Territoriality in collaborative tabletop workspaces

TLDR

Digital tabletop displays are being explored for their collaborative benefits, yet design challenges such as automatic orientation and content ownership persist, and grounding interfaces in traditional tabletop practices can leverage users’ long‑standing interaction skills. The study aims to understand natural interaction practices in traditional tabletop collaboration through observational studies, synthesizing findings with prior research to inform design implications. The authors conducted two observational studies of traditional tabletop collaboration in both casual and formal settings to investigate interaction practices. The studies revealed three types of tabletop territories—personal, group, and storage—whose spatial properties were analyzed, leading to a synthesis with prior research and design implications.

Abstract

Researchers seeking alternatives to traditional desktop computers have begun exploring the potential collaborative benefits of digital tabletop displays. However, there are still many open issues related to the design of collaborative tabletop interfaces, such as whether these systems should automatically orient workspace items or enforce ownership of workspace content. Understanding the natural interaction practices that people use during tabletop collaboration with traditional media (e.g., pen and paper) can help to address these issues. Interfaces that are modeled on these practices will have the additional advantage of supporting the interaction skills people have developed over years of collaborating at traditional tables. To gain a deeper understanding of these interaction practices we conducted two observational studies of traditional tabletop collaboration in both casual and formal settings. Our results reveal that collaborators use three types of tabletop territories to help coordinate their interactions within the shared tabletop workspace: <i>personal, group</i>, and <i>storage</i> territories. Findings from a spatial analysis of collaborators' tabletop interactions reveal important properties of these tabletop territories. In order to provide a comprehensive picture of the role of tabletop territoriality in collaboration, we conclude with a synthesis of our findings and previous research findings and with several relevant design implications.