Tabletop Collaborations with a Competition Aspect

Abstract

There is little reported in the literature on how users strategize when group priorities and individual priorities conflict and need to be balanced for a successful collaboration. We conducted an observational study on three digital tabletop systems and a real-world setup to investigate similarities and differences in these collaborations. Our results show that in the real world, these collaborations involves three phases: identifying the right timing, using epistemic actions to consider a task plan and evaluating the value of the negotiation. And we identify implications for the design of digital tabletops that arise from our findings; support creation of personal spaces, support flexible and fluid transition between spaces, tabletop systems should be sensitive to body and hand gestures, and provide greater support for epistemic actions.