TY - JOUR

T1 - Interaction in the large

AU - Dix, Alan

AU - Ramduny-Ellis, Devina

AU - Wilkinson, Julie

PY - 1998/12/1

Y1 - 1998/12/1

N2 - Most work in HCI focuses on interaction in the small: where tasks take a few minutes or hours and individual actions receive feedback within seconds. In contrast, many collaborative activities occur over weeks or months and the turnaround of individual messages may take hours, days or even weeks. This slow pace of interaction brings its own problems, especially when expected responses do not occur. This paper analyses these problems, focusing on the triggers which initiate activities and the way processes recover when triggers are missed or misinterpreted. Furthermore, we are able to consider processes which cross organisational boundaries. We draw on theoretical analysis, an exploratory case study of conference organisation and recent application of the techniques to a student placement office. During the studies, a pattern of recurrent activities was discovered, the 4Rs (request, receipt, response and release), which we believe to be generic to this class of collaborative process.

AB - Most work in HCI focuses on interaction in the small: where tasks take a few minutes or hours and individual actions receive feedback within seconds. In contrast, many collaborative activities occur over weeks or months and the turnaround of individual messages may take hours, days or even weeks. This slow pace of interaction brings its own problems, especially when expected responses do not occur. This paper analyses these problems, focusing on the triggers which initiate activities and the way processes recover when triggers are missed or misinterpreted. Furthermore, we are able to consider processes which cross organisational boundaries. We draw on theoretical analysis, an exploratory case study of conference organisation and recent application of the techniques to a student placement office. During the studies, a pattern of recurrent activities was discovered, the 4Rs (request, receipt, response and release), which we believe to be generic to this class of collaborative process.

KW - Pace

KW - Interruptions

KW - Reminders

KW - Events

KW - Long-term interaction

KW - CSCW

KW - Cooperative work

KW - Workflow

KW - To-be-done-to lists

KW - Paper documents

U2 - 10.1016/S0953-5438(98)00031-9

DO - 10.1016/S0953-5438(98)00031-9

M3 - Journal article

VL - 11

SP - 9

EP - 32

JO - Interacting with Computers

JF - Interacting with Computers

SN - 1873-7951

IS - 1

ER -