The Experts below are selected from a list of 195 Experts worldwide ranked by ideXlab platform
Saul Greenberg - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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task analysis for Groupware usability evaluation modeling shared workspace tasks with the mechanics of collaboration
ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction, 2003Co-Authors: David Pinelle, Carl Gutwin, Saul GreenbergAbstract:Researchers in Computer Supported Cooperative Work have recently developed discount evaluation methods for shared-workspace Groupware. Most discount methods rely on some understanding of the context in which the Groupware Systems will be used, which means that evaluators need to model the tasks that groups will perform. However, existing task analysis schemes are not well suited to the needs of Groupware evaluation: they either do not deal with collaboration issues, do not use an appropriate level of analysis for concrete assessment of usability in interfaces, or do not adequately represent the variability inherent in group work. To fill this gap, we have developed a new modeling technique called Collaboration Usability Analysis. CUA focuses on the teamwork that goes on in a group task rather than the taskwork. To enable closer links between the task representation and the Groupware interface, CUA grounds each collaborative action in a set of group work primitives called the mechanics of collaboration. To represent the range of ways that a group task can be carried out, CUA allows variable paths through the execution of a task, and allows alternate paths and optional tasks to be modeled. CUA's main contribution is to provide evaluators with a framework in which they can simulate the realistic use of a Groupware System and identify usability problems that are caused by the Groupware interface.
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a comparison of usage evaluation and inspection methods for assessing Groupware usability
International Conference on Supporting Group Work, 2001Co-Authors: Michelle P Steves, Carl Gutwin, Emile L Morse, Saul GreenbergAbstract:Many researchers believe that Groupware can only be evaluated by studying real collaborators in their real contexts, a process that tends to be expensive and time-consuming. Others believe that it is more practical to evaluate Groupware through usability inspection methods. Deciding between these two approaches is difficult, because it is unclear how they compare in a real evaluation situation. To address this problem, we carried out a dual evaluation of a Groupware System, with one evaluation applying user-based techniques, and the other using inspection methods. We compared the results from the two evaluations and concluded that, while the two methods have their own strengths, weaknesses, and trade-offs, they are complementary. Because the two methods found overlapping problems, we expect that they can be used in tandem to good effect, e.g., applying the discount method prior to a field study, with the expectation that the System deployed in the more expensive field study has a better chance of doing well because some pertinent usability problems will have already been addressed.
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a usability study of awareness widgets in a shared workspace Groupware System
Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, 1996Co-Authors: Carl Gutwin, Mark Roseman, Saul GreenbergAbstract:Workspace awareness is knowledge about others’ interaction with a shared workspace. Groupware Systems provide only limited information about other participants, often compromising workspace awareness. This paper describes a usability study of several widgets designed to help maintain awareness in a Groupware workspace. These widgets include a miniature view, a radar view, a multiuser scrollbar, and a “what you see is what I do” view. The study examined the widgets’ information content, how easily people could interpret them, and whether they were useful or distracting. Experimenter observations, subject questionnaires, and interviews indicate that the miniature and radar displays are useful and valuable for tasks involving spatial manipulation of artifacts.
Carl Gutwin - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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a Groupware design framework for loosely coupled workgroups
European Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, 2005Co-Authors: David Pinelle, Carl GutwinAbstract:Loosely coupled workgroups - where workers are autonomous and weakly interdependent - are common in the real world. They have patterns of work and collaboration that distinguish them from other types of groups, and Groupware Systems that are designed to support loose coupling must address these differences. However, loosely coupled groups have not been studied in detail in CSCW, and the design process for these groups is currently underspecified. This forces designers to start from scratch each time they develop a System for loosely coupled groups, and they must approach new work settings with little information about how work practices are organized. In this paper, we present a design framework to improve the Groupware design process for loosely coupled workgroups. The framework was developed to provide designers with a better understanding of how Groupware Systems can be designed to support loosely coupled work practices. It is based on information from CSCW and organizational research, and on real-world design experiences with one type of loosely coupled group-- home care treatment teams. The framework was used to develop Mohoc, a Groupware System for home care, and the System and underlying framework were evaluated during two field trials.
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task analysis for Groupware usability evaluation modeling shared workspace tasks with the mechanics of collaboration
ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction, 2003Co-Authors: David Pinelle, Carl Gutwin, Saul GreenbergAbstract:Researchers in Computer Supported Cooperative Work have recently developed discount evaluation methods for shared-workspace Groupware. Most discount methods rely on some understanding of the context in which the Groupware Systems will be used, which means that evaluators need to model the tasks that groups will perform. However, existing task analysis schemes are not well suited to the needs of Groupware evaluation: they either do not deal with collaboration issues, do not use an appropriate level of analysis for concrete assessment of usability in interfaces, or do not adequately represent the variability inherent in group work. To fill this gap, we have developed a new modeling technique called Collaboration Usability Analysis. CUA focuses on the teamwork that goes on in a group task rather than the taskwork. To enable closer links between the task representation and the Groupware interface, CUA grounds each collaborative action in a set of group work primitives called the mechanics of collaboration. To represent the range of ways that a group task can be carried out, CUA allows variable paths through the execution of a task, and allows alternate paths and optional tasks to be modeled. CUA's main contribution is to provide evaluators with a framework in which they can simulate the realistic use of a Groupware System and identify usability problems that are caused by the Groupware interface.
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a comparison of usage evaluation and inspection methods for assessing Groupware usability
International Conference on Supporting Group Work, 2001Co-Authors: Michelle P Steves, Carl Gutwin, Emile L Morse, Saul GreenbergAbstract:Many researchers believe that Groupware can only be evaluated by studying real collaborators in their real contexts, a process that tends to be expensive and time-consuming. Others believe that it is more practical to evaluate Groupware through usability inspection methods. Deciding between these two approaches is difficult, because it is unclear how they compare in a real evaluation situation. To address this problem, we carried out a dual evaluation of a Groupware System, with one evaluation applying user-based techniques, and the other using inspection methods. We compared the results from the two evaluations and concluded that, while the two methods have their own strengths, weaknesses, and trade-offs, they are complementary. Because the two methods found overlapping problems, we expect that they can be used in tandem to good effect, e.g., applying the discount method prior to a field study, with the expectation that the System deployed in the more expensive field study has a better chance of doing well because some pertinent usability problems will have already been addressed.
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a review of Groupware evaluations
Workshops on Enabling Technologies: Infrastracture for Collaborative Enterprises, 2000Co-Authors: David Pinelle, Carl GutwinAbstract:A better understanding of how Groupware Systems have been evaluated in the past can help to frame the discussion of what methods and techniques should be considered for future evaluations. We reviewed all papers from the ACM CSCW conference (1990-1998) that introduced or evaluated a Groupware System. Forty-five papers were included in the review. The main findings are that almost one-third of the Groupware Systems were not evaluated in any formal way, that only about one-quarter of the articles included evaluations in a real-world setting, and that a wide variety of evaluation techniques are in use. Our main conclusions from the review are that more attention must be paid to evaluating Groupware Systems and that there is room for additional evaluation techniques that are simple and low in cost.
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a usability study of awareness widgets in a shared workspace Groupware System
Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, 1996Co-Authors: Carl Gutwin, Mark Roseman, Saul GreenbergAbstract:Workspace awareness is knowledge about others’ interaction with a shared workspace. Groupware Systems provide only limited information about other participants, often compromising workspace awareness. This paper describes a usability study of several widgets designed to help maintain awareness in a Groupware workspace. These widgets include a miniature view, a radar view, a multiuser scrollbar, and a “what you see is what I do” view. The study examined the widgets’ information content, how easily people could interpret them, and whether they were useful or distracting. Experimenter observations, subject questionnaires, and interviews indicate that the miniature and radar displays are useful and valuable for tasks involving spatial manipulation of artifacts.
Christoph Meinel - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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full body webrtc video conferencing in a web based real time collaboration System
Computer Supported Cooperative Work in Design, 2016Co-Authors: Matthias Wenzel, Christoph MeinelAbstract:Remote collaboration Systems are a necessity for geographically dispersed teams in achieving a common goal. Real-time Groupware Systems frequently provide a shared workspace where users interact with shared artifacts. However, a shared workspace is often not enough for maintaining the awareness of other users. Video conferencing can create a visual context simplifying the user's communication and understanding. In addition, flexible working modes and modern communication Systems allow users to work at any time at any location. It is therefore desirable that a Groupware System can run on users' everyday devices, such as smartphones and tablets, in the same way as on traditional desktop hardware. We present a standards compliant, web browser-based real-time remote collaboration System that includes WebRTC-based video conferencing. It allows a full-body video setup where everyone can see what other participants are doing and where they are pointing in the shared workspace. In contrast to standard WebRTC's peer-to-peer architecture, our System implements a star topology WebRTC video conferencing. In this way, our solution improves network bandwidth efficiency from a linear to a constant network upstream consumption.
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implementation of an enterprise level Groupware System based on j2ee platform and webdav protocol
Enterprise Distributed Object Computing, 2000Co-Authors: Thomas Engel, Christoph MeinelAbstract:According to our definition, the enterprise-level Groupware System (EGS) is the Web-based Groupware that focuses specifically on addressing some crucial cooperation requirements put forward by Business-to-Business and Business-to Consumer electronic commerce. In this paper, we propose a new approach for constructing EGSs, in which a latest IETF specification: WebDAV is adopted in order to fully unlease the Web's potential in supporting cooperation activities, and at the same time, an enterprise-level platform: J2EE is adopted in order to ensure some enterprise-level features of the System, e.g., scalability, availability, extensibility and security. We then introduce a prototype EGS implementation called "Cooperative Workbench", which is developed in our institute. This prototype has partly proven the advantages of this new approach and its promising application prospects in the future EGSs.
V Natarajan - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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tcbworks a first generation web Groupware System
Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 1997Co-Authors: Alan R Dennis, S K Pootheri, V NatarajanAbstract:We describe the development of a first generation Web Groupware System called TCBWorks (http://tcbworks.mgmt.uga.edu:8080) that enables anyone with a Web browser to use Groupware. We discuss the overall design strategy, the browser and server environment, and the technical implementation and programming. More than 200 organizations around the world are using the software, either on our server or theirs. We discuss our experiences in using the software and lessons learned.
Alan R Dennis - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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tcbworks a first generation web Groupware System
Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 1997Co-Authors: Alan R Dennis, S K Pootheri, V NatarajanAbstract:We describe the development of a first generation Web Groupware System called TCBWorks (http://tcbworks.mgmt.uga.edu:8080) that enables anyone with a Web browser to use Groupware. We discuss the overall design strategy, the browser and server environment, and the technical implementation and programming. More than 200 organizations around the world are using the software, either on our server or theirs. We discuss our experiences in using the software and lessons learned.
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tcbworks a web Groupware System for telecooperation
1997Co-Authors: Alan R Dennis, S K Pootheri, Vijaya L NatarajanAbstract:Over the past two years, the World Wide Web has enjoyed explosive growth and has become a major force in network computing. We believe the Web (both on the Internet and on internal corporate intranets based on Internet protocols) will become the preferred development environment for future network applications, more so than Windows, Macintosh or UNIX. The web will become the universal client for client-server applications.
