design, and finally derive from them a set of questions to consider when designing and analysing multi-user interfaces for collaboration.

How getting noticed helps getting on: successful attention capture doubles children's cooperative play

“…On the other hand, for groups who have attentional difficulties and in particular atypical patterns of attention to other people, as in autism (Mundy et al, 1990), an analysis of environmental support for shared attention and hence cooperation might require less novelty and more time for habituation to an environment. Understanding more about such mechanisms of interaction has clear practical implications for designing environments to support interaction (Yuill and Rogers, 2012). …”

Benefits of Combining Multitouch Tabletops and Turn-Based Collaborative Learning Activities for People with Cognitive Disabilities and People with ASD

“…Furthermore, students from the first study who worked in turns obtained better results in their learning process than other group dynamics. In this sense, it seems that the results obtained in previous studies where users were interacting with multitouch tabletops are more aware of partners' actions if they are interacting by turns [21].…”

“…Educational activities were performed on multitouch tabletops and students were divided into workgroups. When users without disabilities are interacting in this type of device, they are aware of their peers' actions and they tend to collaborate [21]. However, we could not find studies related to people with disabilities using multitouch tabletops.…”

Supporting Group Coherence in a Museum Visit

“…This tension between group cohesion and external content lies at the heart of Tolmie"s previous observations of museum studies, leading him to discuss the notion of group coherence that involves maintaining a level of togetherness through staying within line of sight [28]. This, and other forms of awareness of group members" activities, has been shown to be important in collocated collaboration [32].…”