Designing and Analyzing Collaborative Activities in Multi-Surface Environments. (Conception et analyse d'activités collaboratives pour environnement multi-surfaces)

Multi-surface environments (MSE) combine several surfaces in a variety of physical arrangements to form a seamless information space. Large surfaces, such as tabletops and wall-displays are often used as a shared space to coordinate efforts, and handheld devices, such as tablets and smartphones, are generally used as personal spaces supporting individual tasks. MSE have shown benefits for supporting colocated activities, especially the ones involving rich data exploration, such as collaborative problem-solving and decision-making activities. However, the diversity of MSE also raises complex design questions, as different devices configurations can be suited to different kinds of activities. Besides design, developing collaborative activities in MSE remains challenging. In this dissertation, I study how MSE supports collaboration, and collaborative learning more specifically, in order to address the these questions and challenges. Firstly, I review previous literature on collaborative activities in MSE, collaboration models, and propose an analytical grid to study collaboration in MSE. This grid consists of four collaboration mechanisms (awareness, regulation, information sharing and discussion) and group’s spatial arrangements. I synthesize and propose indicators for analyzing these elements. Secondly, based on this preliminary work, I study how the configuration and form factors of devices shape collaborative behaviors. I focus on two common MSE configurations: multiple mobiles in outdoor MSE and shared surface with multiple personal devices in indoor MSE. To this end, I designed 1) a problem-solving learning activity in mobile outdoor configuration, 2) a problem-solving activity in shared surface indoor configuration, and 3) a decision-making learning activity in shared surface configuration in a real classroom situation. I show that in both mobile and shared surface configurations, shared indicators are useful for maintaining awareness and promoting regulation. Manual synchronization in mobile configuration, and using tabletop to control tablets in shared surface configuration can have positive impacts on awareness. In mobile configurations, proxemic interaction should be dealt with care as F-formations are more dynamic and can be associated to different information sharing activities and devices configurations. In shared surface configurations, Fformations are more stable. In shared surface configurations, I show that using a horizontal surface leads to more implicit coordination and balanced interaction with the large display, but to less structured work, while using the vertical surface, group coordination is more explicit and is structured around one main interactor.