Abstract
Designing usable real-time, distributed collaboration tools is a complex but important task. Workspace awareness can potentially help in making real-time, distributed collaboration tools more usable through a communication of who is in the shared workspace and what they are doing. We present qualitative evaluations of the workspace awareness features of a gesture-based diagramming tool, Distributed Knight, that supports real-time, distributed collaboration. These studies suggest that using simple, non-intrusive awareness means results in fewer breakdowns, more symmetric collaboration patterns, better coordination, and higher perceived usability.
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Damm, C.H., Hansen, K.M. (2005). An Evaluation of Workspace Awareness in Collaborative, Gesture-based Diagramming Tools. In: Fincher, S., Markopoulos, P., Moore, D., Ruddle, R. (eds) People and Computers XVIII — Design for Life. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-84628-062-1_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/1-84628-062-1_3
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