CAREER: An Interaction Framework that Enables and Facilitates Productive Problem Solving in Multi-User, Multi-Display Environments

要在复杂的问题解决过程中产生高质量的解决方案，团队必须能够实现有效的问题解决过程，包括快速创建、共享和交换任务构件的能力，保持对彼此活动的认识的能力，以及在共享空间中在并行执行单独工作和联合工作之间进行转换的能力。然而，尽管进行了多年的研究，团队仍然无法在使用数字文物及其辅助设备时实现有效的过程。这可能会严重抑制一个团队生产高质量解决方案的能力。虽然这并不新鲜，但随着越来越多的用户与数字制品合作，以解决软件、设计和安全等关键领域中日益复杂的问题，这个问题变得极其紧迫。在这个项目中，PI将研究一种促进群体问题解决的有前途的方法：多用户、多显示环境(MDES)。MDE将个人设备和共享设备联网，以形成单个虚拟工作空间。笔记本电脑等个人设备为并行执行单独的工作提供了物理上独立的空间，而大型显示器为联合工作提供了共享的视觉空间。但这些空间必须通过支持系统和支持互动来整合。虽然存在许多使能系统，但设计界面、交互和可视化(共同构成交互框架)以促进在MDE中有效地解决群体问题仍然是一个巨大的挑战。在这个项目中，基于我们对小组工作的最新理论理解和他丰富的多学科研究经验，PI将开发一个由三个核心组件组成的MDE交互框架：管理界面、概览可视化和输入重定向。管理界面将使用户能够在MDE中的显示器之间重新定位应用程序，同时最小化对其他正在进行的工作的干扰，同时还防止在需要时其他人重新定位共享显示器上的给定应用程序或与其交互。概览可视化将使用户能够保持对彼此相对于中心活动正在进行的工作的认识。对任何共享显示器的输入重定向将允许用户与这些显示器上的应用程序进行联合交互。PI将研究这些核心组件如何相互关联并共同影响MDE支持有效解决群体问题的能力。成功的结果将允许用户创建、共享和交换任务构件，保持对彼此活动的了解，并在个人和联合工作之间无缝过渡，从而促进有效的团队问题解决。更广泛的影响：PI将传播作为研究的一部分开发的软件，使最终用户能够利用MDES进行自己的问题解决活动，使研究人员能够进一步研究促进MDES中有效小组工作的技术。从该项目中获得的经验结果和经验教训将促进对如何为MDES制定互动框架的科学理解，使团体能够更好地实现有效的问题解决过程。通过启用更有效的流程，这项工作的长期影响是，团队将能够在更多的时间为复杂问题创建更高质量的解决方案。各种研究活动将由PI紧密地整合到他的研究生和本科生课程中。

To produce high quality solutions during complex problem solving, groups must be able to realize effective problem solving processes including the ability to quickly create, share, and exchange task artifacts, the ability to maintain awareness of each other's activity, and the ability to transition between performing individual work in parallel and joint work in a shared space. Yet despite many years of research, groups are still unable to realize effective processes when using digital artifacts and their supporting devices. This can severely inhibit a group's ability to produce quality solutions. Though not new, this problem is becoming extremely urgent as more users are collaborating with digital artifacts to solve increasingly complex problems in critical domains such as software, design, and security. In this project, the PI will investigate one promising approach for facilitating group problem solving: multi-user, multi-display environments (MDEs). An MDE networks personal and shared devices to form a single virtual workspace. Personal devices such as laptops provide physically separate spaces for performing individual work in parallel, while large displays provide a shared visual space for joint work. But these spaces must be integrated through enabling systems and supporting interactions. While many enabling systems exist, designing interfaces, interactions, and visualizations (collectively comprising the interaction framework), which combine to facilitate effective group problem solving in an MDE, remains a grand challenge. In this project, building upon the current state-of-the-art in our theoretical understanding of group work and his extensive multidisciplinary research experience, the PI will develop an MDE interaction framework consisting of three core components: a management interface, overview visualization, and input redirection. The management interface will enable a user to relocate applications among displays in the MDE while minimizing disruption to other ongoing work, yet also preventing when desired others from relocating or interacting with given applications on a shared display. The overview visualization will enable users to maintain awareness of each other's ongoing work relative to the central activity. Input redirection to any shared display will allow users to jointly interact with applications on those displays. The PI will study how these core components interrelate and affect in combination the ability of an MDE to support effective group problem solving. A successful outcome will facilitate effective group problem solving by allowing users to create, share, and exchange task artifacts, to maintain awareness of each other's activity, and to seamlessly transition between individual and joint work. Broader Impact: The PI will disseminate the software developed as part of the research, to enable end users to utilize MDEs for their own problem solving activities and researchers to further investigate techniques for facilitating effective group work in MDEs. The empirical results and lessons learned from the project will advance scientific understanding of how to develop interaction frameworks for MDEs that allow groups to better realize effective problem solving processes. By enabling more effective processes, the longer-term impact of the work is that groups will be able to create higher quality solutions for complex problems more of the time. The various research activities will be tightly integrated by the PI into his courses at both the graduate and undergraduate level.