a framework for asynchronous change awareness james tam and saul greenberg, university of calgary

A Framework For Asynchronous Change

Awareness

James Tam and Saul Greenberg,James Tam and Saul Greenberg,

University of CalgaryUniversity of Calgary

Our Research

We’ve developed a framework for change We’ve developed a framework for change awarenessawareness

What Is Change Awareness?

The ability to keep up with the changes The ability to keep up with the changes that others have made in a collaborative that others have made in a collaborative projectproject

Change Awareness

A group of people are working together on A group of people are working together on a projecta project

Change Awareness

While one person is away, the others While one person is away, the others continue workingcontinue working

Change Awareness

The absent person comes backThe absent person comes back

Change Awareness

Now he’s left trying to figure out what’s Now he’s left trying to figure out what’s differentdifferent

Wav file from the Simpson © Fox

Keeping Up With Changes Is Hard!

Before After

Keeping Up With Changes Is Hard!

After

Even Simple Enhancements Can Be Of Great Value

Current Approaches For Displaying Changes

Focus on textFocus on text

Microsoft Word (Microsoft 2004)

Flexible Diff (Neuwirth et al. 1992)

The Focus Of Our Research

Change awareness in two-dimensional Change awareness in two-dimensional graphical systemsgraphical systems

Microsoft PhotoDraw (2000)

The Goal Of Our Research

To specify the information needed for To specify the information needed for someone to catch up with changessomeone to catch up with changes

Theoretical Foundations

Gutwin’s framework for workspace Gutwin’s framework for workspace awareness (Gutwin 1997)awareness (Gutwin 1997)

Image from (Gutwin, Greenberg and Roseman 1996)

Our Focus

Change awareness (not real time)Change awareness (not real time)

How Do People Catch Up With Changes?

By asking questionsBy asking questions

Before After

High-Level Questions To Catch Up On Changes

Where?Where?

Who?Who?

What?What?

How?How?

When?When?

Why?Why?

Answers To The High-Level Questions: Informational Elements

Where?Where?A: Location, gaze, edit history

Who?Who?A: Identity, presence, readership, authorship

What?What?A: Action history

How?How?A: Process and outcome history

When?When?A: Event history

Why?Why?A: Cognitive and motivational history

Where?

Location historyLocation historyGaze historyGaze historyEdit historyEdit history

Where?

Location historyLocation history

TeamRooms (Roseman and Greenberg 1996)TeamRooms (Roseman and Greenberg 1996)

Where (2)?

Gaze historyGaze history

Where (3)?

Edit historyEdit history

Who?

• Presence historyPresence history• IdentityIdentity• Readership historyReadership history• Authorship historyAuthorship history

Who (2) ?

Presence historyPresence history

???

Who (3)?

IdentityIdentity

Who (3)?

Readership historyReadership history

Bob

Who (4)?

Readership historyReadership history Sam

Fred

Mary

Who (5)?

Authorship historyAuthorship history

What?

Action historyAction history

How?

Process historyProcess history

Before After

Add: Attribute

How (2)?

Outcome historyOutcome history

Before After

When?

Event historyEvent history

Today’s news:

Sept 6, 2004

When (2)?

Event historyEvent history

First Last

Why?

• Cognitive historyCognitive history• Motivational historyMotivational history

Before After

The Questions And The Informational Elements

Where?Where?A: Location, gaze, edit history

Who?Who?A: Identity, presence, readership, authorship

What?What?A: Action history

How?How?A: Process and outcome history

When?When?A: Event history

Q: Why?Q: Why?A: Cognitive and motivational history

Workspace Perspectives

Artifact-basedArtifact-basedPerson-basedPerson-basedWorkspace-basedWorkspace-based

The Artifact-Based Perspective

The Person-Based Perspective

The Workspace-Based Perspective

Relating The Questions To The Workspace Perspectives

It may influence the questions askedIt may influence the questions asked

The Artifact-Based Perspective

The Person-Based Perspective

The Workspace-Based Perspective

Filtering Changes

1. Class WantsaFoo: added a new method called fooEnvy (Color green

2. Class LittleFoo: attribute nameOfFoo changed to name

3. Class LittleFoo: method getNameOfFoo changed to getName

4. Class LittleFoo: method setNameOfFoo now takes a String as an argument

5. ClassLittleFoo: method setNameOfFoo renamed to setName

6. Class Foo: added a data field lf of type LittleFoo

7. ClassFooUAll: added method fun ()

8. ClassFooUAll: added method fun2 ()

9. ClassFooUAll: added method noFun ()

10. Add Comments in the sticky note for class Foo

11. The realization relation between Class FooOrNotToFoo and class FooUAll was removed

12. Class FooOrNotToFoo was moved

13. Interface BlandInterface renamed to NotSoBlandInterface

: : : : :

Some Of Filters

Basic change filtersBasic change filtersSemantic filtersSemantic filtersHierarchical filtersHierarchical filters

Basic Change Filters

Filtering changes according to the basic Filtering changes according to the basic questionsquestions

Show all changes Show only Bob’s changes

Semantic Filters

Show only changes that are meaningful for Show only changes that are meaningful for the particular task domainthe particular task domain

Before After

Hierarchical Filters

Displaying changes at different levelsDisplaying changes at different levels

How The Framework Can Be Applied To Groupware

Dilbert © United Features Syndicate

Before: A design guide

After: A critiquing tool

What We Have Done

Created a framework for change Created a framework for change awareness:awareness:High-level questions?High-level questions?A: Informational elementsA: Informational elementsWorkspace perspectivesWorkspace perspectives

The Next Challenge

Using the framework to build a 2D Using the framework to build a 2D graphical system that supports change graphical system that supports change awarenessawareness