Exploring the effects of group size and table size on interactions with tabletop shared-display groupware

Interactive tabletops have been previously proposed and studied in the domain of co-located group applications. However, little fundamental research has been done to explore the issue of size. In this paper we identify a number of size considerations for tabletop design, and present an experiment to explore some of these issues, in particular the effects of group size and table size on the speed at which the task was performed, the distribution of work among group members, issues of shared resources, and user preference for table size. Our findings shed light on (1) how work strategies are affected by group size, (2) how social interaction varies with respect to table size, and (3) how the speed of task performance is influenced by group size but not by table size. In addition, our experiments revealed that for larger groups, designers might need to add additional vertical displays for shared information. This finding opens the door for extending single-display groupware to shared-display groupware settings that involve multiple, shared displays.

[1]  Kori Inkpen Quinn,et al.  Single display privacyware: augmenting public displays with private information , 2001, CHI.

[2]  B. Latané,et al.  Bystander intervention in emergencies: diffusion of responsibility. , 1968, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[3]  Sara A. Bly,et al.  A use of drawing surfaces in different collaborative settings , 1988, CSCW '88.

[4]  Darren Leigh,et al.  DiamondTouch: a multi-user touch technology , 2001, UIST '01.

[5]  Ivan Poupyrev,et al.  The go-go interaction technique: non-linear mapping for direct manipulation in VR , 1996, UIST '96.

[6]  Daniel M. Russell,et al.  Social Aspects of Using Large Public Interactive Displays for Collaboration , 2002, UbiComp.

[7]  Jonathan Grudin,et al.  Partitioning digital worlds: focal and peripheral awareness in multiple monitor use , 2001, CHI.

[8]  Regan L. Mandryk,et al.  System Guidelines for Co-located, Collaborative Work on a Tabletop Display , 2003, ECSCW.

[9]  Jun Rekimoto,et al.  Augmented surfaces: a spatially continuous work space for hybrid computing environments , 1999, CHI '99.

[10]  Marisa E. Campbell CSCW 2004 , 2004, INTR.

[11]  Yvonne Rogers,et al.  Dynamo: a public interactive surface supporting the cooperative sharing and exchange of media , 2003, UIST '03.

[12]  Armando Fox,et al.  The Interactive Workspaces Project: Experiences with Ubiquitous Computing Rooms , 2002, IEEE Pervasive Comput..

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

[14]  Norbert A. Streitz,et al.  Roomware: Toward the Next Generation of Human- Computer Interaction Based on an Integrated Design of Real and Virtual Worlds , 2001 .

[15]  Randy F. Pausch,et al.  Voodoo dolls: seamless interaction at multiple scales in virtual environments , 1999, SI3D.

[16]  Marti A. Hearst,et al.  A comparison of the affordances of a digital desk and tablet for architectural image tasks , 2002, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..

[17]  Kathy Ryall,et al.  UbiTable: Impromptu Face-to-Face Collaboration on Horizontal Interactive Surfaces , 2003, UbiComp.

[18]  Jun Rekimoto,et al.  SmartSkin: an infrastructure for freehand manipulation on interactive surfaces , 2002, CHI.

[19]  Yvonne Rogers,et al.  Finger talk: collaborative decision-making using talk and fingertip interaction around a tabletop display , 2004, CHI EA '04.

[20]  Norbert A. Streitz,et al.  Connectables: dynamic coupling of displays for the flexible creation of shared workspaces , 2001, UIST '01.

[21]  M. Sheelagh T. Carpendale,et al.  Territoriality in collaborative tabletop workspaces , 2004, CSCW.

[22]  Doug A. Bowman,et al.  An evaluation of techniques for grabbing and manipulating remote objects in immersive virtual environments , 1997, SI3D.

[23]  Meredith Ringel Morris,et al.  DiamondSpin: an extensible toolkit for around-the-table interaction , 2004, CHI.

[24]  Allison Druin,et al.  Single display groupware: a model for co-present collaboration , 1999, CHI '99.

[25]  E. Ramsden Group Process and Productivity , 1973 .

[26]  N. Kerr,et al.  Group performance and decision making. , 2004, Annual review of psychology.