THE EFFECTS OF WORKSPACE AWARENESS SUPPORT ON THE USABILITY OF REAL-TIME DISTRIBUTED GROUPWARE
Date
1998-10-01
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Abstract
Real-time collaboration in current groupware workspace is often an awkward
and clumsy process. We hypothesize that better support for workspace
awareness - the understanding of who is in the workspace, where they are
working, and what they are doing - can improve the usability of these shared
computational workspaces. We conducted an experiment that compared people's
performance on two versions of a groupware interface. The interfaces used
workspace miniatures to provide different levels of support for workspace
awareness. The basic miniature showed information only about the local user,
and the enhanced miniature showed the location and activity of other people
in the workspace as well. We examined five aspects of groupware usability:
task completion times, communication efficiency, the participants' perceived
effort, overall preference, and strategy use. In two of three task types
tested, completion times were lower in the awareness-enhanced system, and
in one task type, communication was more efficient. The additional awareness
information also allowed people to use different and more effective strategies
to complete the tasks. Participants greatly preferred the awareness-enhanced
system. The study provides empirical evidence that support for workspace
awareness improves the usability of groupware, and also uncovers some of the
reasons underlying this improvement.
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Computer Science