Abstract

This paper presents design guidance for developing interfaces and technology for collaborative working environments (CWEs). We concentrate on developing generalisable guidance, and thus summarising potential usability concerns for CWEs. We consider the relationship between people, technology and collaboration, and the challenges which technology needs to overcome to support intuitive communication. Well considered design may help with system uptake; systems should offer users a significant benefit over existing tools, and we should also be aware of the process through which new tools are accepted into daily work. Next, we consider the nature of design guidance, where it comes from, what it should look like, together with challenges that CWEs pose and what guidance is currently available. Substantial guidance exists for designing usable technology within the Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) literature (e.g. Shneiderman’s eight golden rules, Norman’s heuristics). Though most guidance was initially developed for single-user systems, it remains relevant for collaborative systems, not least because collaborative systems will inevitably involve a degree of single-user operation. Subsequently, we discuss the available literature on designing for collaboration including relevant theories, models and frameworks. In general, collaborative usability issues can be assigned to the categories of ‘communication’, ‘coordination’ and ‘awareness’, although these are not mutually exclusive. Finally, we present our guidance for CWE design, structured as main concepts with supporting bullets. The guidance has been written so as to be straightforward, presented in simple terms, and readily applicable to guiding development. The guidance can be used to support system and interface design, as the basis for heuristic evaluation, and to identify system aspects to be addressed in usability trials.