Using Translucent Interface Components to Lessen Interference Effects in Single Display Groupware

Zanella, A. and Greenberg, S. (2000)
Using Translucent Interface Components to Lessen Interference Effects in Single Display Groupware. In Workshop on Shared Environments to Support Face-to-Face Collaboration, held at ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work - ACM CSCW'00. (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA),, December. Online proceedings available at http://www.edgelab.ca/CSCW/Workshop2000/workshop_papers.html.

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Abstract

Single Display Groupware (SDG) is a class of applications that supports multiple simultaneous users interacting in the same room on a single shared display through multiple input devices. Because users share the same display, they have the same view of the working area. Interference occurs when one user raises some interface component---pop-up menus, dialog boxes, secondary windows---that hides or obscures the view of the underlying work surface for other users. This is not only distracting, but may also impede people from continuing their work. In this paper, we describe our in-progress research on using translucent interface components in single display groupware as a way of lessening interference effects. In particular, we are comparing how translucent vs. traditional opaque menus affect levels of interference when users are playing a simple SDG "connecting the dots" game.

Bibtex entry

@INPROCEEDINGS { 2000-TranslucentMenus.CSCWWorkshop,
CLASS = { WORKSHOP },
AUTHOR = { Zanella, A. and Greenberg, S. },
TITLE = { Using Translucent Interface Components to Lessen Interference Effects in Single Display Groupware },
BOOKTITLE = { Workshop on Shared Environments to Support Face-to-Face Collaboration, held at ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work - ACM CSCW'00 },
YEAR = { 2000 },
MONTH = { December },
ADDRESS = { Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA },
NOTE = { Online proceedings available at http://www.edgelab.ca/CSCW/Workshop2000/workshop_papers.html },
}