On-Air Forum: Design and Evaluation of a System for Facilitating Communication while Watching Realtime Content

Abstract

While watching real-time contents such as presentations and TV shows, it is fun and productive to discuss with the large audiences in an online communication space. However, message lists tend to be filled up with simple typical reactions to the real-time content such as (dis)agreements and excitements, since it is difficult to watch and discuss at the same time. To facilitate communications while watching real-time content, we propose to provide special ways to easily send these simple reactions and use the collected reactions to visualize the discussion. Based on the design principle, we developed a chat system called “On-Air Forum”, and conducted an evaluation experiment at a technical conference. While watching technical presentations, typical reactions were mostly shared through the special features provided by the system, and users could send longer messages than before.