Awareness Support for Combining Individual and Collaborative Process Design in Co-located Meetings

Abstract

The collaborative design of complex systems is a challenging task. It requires phases of linear as well as creativity oriented work. Also phases of collaborative work have to alternate with work in solitude, requiring a smooth transition between them. This in turn results in awareness becoming a crucial factor. Within the context of designing socio-technical processes through modeling we have developed tools and methods to integrate individual and collaborative creativity into modeling with special respect to awareness thus allowing for a smooth transition between phases of working in solitude and phases of collaboration. We have conducted multiple experiments on the subject following an action research approach which allowed for reflecting on the influence of awareness on collaborative process design in co-located meetings while also improving the socio-technical setting they were applied in. Derived from our findings we show requirements for further development of the socio-technical setting and show future directions such as the integration of the described setting into other areas of design.