Design issues in distributed interaction supporting tools: mobile devices in an ATC Working Position

In this paper we describe our exploration of some distributedinteraction prototypes designed for Air Traffic Control purposes. We think that this new form of interaction can play an important role in bringing closer together the user and the systems he is using. We believe that mobile devices, combined with new interaction styles, can be used as a lever to change the way user interfaces are designed. The Air Traffic Control application domain raises interesting issues in its transformation, which we have tried to address using personnal digital assistants. Our work focused particularly in an interaction shared between a fixed working position and a mobile one such as PDA. In this document, we want to show how we used previous studies on collaborative work and how we applied very simple but efficient design techniques to elaborate an experimental platform which explore different aspects and issues related to distributed interaction.