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Investigating Awareness-Supporting Techniques in Co-located Sensemaking

Co-located sensemaking has benefitted from multi-user multi-touch devices such as tabletops and wall-mounted displays. Sensemakers use these displays to establish personal workspaces in which to perform individual sensemaking tasks, while preserving a shared space for the exchange and integration of findings. A large open interaction space allows multiple sensemakers to interact with the display at the same time and to communicate with partners face-to-face. However, collaborative systems must balance the tradeoff between working separately to complete individual work, and the need to communicate and maintain collaborative awareness. Dividing the tasks and working at the same time might encourage more alternative exploration paths, but reduced social exchange could also lead to weak mutual understanding and increased effort for work integration. Furthermore, close collaboration on the same task increases mutual awareness, but the tendency toward one-person dominance or turn-taking interaction underutilizes individual time and space, thereby reducing the benefits of divide-and-conquer. The four studies introduced in this dissertation investigated co-located space factors for notifications and shared visualization as two awareness-supporting techniques to assist individual contribution and teamwork. The research identifies control, awareness, and communication as key co-located space factors to balance cooperation, coordination, contribution, and communication. Knowledge on how notification and visualization techniques affect the co-located factors is explored and summarized. The findings identify design knowledge to better balance the individual work and styles of collaboration. Finally, this dissertation concludes by examining how awareness-supporting techniques affect the relationship between control, awareness, and communication. / Doctor of Philosophy / Co-located sensemaking has benefitted from multi-user multi-touch devices such as tabletops and wall-mounted displays. Sensemakers use these displays to perform individual sensemaking tasks, while preserving a shared space for the exchange and integration of findings. A large open interaction space allows multiple sensemakers to interact with the display at the same time and to communicate with partners face-to-face. However, collaborative systems must balance individual work and collaboration with other partners. Dividing the sensemaking tasks and working at the same time might encourage more alternative exploration paths, but reduced conversation could also lead to weak mutual understanding and increased effort for work integration. Furthermore, close collaboration on the same task increases mutual understanding, but the tendency toward one-person dominance or turn-taking interaction reduces the benefits of divide-and-conquer. Through four studies, this dissertation investigates notifications and shared visualization as two awareness-supporting techniques to assist individual contribution and team work. The research identifies individual control, awareness, and communication as key co-located space factors to balance cooperation, coordination, contribution, and communication. Knowledge on how notification and visualization techniques affect the co-located space factors is explored and summarized, to better design collaborative systems to support co-located sensemaking.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/99455
Date07 August 2019
CreatorsNiu, Shuo
ContributorsComputer Science, McCrickard, D. Scott, Wahid, Shaikh Shahtab, Fox, Edward A., Harrison, Steven R., North, Christopher L.
PublisherVirginia Tech
Source SetsVirginia Tech Theses and Dissertation
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeDissertation
FormatETD, application/pdf, application/pdf
RightsIn Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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