A usability study of awareness widgets in a shared workspace groupware system

Workspace awareness is knowledge about others’ interaction with a shared workspace. Groupware systems provide only limited information about other participants, often compromising workspace awareness. This paper describes a usability study of several widgets designed to help maintain awareness in a groupware workspace. These widgets include a miniature view, a radar view, a multiuser scrollbar, and a “what you see is what I do” view. The study examined the widgets’ information content, how easily people could interpret them, and whether they were useful or distracting. Experimenter observations, subject questionnaires, and interviews indicate that the miniature and radar displays are useful and valuable for tasks involving spatial manipulation of artifacts.

[1]  Douglas C. Engelbart,et al.  A research center for augmenting human intellect , 1968, AFIPS Fall Joint Computing Conference.

[2]  M. S. Mayzner,et al.  Cognition And Reality , 1976 .

[3]  Daniel G. Bobrow,et al.  WYSIWIS revised: early experiences with multiuser interfaces , 1987, TOIS.

[4]  Daniel G. Bobrow,et al.  Beyond the chalkboard: computer support for collaboration and problem solving in meetings , 1988, CACM.

[5]  gIBIS: a hypertext tool for exploratory policy discussion , 1988, CSCW '88.

[6]  Josie Taylor,et al.  Preliminary experiments with a distributed, multi-media, problem solving environ-ment , 1990 .

[7]  Daniel G. Bobrow,et al.  Design for Conversation: Lessons from Cognoter , 1991, Int. J. Man Mach. Stud..

[8]  Christian Heath,et al.  Collaborative Activity and Technological Design: Task Coordination in London Underground Control Rooms , 1991, ECSCW.

[9]  Clarence A. Ellis,et al.  Groupware: some issues and experiences , 1991, CACM.

[10]  William W. Gaver,et al.  Sound Support for Collaboration , 1991, ECSCW.

[11]  William W. Gaver,et al.  Effective sounds in complex systems: the ARKOLA simulation , 1991, CHI.

[12]  Alan Borning,et al.  Two approaches to casual interaction over computer and video networks , 1991, CHI.

[13]  John C. Tang.  Findings from Observational Studies of Collaborative Work , 1991, Int. J. Man Mach. Stud..

[14]  Paul Dourish,et al.  Portholes: supporting awareness in a distributed work group , 1992, CHI.

[15]  Alain Karsenty,et al.  Transparency and awareness in a real-time groupware system , 1992, UIST '92.

[16]  Paul Dourish,et al.  Awareness and coordination in shared workspaces , 1992, CSCW '92.

[17]  Kelly L. Mawby,et al.  The user-centered iterative design of collaborative writing software , 1993, INTERCHI.

[18]  Ronald M. Baecker,et al.  The user-centred iterative design of collaborative writing software , 1995 .

[19]  Carl Gutwin,et al.  SHARING FISHEYE VIEWS IN RELAXED-WYSIWIS GROUPWARE APPLICATIONS , 1995 .

[20]  Carl Gutwin,et al.  Awareness Through Fisheye Views in Relaxed-WYSIWIS Groupware , 1996, Graphics Interface.

[21]  Carl Gutwin,et al.  Workspace Awareness in Real-Time Distributed Groupware: Framework, Widgets, and Evaluation , 1996, BCS HCI.

[22]  Carl Gutwin,et al.  Workspace awareness support with radar views , 1996, CHI Conference Companion.

[23]  Carl Gutwin,et al.  Workspace awareness for groupware , 1996, CHI Conference Companion.

[24]  Carl Gutwin,et al.  Supporting workspace awareness in groupware (video program) (abstract only) , 1996, CSCW '96.

[25]  Saul Greenberg,et al.  Building real-time groupware with GroupKit, a groupware toolkit , 1996, TCHI.

[26]  Carl Gutwin,et al.  Supporting Workspace Awareness in Groupware (Video Program). , 1996 .