Understanding Users: Designing for Collaboration & Communication Dr. Dania Bilal IS 588 Spring 2008

Social Mechanisms Mechanisms –Rules –Procedures –Conventions Used to maintain social order Inform people how to behave in social context

Conversational Mechanism Talking –How do we start a conversation? –How do we end a conversation? –Are there cues (implicit and explicit) for starting and ending conversations? Good conversational mechanisms enable people to coordinate their talk and achieve its purpose collaboratively.

Conversational Mechanisms Conversation breakdowns –Causes? –How can breakdowns be detected, avoided, corrected? System breakdowns as analogies to human conversation breakdowns

Designing Collaborative Technologies Focus –Design collaborative technologies that support communication among people at a distance Collaborative virtual environments – , text-messaging, videoconferencing, chat rooms…

Designing Collaborative Technologies How the design support and differ from face-to-face communication? Major types of CMC –Synchronous (e.g., Centra) –Asynchronous (e.g. Blackboard) Discussion of both types

Coordination Mechanisms Interaction among a group of people to achieve something collectively Require coordination among people (e.g., basketball team, class project team) Decisions as to how to interact to progress with various activities

Coordination Mechanisms Interaction types –Verbal and nonverbal communication –Schedules, rules, conventions How do these three vary? –Shared external representations

Designing for Coordination Consider how socially acceptable (rules, schedules, conventions) are to people Too much system control -> user dislike Too little control -> system may break down Flexibility is a key.

Social Networking Communication technologies –Cell phones, PDAs, etc. –Web-based services Information sharing, content creation (e.g., music, videos, photos, news) Blogs & wikis Virtual spaces (Myspace, Facebook, Second Life)

Types of Social Mechanisms Conversational mechanisms Coordination mechanisms Awareness mechanisms Question: How technological systems should be designed to support these mechanisms?