Project

Co-located Collaboration; Collaborative Processes; Distributed Collaboration; Technology Affordances; Computer-Supported Collaboration; Interactive Surfaces

Lead
Die Potentiale interaktiver "surface" Technologien nutzen: Untersuchungen zu den Effekten spezifischer Gestaltungsvarianten für interative "mutitouch" Tische und mobile Tablets auf die erfolgreiche Zusammenarbeit in Design-Teams und Brainstorming-Gruppen.
Lay summary
In der modernen Informations- und Mediengesellschaft sind effektive Teamprozesse ein wichtiger Schlüssel zum Erfolg, sowohl in beruflichen Kontexten als auch in der Bildung. Neue Medien spielen hierbei häufig eine zentrale Rolle. In diesem Projekt untersuchen wir die Potentiale interaktiver "surface" Technologien (vgl. Matulic & Norrie, 2012 ; Müller-Tomfelde, 2010; Rogers & Lindley, 2004) für die Unterstützung der Zusammenarbeit in Teams. Wir fokussieren dabei auf spezielle Gestaltungsvarianten interaktiver "multitouch"-Tische und mobiler Tablets und deren Einflüsse auf bestimmte Parameter der Zusammenarbeit in Design-Teams und Brainstorming-Gruppen. Die Grundidee ist es, theoriegeleitete und praxisnahe Forschung aus insgesamt drei Studien zu verbinden, um die Effekte verschiedener Technik-Features auf die erfolgreiche Team oder Gruppenarbeit bestimmen zu können. Die Ergebnisse sollen dabei helfen, die Gestaltung interaktiver Oberflächen im Hinblick auf die Effektivität und Produktivität in Teams zu optimieren. Referenzen: Matulic, F. & Norrie, M. C. (2012). Empirical Evaluation of Uni- and Bimodal Pen and Touch Interaction Properties on Digital Tabletops, Proceedings of ACM Interactive Tabletops and Surfaces Conference (ITS 2012), Cambridge (MA), USA, November 2012.  Müller-Tomfelde, C., and Fjeld, M. (2010). A Short History of Tabletop Research, Technologies and Products.. In: C. Müller-Tomfelde (Ed.): Tabletops - Horizontal Interactive Displays. (pp. 1-23). London: Springer. Rogers, Y., & Lindley, S. (2004). Collaborating around vertical and horizontal large interactive displays: Which way is best? Interacting with Computers, 16(6), 1133-1152.

Direct link to Lay Summary

Last update: 11.04.2014

Active participation

Communication	Title	Media	Place	Year

In modern information society, optimizing computer-supported collaboration is an important topic of scientific and practical interest: Effective collaborative processes are key for productive teamwork in both work and educational contexts, and, hence, a critical resource for teams’ or organizations’ success (Grant, 1996). Especially in cases where complex computer technologies are involved, efficient strategies to optimize computer-supported collaboration in groups are of utmost economic concern.The systematic analysis of computer-supported collaborative processes and its implications are central factors for optimizing teamwork in organizational contexts. Up to now, much psychological research on such collaborative processes has focused on distributed teams that use text-based communication media like e-mail, chat or instant messaging (for an overview, see Hertel & Konradt, 2007). However, in empirical studies it has become apparent that computer-supported collaboration has further important aspects in co-located groups using shared visual information and tools (Kraut, Fussell & Siegel, 2003). Such groups are increasingly provided with emerging technology for action and performance that goes beyond desktop computers with their limited potentials for group support, for example, interactive surfaces (IS) including multi-user tabletops or collaboration walls (Matulic & Norrie, 2012 ; Müller-Tomfelde, 2010; Rogers & Lindley, 2004).To exploit the potentials of IS we need to understand how specific technology features can influence cognitive and socio-cognitive processes in group collaboration (Dillenbourg & Evans, 2011; Rogers & Lindley, 2004). Without theory-based research, technology designs may largely be based on trial and error and intuition, or on inflated expectations that often accompany pushes in digital technology to be used in work or educational settings (Dillenbourg & Evans, 2012).Even though collaboration at IS involves genuinely psychological issues, psychology so far has had less impact on IS-research than computer science. To close this gap, our project seeks from both theoretical and applied psychological viewpoints to identify efficient strategies for using IS for collaborative tasks. Based on the framework of McGrath et al. (1993), we view collaborative processes at IS from different perspectives and investigate them in our empirical research on three different foci: First, we focus on collaborative processes with different technology features for organizing group work (fixed, dynamic or mobile personal territories). The second focus is on different types of tasks accomplished at IS (architectural design vs. brainstorming). The third focus is on collaboration at IS in different group contexts or settings (co-located vs. distributed). To achieve high internal validity, the proposed project is organized in two phases with multi-methodological laboratory experiments and both qualitative and quantitative measurements of collaborative process and outcome. To enhance ecological validity, a third phase includes a follow up evaluation study in the field.Overall, we expect the project to be of high scientific and practical significance, because it will contribute original results concerning collaborative processes at IS. This knowledge is not only sought after by the scientific community, but it is also needed as a basis for the design and implementation of IS in practice.