CollabWall: Understanding Collaborative Work with Interactive Display Walls in Multi-Device Environments

• Applicant: Professor Dr.-Ing. Raimund Dachselt
• Subject Area: Image and Language Processing, Computer Graphics and Visualisation, Human Computer Interaction, Ubiquitous and Wearable Computing
• Term: from 2017 to 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 325382068

Working with complex data, reaching decisions based on multiple information sources and sensemaking activities are increasingly executed by collaborative teams, which often consist of multiple experts. Examples are tumor board reviews, where doctors from different disciplines discuss patient data for optimal treatment planning, control rooms, where various incoming information streams are monitored and analyzed, or strategy and idea engineering meetings, where people analyze notes, sketches and other media to cooperatively generate ideas and objectives. In all these and other scenarios, people are co-located, collaborate with each other and make increasing use of digital support. Where previously whiteboards or single displays have been used, there is a growing number of setups with interactive large wall displays being the center of attention and team discussion. In addition, mobile personal devices, such as laptops, tablets or smartphones, and horizontal tabletop displays are being used in what has been termed a Multi-Display Environment (MDE). We expect such environments to be the dominate setup for computer-supported co-located collaboration in the future.In previous research, several technological solutions have been proposed for MDE as well as numerous interaction techniques, e.g., for transferring data between personal devices and large wall displays. However, a systematic and foundational understanding is still missing, how collaborative work is actually accomplished in such environments, how the transition between individual and group work happens, which roles users take over in MDE, how, where and when awareness information shall be displayed and how the space in front of and on the wall display is being used. The planned project aims at closing this gap and contributing important steps to a better understanding of collaborative interaction in Multi-Display-Environments.As a basis, we will first develop a design space of influencing dimensions for MDE collaboration. Next, to better understand interaction, movement, and proxemic patterns, we will develop a novel MDE analysis toolkit comprising complex visualization views, which allows for a semi-automated analysis of recorded behavior. By conducting several empirical studies, we will then identify behavior patterns of collaborating users, focussing our research on the usage of space, awareness aspects and dynamically changing roles. As a result, we will carefully develop design guidelines, which facilitate the design of future collaborative user interfaces in MDE. Therefore, our project will both make theoretical contributions as well as practical ones, since the visual analysis toolkit and the detailed study data will be made available to other researchers.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants