WYSIWIS Revised: Early Experiences with Multiuser Interfaces

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WYSIWIS Revised Early Experiences with Multiuser
Interfaces

• Stefik, Bobrow, Foster, Lanning, and Tatar

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Terms

• Colab is an experimental meeting room developed
  at Xerox PARC in which computers support
  collaborative processes in face-to-face meetings.
• Meeting tools provide operations in terms of
  visible, manipulable objects
• WYSIWIS (What You See Is What I See)
• In strict WYSIWIS, everyone sees exactly the same
  image of the written meeting information and can
  see where everyone is (tele) pointing.
• Public vs. Private Windows (I.e., multiuser vs.
  single user windows)
• 4 dimensions for relaxing strict WYSIWIS
• Space Only a subset of the visible objects are
  wysiwis (e.g, windows and cursors)
• Synchronization Allow delays in updating or
  viewing
• Population Only subgroups of meeting share
  viewing
• Congruence Alternate views of same image

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Case 1 Boardnoter(The humble chalkboard)

• Provides white board, chalk, eraser, keyboard,
  and pointer
• Issue Display of cursors from multiple users is
  too distracting
• Solution Display only local implements and those
  used for telepointing
• Issue Small grain-size transmission of data is
  computationally expensive
• Solution Broadcast changes to information when
  the user indicates completion or after a
  reasonable time interval
• Issue Meetings often need multiple chalkboard,
  but there is room to show only one display at a
  time
• Solution Provide multiple visible boards by
  arranging shrunken ver4sion of them as icons in a
  stampsheet

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Case 2 COGNOTER (Collaboration in the
organization of ideas)

• A meeting tool for organizing ideas for a
  presentation
• Organizes its meeting process into a sequence of
  stages brainstorming, ordering and grouping,
  evaluation, and outline generation.
• Problem Participants needed to fiddle with
  window sizes and placements too much.
• Exacerbated by having a mix of public and private
  windows
• Two proposals for organizing displays
• Stampsheet
• Rooms

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Stampsheet approach

• Issue Screen can be crowded with windows used
  mainly by other participants
• Solution Allow participants to select
  independently which windows are full scale
• Issue When windows are it is not longer possible
  to assess quickly the locus of activity or which
  information has changed
• Solution Stampsheet icons should actively
  indicate when info is changing
• Issue Identifying recent changes is also
  important for full-size windows
• Solution provide a facility for highlighting
  recent changes
• Issue Subgroups need to cause other group
  members to attend to a particular item without
  interfering with activities of other subgroups
• Solution Provide telepointers that work only
  within subgroups

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Stampsheet (Continued)

• Issue Subgroups need to be able to bring
  information to the attention of a full meeting
• Solution Provide both full and subgroup
  telepointing
• Issue Participant wants to join a subgroup but
  cannot find the stamp corresponding to a subgroup
  window
• Solution label windows and stamps
• Issue When new public window is created ,
  putting the window on all displays may disrupt
  the activities of other subgroups
• Solution Automatically display new window on the
  displays of those participants who have the
  spawning window at full scale
• Issue Public and private windows compete for
  display space. Adding a new window to the
  display of subgroup can occlude windows of other
  participants
• Solution Participants can control the placement
  of all windows are their display

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Rooms

• Issue Screen can be crowded with windows used
  mainly by other participants
• Solution Provide separate rooms for each
  subgroup. Rooms are connect by doors.
• Issue When subgroups in separate rooms, not
  possible to track overall progress or progress in
  other rooms
• Solution Create an overview room from which one
  can watch the overall activities of the meeting.
• Issue Identifying recent changes is also
  important when a participant reenters a room.
• Solution Provide a facility for highlighting
  recent changes in a room

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Rooms (continued)

• Issue Subgroups need to cause other group
  members to attend to a particular item without
  interfering with the activities of other groups
• Solution Provide supgroup pointer that who only
  within a room
• Issue Bringing information to the attention of
  the full meeting
• Solution Provide a full-group telepointer that
  teleports all participants to the room of interest

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Comparisons

• Different approaches to placement of public
  windows
• Stampsheet Place of public windows is privately
  determined
• Rooms Public windows in the same place for
  everybody
• Rooms create harder boundaries between subgroups
  because participants must leave room to visit
  other subgroups
• Reconsidering division of items between two sets
  of ideas being worked on by two different
  subgroups
• Stampsheet Participant just opens relevant
  windows
• Rooms Greater overhead because a participant
  must either create a new room for the comparison
  or involve all the other members of one of the
  subgroups with the extra windows