Collaborative Coupling over Tabletop Displays

Designing collaborative interfaces for tabletops remains difficult because we do not fully understand how groups coordinate their actions when working collaboratively over tables. We present two observational studies of pairs completing independent and shared tasks that investigate collaborative coupling, or the manner in which collaborators are involved and occupied with each other’s work. Our results indicate that individuals frequently and fluidly engage and disengage with group activity through several distinct, recognizable states with unique characteristics. We describe these states and explore the consequences of these states for tabletop interface design. Author Keywords Collaborative tabletop displays, single display groupware, mixed focus collaboration, coordination, coupling ACM Classification Keywords H.5.3. Group and organizational interfaces: computersupported cooperative work