Balancing Shareability and Positive Interdependence to Support Collaborative Problem-Solving on Interactive Tabletops

To support collaboration, researchers from different fields have proposed the design principles of shareability (engaging users in shared interactions around the same content) and positive interdependence (distributing roles and information to make users dependent on each other). While, on its own, each principle was shown to successfully support collaboration in different contexts, these principles are also partially conflicting, and their combination creates several design challenges. This paper describes how shareability and positive interdependency were jointly implemented in an interactive tabletop-mediated environment called Orbitia, with the aim of inducing collaboration between three adult participants. We present the design details and rationale behind the proposed application. Furthermore, we describe the results of an empirical evaluation focusing on joint problem-solving efficiency, collaboration styles, participation equity, and perceived collaboration effectiveness.

Slowing Down Interactions on Tangible Tabletop Interfaces

This paper describes the results from a comparative study with 14 pupils using two different versions of a tangible tabletop application on satellite communication. While one of the versions was designed in a way to allow the resolution of the tasks in a pure trial-and-error approach, the second version prevented this by adding a button which had to be pressed in order to calculate and display results. The results of the study show that the design of the button and the associated scoring system was indeed successful in slowing down interactions and increasing thinking time. However, the knowledge acquisition was lower for the version with the button as compared to the one supporting trial-and-error. We discuss the results of this study and, in particular, argue for the need to carefully balance usability, task complexity and the learning dimension in the design of interactive tabletops for learning.