Graspable Work Task Modeling

Description
Models of human work are well recognized means for representing multiple elements of an organization in a mutually tuned form. However, humans and systems tend to use different forms of representation when expressing their knowledge. Most of the widespread modelling approaches focus on a system designer’s or software view rather than on intuitive and comprehensive (re)presentations of mental models of users.
Graspable interfaces that support the modelling process in an intuitive way could help to reduce the cognitive load when leveraging individual mental models of work processes. In a collaborative setting the immediate and concurrent manipulation of model elements fosters the reflection and discussion of both modelling a work domain and corresponding processes. In this way, it facilitates the development of common views on work tasks and knowledge sharing.
To get an impression of the first working prototype, you can watch the video or view some photos in the gallery.
Duration
since 2005
Publications
S. Oppl and C. Stary, “Towards human-centered design of diagrammatic representation schemes”, in Proceedings of the 4th International Workshop on Task Models and Diagrams for User Interface Design (TAMODIA 2005), ACM Press New York, NY, USA, 2005.
S. Oppl, “Towards intuitive work modeling with a tangible collaboration interface approach”, in Proceedings of WETICE ’06, IEEE Press, 2006.
S. Oppl, C. Stary, and A. Auinger, “Towards tangible work modeling”, in Proceedings of Mensch Computer 2006, Oldenburg Wissenschaftsverlag, 2006.
F.G. Furtmüller and S. Oppl, "A tuple-space based middleware for collaborative tangible user interfaces", in Proceedings of WETICE ’07, IEEE Press, 2007. to appear.
Link
Gallery of first prototypical system
Video of first prototypical system (Quicktime)
Video of first prototypical system (Flash)

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