Supporting informal awareness in order to facilitate informal
communication in remote work contexts
Jovan Bakic
jovan.bakic.mail@gmail.com
Interaktionsdesign Bachelor
22.5HP 2021
Supervisor: Jens Pedersen
Abstract
This thesis seeks to understand how informal awareness, the presence and availability information of coworkers, can be provided in remote contexts through technology. Based on a workplace study, it was discovered that informal communication is an important part of work and is inadequately supported by current technology. Through research, it was suggested that information on presence and availability is that which facilitates informal communication. In order to design for this situation, this thesis features six interactive peripheral display prototypes which seek to provide informal awareness in an unobtrusive and effortless way to geographically distributed coworkers. Going beyond monitors, these prototypes seek to utilize natural human sensory-motor capabilities to ease perception and interaction. The results suggest such devices are appropriate at mediating awareness and have the potential to facilitate informal communication.
Keywords: Informal Communication, Informal Awareness, Peripheral Display, Peripheral Interaction, COVID-19, Remote Work
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank my thesis supervisor Jens Pedersen for his guidance during this thesis. I further extend appreciation to all participants and my mother for her continued encouragement and support.
Table of Contents
Abstract ... 2
1 Introduction ... 7
1.1 Aim... 7
1.2 Research Questions ... 8
1.3 Delimitations... 8
1.4 Thesis Structure ... 8
2 Methods ... 9
2.1 Double Diamond Design Process ... 9
2.2 Qualitative Research Methods ... 9
2.2.1 Semi-structured Interviews ... 9
2.2.2 Observation ... 10
2.2.3 Autoethnography ... 10
2.3 Theory ... 10
2.4 Participatory Design ... 11
2.5 Prototyping ... 11
2.6 Research Through Design ... 12
2.7 Sketching ... 13
2.8 Wizard of Oz ... 14
2.9 Ethical Considerations ... 15
3 Empirical Investigation ... 16
3.1 Research Approach ... 16
3.1.1 Groupings ... 17
3.2 Analysis Proceedings ... 18
3.2.1 Teambuilding ... 18
3.2.2 Home-work balance ... 18
3.2.3 Staying in touch ... 19
3.2.4 Technical Difficulty ... 19
3.2.5 Screen Fatigue ... 19
3.2.6 Motivation ... 19
3.2.7 Distraction ... 19
3.2.8 Loneliness ... 19
3.2.9 Organization ... 20
3.3 Informal Communication ... 20
3.3.1 Part of a greater whole ... 21
3.4 The Problem with Informal Communication ... 22
3.4.1 Presence & Availability ... 22
3.4.2 Effort ... 22
3.4.3 Location ... 22
3.5 Current Challenges of Informal Communication ... 23
3.6 Summary ... 23
4 Informal Communication & Awareness ... 24
4.1 Informal Communication ... 24
4.2 Awareness... 25
4.3 Types of awareness ... 26
4.4 Problems of Modern Remote Awareness ...27
4.5 Summary ... 28
5 Related Work ... 28
5.1 Virtual environment approaches ... 29
5.2 Feather Scent Shaker ... 29
5.3 Sixth Sense ... 30
5.4 PictureFrame & AugmentedMirror ... 31
5.5 ComSlipper ... 31
5.6 CoasterMe ... 31
5.7 Reflective Conclusions... 32
6 Peripheral Displays ... 32
6.1 Background ... 32
6.2 Peripheral Displays ... 33
6.3 Taxonomies and Heuristics... 34
6.4 Glanceability ... 34
6.5 Peripheral Interaction ...35
6.5.1 Implicit & Explicit Interaction ...35
7 Designs ... 37
7.1 Concept Development ... 37
7.1.1 Work Context ... 38
7.1.2 Manifestation in the home ... 38
7.1.3 Input and Output ... 38
7.1.4 Perceptual manifestation ... 39
7.1.5 Function ... 40
7.1.6 Extended general insights ... 40
7.2 Sketching & Choosing ... 40
7.3 Testing Approach ... 42
7.4 Prototypes ... 43
7.4.1 Enlightener ... 45
7.4.2 LightLights ... 45
7.4.3 VibroHand ... 46
7.4.4 VibroPad ... 46
7.4.5 Waver ...47
7.4.6 Environ ...47
8 Discussion and Evaluation ... 48
8.1 Awareness and Distraction ... 48
8.1.1 Output ... 49
8.1.2 Input... 50
8.2 Modes & Connectedness ... 51
8.3 Ethics ... 52
9 Conclusion ...53
10 References ... 54
1 Introduction
Much of society has seen clear trends towards digitalization and remote work, with the number of remote workers increasing in over the years. The COVID- 19 pandemic has forced numerous organizations to switch to digital alternatives, where a study of remote work Sweden a 400% increase of remote hours worked compared to before COVID-19 (Tele2, 2020).
For many, this has been a positive switch, while others have struggled to adapt to this abrupt transition. While modern technology has the capability to support and service elements which we cannot reproduce without it, there is much uncertainty to what extent it can replace traditional working environments and methods of working. Questions arise if it is merely a substitute and way of coping which is “inferior”, if it is equal, a tradeoff or superior to traditional ways of work.
This thesis topic was inspired by the personal observations of struggling remote colleagues. As a special relevance to the education, myself and society, a focus was placed on User Experience (UX) practitioners. UX practitioners were seen as an appropriate group to research due to a potential “positive feedback loop”, where better remote team collaboration with UX practitioners can in turn be better for a greater amount of people, where if they have better remote conditions, they can create better experiences for others. The thesis started with a broad research question in order to understand how people collaborate remotely. After initial insights, a specific issue would be chosen, analyzed and designed for. This thesis therefore features pivoting and convergence, where new research questions are formed throughout the project.
1.1 Aim
The initial aim of this thesis was to understand how collaboration occurs among remote UX coworkers. After pivoting, the aim of the thesis shifted towards understanding the nuance behind informal communication and how to support it in general. Eventually, the goal settled on how to design for supporting presence and availability information, “informal awareness”, remotely in order to facilitate informal communication. The contribution and significance is primarily in knowledge about the thesis topic through research, a discussion about the designs on how they are made, how they support the topic and their various details based on testing and analysis which can contribute to the practice of interaction design.
1.2 Research Questions
The initial research question:
“How and which remote team collaboration mediums are used by UX practitioners when performing collaborative teamwork.”
The research question pivoted and became more focused resulting in:
“What is it in working remotely that is missing in remote contexts when it comes to informal communication with co-workers.”
With additional sub-questions of:
“How we support remote informal awareness through technology in order to facilitate remote informal communication.”
1.3 Delimitations
With the initial topic being broad and open ended by intent for exploratory purposes, delimitations were only placed upon the user group, UX practitioners and exclusively internal collaboration between themselves.
As the research question and thesis focus developed, the delimitations followed. The user group was loosened to now include any remote worker due to informal communication not being unique to UX practitioners and to get broader perspectives.
A focused delimitation was placed on supporting informal awareness over other types of awareness, due to its interplay with informal communication and remote team collaboration.
1.4 Thesis Structure
The thesis is structured in the following manner:
Part 2 features which methodology was used, why and how it is relevant for this thesis.
Part 3 will elaborate on the empirical investigation, analysis, common themes together with introducing the thesis topic and its nuance.
Part 4 to 6 focuses on giving a theoretical overview and related work.
Part 7 will elaborate on the concept development, design and prototypes.
Part 8 focuses on evaluating and discussing the design and research, by identifying gaps in knowledge and potential for future work.
Part 9 will give a summary of the thesis and findings.
2 Methods
The methodology was chosen in accordance with the scope, requirements and timeframe of the project with relevance to COVID-19. The following sections will explain each method, how they are applied and why they were utilized.
2.1 Double Diamond Design Process
The general framework of the thesis is based on the double diamond design process of the Design Council (2006). This design process model allows for a clear visualization of where one is situated in each time together with being iterative in nature and allowing one to use it as a framework. I utilized it as a guiding process to understand where I am in the design process and how to allot appropriate time for each section.
Figure 1 Double Diamond Design Process, (Design Council, 2006)
2.2 Qualitative Research Methods
The following content will describe the primary research methods used for empirical research gathering. Each section will describe why a method was chosen, their relevance and how they were applied.
2.2.1 Semi-structured Interviews
One of the primary research methods were semi-structured interviews. This is a qualitative research method focusing on obtaining information from users through discussions typically guided by a common theme and open- ended questions. The advantage of such an interview approach is that it has a thematic purpose and prepared open-ended questions with relevance to the
research goal while allowing enough freedom to potentially diverge and uncover new themes and follow up questions by the answers provided through the interview. The method was therefore deemed appropriate and chosen as a primary research method due to its affinity for exploration while still lingering around general themes.
The interviews were primarily conducted by the suggested interview techniques of Kvale (2011). Semi-structured interviews were used to a great extent in every part of the thesis, from initial exploratory research of the topic to more detailed findings, conceptual design and usability testing.
2.2.2 Observation
Observation generally refers to the method of observing the actions, reactions and emotions of others in various scenarios. There can be a discrepancy between what participants tell you they do, how they do it and what they do.
It was therefore important to observe the actual real-life situations with relevance to the questions which aim to be answered. Observation etiquette and techniques were used as suggested by Musante (2010).
Observational studies were used widely in every part of the thesis in different forms depending on the requirements of the situation. In the research stages, observation was used by prompting participants to showcase their current struggles and working methods. In the design stage, it was used to observe the reactions and interactions of the testing participant with the prototypes.
2.2.3 Autoethnography
For the purposes of this thesis, autoethnography was utilized through a lens of self-reflection and analysis (Munro, 2011). This was particularly useful as a UX practitioner with previous and current remote work experience. In the design phase, autoethnography was used as a method to adjust the design dimensions and understand potential common difficulties before proceeding to practical testing. In this thesis, autoethnography was used in the entire design process, with a particular focus on early physical prototyping.
2.3 Theory
The theory was primarily approached from the angle of supporting the empirical work by obtaining a vocabulary. Beyond such use, it was approached as both a contextual tool as noted by Beck and Stolterman (2016), to situate it in a context.
The design recommendations of theories were approached cautiously as their applicability to the research in this topic is relative, considering research varying circumstances. Weight was therefore placed on the practical
empirical research. The only usage of theory as an analytical tool was during prototype analysis, to see why some manifestations differed.
2.4 Participatory Design
Participatory design (PD) as a field tries to see people served by design not as users, consumers or customers, however as experts in their own areas (Sanders, 2014). For the purposes of this thesis, participatory design was used as a tool in the “develop” phase of design. The participants were involved in the concept development and the refining of design ideas, concepts and sketches. PD was seen as a useful approach as it allowed users to directly impact how a given design should be. The PD methods appropriated were based on the framework of practicing participatory design by Sanders, (2014).
Figure 2. Participatory design approaches (Sanders, 2014)
The approach to PD was simple, and were a part of interviewing sessions during concept development and testing where they included activities such as imagining and discussing potential best and future scenarios.
2.5 Prototyping
The notion of prototypes is derived from the definition by Houde and Hill (1997), who define a prototype as any representation of a design idea irrelevant to its manifested medium, which includes anything from a pre- existing object to sketch to a custom high fidelity designed object. It is something which can produce answers to the important questions of a designer in the least amount of time (Houde & Hill, 1997). The authors elaborate that one should be prepared to, and should, make multiple prototypes, throw many away and use others for the purposes of the design.
The prototype itself should be made in relevance to the design scenario it is needed for, the requirements and audience it is to be tested with.
A distinction is made between a prototype, an artifact imbued with the
“design idea”, and prototyping, the activity. While prototyping produces prototypes, it is not the artifacts themselves which are of primary focus, rather, how prototypes can be used to answer the questions of the design. Due to the exploratory nature of the thesis, prototyping was seen as an appropriate means of tackling the design questions required for the needs of the project in a time efficient, less resource intensive and technologically required approach. Houde & Hill (1997) further propose a model of what
“prototypes prototype.”
Figure 3. What do prototypes prototype model (Houde & Hill, 1997)
“Look and feel” refers to the namesake and how it is interacted with and experienced, “implementation” refers to how an artifact might or does work, while “role” refers to what it affords a given user. Various combinations of this can allow one to classify and design a prototype which seeks to answer questions of practical function without defining the look and feel or role it will play in the life of the user (Houde & Hill, 1997). This approach was used in the concept development to map out the purpose of the designs and what the prototypes prototype.
2.6 Research Through Design
The angle of “research through design” by Zimmerman et al. (2007) was further approached., where they argue it can be useful to use designs as artifacts of research and discussion. They differentiate “research artifacts”
from “design practice” artifacts through the intent and degree of invention, where research artifacts are made to produce knowledge and rather be novel, in comparison to a redesigned commercially viable product. The authors define it as the difference between redesigning office furniture for new ways of work versus inventing new product categories (Zimmerman et al., 2007).
With this definition, the authors attempt to formalize research through design through four criteria to consider for such an approach.
- Process - The utilized methodology and rationale behind their selection
- Invention - The contribution and novelty of the design research.
How it differs, elaborates on and advances current understandings of the domain.
- Relevance - How valid the design research is, what the current state is and how their new intended approach aims to change it.
- Extensibility - How well the contributing results of the design research can be used for future related design and research endeavors.
Prototyping and research through design were used in unison as general guidelines on how to approach the designing. These were chosen as I wanted to explore new approaches.
2.7 Sketching
While there now exists a basis on what a prototype is, prototyping, and why we are prototyping, I needed an approach on how to prototype. While the designs themselves were created to be low-fidelity, exploratory and less resource intensive, they are meant to be prototypes which can answer design questions. How then can one know what they are prototyping is something which can potentially answer these questions? For the purposes of early prototyping formative methods of prototyping, “sketching”, or drawing, was chosen.
Houde & Hill (1997) show how sketching can, and typically is, used early in a design process with a focus on “low resolution” quick prototyping in order to answer questions before moving on to other manifestations of the prototype, if needed. Houde & Hill (1997) define resolution as the “amount of detail”
while fidelity is how close it is to the final design. It is important to separate the concept of fidelity from resolution, as a sketch can have equal, or greater, amounts of resolution as, for example, an aesthetic 3d printed object, despite a high level of difference between the two with regards to fidelity. Houde &
Hill (1997) rationalise that sketching typically occurs early in prototyping, with low resolution, due to its adaptability, low cost, speed and easy way for people to present a prototype for the purposes of potentially iterating and increasing the resolution over time as the design questions begin unfolding.
Sketching was therefore chosen as one of a method in prototyping for the early phases of design.
2.8 Wizard of Oz
The scope, aim and various delimitations of this thesis make the designs linger around low to medium resolution prototypes. Therefore, an appropriate method to go as far as possible, while still being within the limits of available resources, technological complexity and time had to be found.
For this purpose, the “Wizard of Oz” (WOz) approach to prototyping was adopted. The method refers to emulating the properties of a given artifact as to make it appear functional without the means to control it being perceptible by an individual on the other end of the “curtain”. It is a reference to the literary work of Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, and the titular character Oz, who projects himself as a powerful wizard while in truth merely faking it through controls behind a curtain.
Dow et al. (2005) note the applicability of the WOz prototyping method in iterative design, and its history in HCI research and prototyping, where it can help designers avoid having to implement time consuming and resource intensive functions for a prototype which could be potentially simply discarded due to the nature of such prototyping activities. The practical methodology for the WOz method is defined by Dow et al. (2005) using unique terminology relevant to the literary work, where the designer acts as the “wizard” interfacing manually with some external, usually hidden or out of the senses controls to control the “puppet” which the participant do perceive. Here the wizard operator is seen as having either two roles, the controller, who simulates parts of a technology like a sensor, or a supervisor, which guides or overrides the actions of a working technology. It was shown by Dow et al. (2005) that the usage scope of the WOz method is beyond the early parts and prototyping of a design process, where it can be effectively scaled up to near the end of the design process through an evolution of the roles, where controller is more towards the low resolution, while moderator more towards high resolution.
Figure 4. Stages of WOz applicability, (Dow et al., 2005)
2.9 Ethical Considerations
As the sole designer responsible for the research and development of the thesis project it was imperative to select appropriate research and design methods with relevance to the privacy, wellbeing and safety of the participants.
Due to the COVID-19 global pandemic, relevant methodology and precautions were chosen according to the regulations, recommendations and general guidelines by the Public Health Agency of Sweden, Folkhälsomyndigheten. They were applied to the greatest extent possible to ensure the safe health and environment of the participants. This included maintaining the recommended distance of two meters, masks, physical tangible artifacts and offering and encouraging digital alternatives, such as remote interviews which were primarily used in early research and concept development.
Ensuring the privacy of the participants and ethics of the activities of the project was a major consideration. All activities were reviewed and appropriately adapted based on the guidelines by the Ethics Council of Malmö University and the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
No personally identifiable materials were gathered through any mediums or used in this thesis, with no quotes being attributed. An exemption was made
for the recording of audio during research interviews for review and transcript, where the participants were informed about their rights and consent gathered orally.
One of the guiding principles for the thesis is reciprocity as defined by Musante (2010). The research, design and personal goals with the thesis were therefore made clear and fully transparent to all participants, with the reciprocity being grounded in information sharing and obtaining a shared understanding.
3 Empirical Investigation
In this section I will present a list of problematic themes found with remote work before narrowing down to informal communication. I will thereafter explain the consequences of a lack of informal communications and a perspective on how they occur. From that, I will derive a set of current problems with informal communication.
3.1 Research Approach
The participants for the research were recruited through emailing personal networks, university associates and organizations and listed individuals to inquire if they are interested in collaborating. Overall, nine UX practitioners were recruited with all of them being based within Sweden.
Due to personal experience and on the recommendations by Winchatz (2006), in order to make the participants feel at ease and to allow them to better express themselves, the sessions were conducted in Swedish. Out of the nine participants, one was interviewed in English. Therefore, quotes in English are translated with a focus on being as appropriate as possible. On a personal approach and on the recommendations by Kvale (2011), the sessions began very timidly with broader more general questions about the participants to create a friendly environment and avoid potential feelings of interrogation. The questions were refined as the research progressed, therefore not all participants were presented with the same questions. This research consisted of semi-structured interviewing and observations where the nuance of remote team collaboration with UX practitioners was explored through a wide set of questions.
3.1.1 Groupings
Based on the insights gathered from the initial research, the answers were transferred from a word processor to the online whiteboard platform Miro.
There, the answers were analysed and grouped using affinity mapping with a focus on uncovering common themes and potential peculiar insights.
Figure 5. General Groupings
For the purposes of this thesis, information about the situation, surveying and minute details are intentionally limited, focusing instead on areas of remote team collaboration which exhibited opportunities for research and design. Following the general groupings, more detailed groups were made based on patterns and similarities.
Figure 6. Detailed groupings
3.2 Analysis Proceedings
In this section I will briefly introduce common problems found with remote work before moving onto informal communication which was perceived to be the area with most potential.
3.2.1 Teambuilding
Team building and dynamics were experienced as potentially more strained.
The larger a team was, the more difficult it was perceived to work with remotely due technology limits, coordinating availability, being able to show material and in general know which tasks your co-workers are doing.
- "... it was just not as tight anymore and it doesn't really work for all four of us to talk all the time, as it becomes so ineffective, and if it becomes even bigger, it becomes even harder, as now you have to book more meetings, set an agenda, book work hours, when we will meet at the office..."
3.2.2 Home-work balance
Many had trouble with the home-life work balance as they worked from their homes much more frequently, and had trouble separating their home from
their workplace. One participant described it as “the home and work fused together”, with others remarking that some rooms began to feel like the office.
3.2.3 Staying in touch
A challenge was seen in staying in touch and contacting co-workers outside of their teams, where they would not communicate without active effort, with one participant noting that “if I did not go and send them a message, we would never communicate in any way”.
3.2.4 Technical Difficulty
Problems with technology were prevalent such as slow or no internet, bad audio and video quality, functional hardware, complicated software, broken peripherals.
- “We are very dependent on everyone having a stable internet connection”.
3.2.5 Screen Fatigue
In general, there was a sense of “screen fatigue” where they worked with computers and technology much more often and in ways they did not before.
One participant said that “before it was actual whiteboards, or written notes, but now its Miro and Word”. Especially with computers, many took opportunities to not use them when possible, such as going for a walk and holding a meeting through audio on their phone.
3.2.6 Motivation
When co-located, people felt that they had more motivation through co- worker encouragement or seeing everyone work which has lessened. A participant elaborated “I tend to do what is required of me rather than go above and beyond nowadays”, where it is difficult to recognize effort remotely.
3.2.7 Distraction
With remote work, many participants felt that they got distracted by family members, technology and co-workers as well in the form of emails, message notifications or other pop-ups.
- "I get easily distracted by noises and people walking around. There’s also other tech… before I’d focus on my work at my desk, but now I must check those notifications, maybe it is important.”
3.2.8 Loneliness
Many of the participants experienced a disconnect between themselves and their co-workers due to having no opportunities to socialize or chat in general
with their co-workers, which manifested itself as loneliness. One participant noted that they “miss the between people feeling” with another remarking
“we are social beings, we need interaction”.
3.2.9 Organization
While there were positive outlooks towards the archiving and documenting of information such as links to digital whiteboards “Miro” boards, opposed to taking a picture of a whiteboard and cleaning u, there was shown to be a concern with practical organization. Keeping track of documents and files was seen as more problematic due to an increase of them because of remote work.
- “Which document belongs to which meeting? Was this file worked on during this co-working hour or during the one two hours later?”
Further inquiry suggested that the source of the problem was organizational bureaucracy, clientele, a lack of coordination with others and varying personal perspectives, where there already exists suggested tools, methods and approaches to potentially better structure this problem of organization.
3.3 Informal Communication
The previous section gave an overview into problematic themes found in the research. The following section will introduce the thesis topic and one of the themes, its nuance and why it was chosen.
The research and analysis into many of the common difficulties suggest that the theme of communication, and in particular, the type of conversations which are seen as more “casual”, “relaxed” or “informal”. This is explained in the coming section. Many participants noted that, with remote work, they must book more meetings, actively search for people or send more messages which took time, effort, coordination and increased cognitive load.
- “You now have to actively search for input. No more spontaneous and random meetings in the kitchen and can quickly ask those things."
Questions into why revealed that many cannot get quick feedback on their work and ideas from their co-workers, and now require having to book a meeting and perform the entire process.
- “Before it was more unofficial, "Hey, quick question!" but now it's all formal. Everything during meeting times, which we have to coordinate.”
Inquiry suggested that this is because they do not have access to information about their co-workers when working remotely, which they would have when co-located. Such information when co-located included variables such as where they are, if they are close, what they are doing, the time of day, the
room they are in or if something has, is or will happen. The purpose of these variables was suggested to be used to assess the feasibility of engaging with a co-worker.
The reason as to why they could do this when co-located, and not while now remote, is due to the “mediating” effect physicality and proximity has. There, they can use their senses to perceive this information. With remote work, such information is not only not perceptible, however also unavailable and poorly mediated through technology.
- “I don’t know if my colleague is in a meeting or doing something important, which I could see in real life… are they at their desk? Are they busy?”
It is important to note that the end goal is to engage a coworker and get feedback. Such information on coworkers is merely a method to assess if it is feasible. However, the ends do not justify the means, as shown with the consequences of using alternatives. If it were, no distinction would be made, nor problems would exist as the goal is achieved, nonetheless. Therefore, it is suggested that the process is paramount.
3.3.1 Part of a greater whole
This line of thought leads to the idea that the lack of such information, and through it, this more informal communication, together with the substitutes and coping of remote workers, is the main cause of these difficulties. This was suggested to be probable, elaborated in the following sections.
Meetings, discussions, and conversations were perceived as a a lot more formal and frequent precisely because they do not have these informal communications.
- “Before you could go around the room and see and ask what others are doing, now we need scheduled meetings and have to send messages, wait for replies… no idea if they’re around or what they’re doing.”
Feelings of loneliness, solitude and a lack of connectedness were present because they do not have these more casual conversations. Coordination and messaging between people felt more tiring, cumbersome, and frequent as you could not just meet someone in the hallway and give them a status update.
- “Now if I want to show someone something, I have to upload the file or book a meeting and share the screen, put it in our planning software, notify others… we have to do this more frequently too, as you can’t just say it in the office and know everyone heard.”
3.4 The Problem with Informal Communication
Based on these empirical insights I created a perspective for informal communication. It is not within the scope of this thesis to provide a comprehensive classification for informal communication, the following is merely the product of analysis and could be considered when trying to support informal communication.
The research suggested that informal communication is primarily a product, or a result of the natural human senses and internal processing with a strong connection to location, the presence and availability of individuals and expended effort.
3.4.1 Presence & Availability
Presence refers to being within reach to perceive and interact with others, while availability refers to the degree one is busy. Presence does not denote availability and vice versa. One can be present and unavailable for informal communication while also available yet not present for it. Both default in negative availability however merely from different sources, where in the former unavailability is decided by information, and by a lack of information for the other. I therefore suggested that most likely, for informal communication to be possible, an individual needs information on both presence and availability.
3.4.2 Effort
I use “effort” to refer to the ease to engage in informal communication. Being co-located was shown to offer an easy method of communication through speech, nonverbal communication, presenting material or any other channels. The concept of effort was included due to the prevalence of alternatives, where these methods were shown to require greater effort and resulted in a broken workflow, disruption and felt cumbersome, among others. This can further be seen in how the participants classified informal versus formal communication, with informal being seen as “easy” “effortless”
or “simple”. Therefore, an appropriate amount of effort is required for the designed means to be usable.
3.4.3 Location
I see the location as a catalyst of presence & availability and effort. I split it into three parts I call “physicality” “symbolism” and “function”. Physicality refers to the form, shape, size of the room and material within it. Symbolism refers to what a room means to an individual, such as an office hallway having different connotations than a basement. Function refers to what the room is for and what stems from it, such as an office being for people to be gathered and perform work in.
These sub-qualities can influence the other groupings such as presence &
availability and effort, and through that informal communication itself. If one wishes to support informal communication, these could be important to consider. Unlike presence and availability location I speculate location to not be required, merely an influence or tool, as shown how people still negotiated availability remotely through telecommunication irrelevant of location.
In general, I believe these qualities should be considered with informal communication as they can influence it. These were created for the purposes of guiding the design in this thesis.
3.5 Current Challenges of Informal Communication
Using the “perspective” groupings as a starting point, and applying it to the research, the result suggests many of them are not adequately supported in remote work environments and therefore do not support informal communication.
Due to being geographically distributed, the qualities of a location are not relevant. Because of this, individuals cannot use it as a medium to assess the presence or availability of people as it places them outside the range of their human capabilities. They are therefore forced to rely on technology and explicit information to do so. As the technology does not effectively mediate such information, the participants must expend greater effort to attain their goals. The question arises towards what else can be used to mediate this information in an effortless way?
3.6 Summary
The information given by the research suggests three main findings. The first is that informal communication is a major part of cooperative work and that, within it, it affects various work related, social and personal areas positively through its inclusion, and negatively in its absence. The second is that informal communication is not adequately supported through current means of remote work collaboration, while potential exists to better support it.
Lastly, there are research and design implications towards this information of others with regards to presence and availability being a potential key characteristic with informal communication which, if supported, could support and facilitate informal communication like it does when co-located.
4 Informal Communication &
Awareness
In order to contextualize the work, a literature review was performed which revealed previous research and perspectives on informal communication, with the concept of awareness related to it. The purpose of this theory is to situate it within a context, as I do not believe the concept of informal communication is unique to my specific case study. It is also to acquire terminology, to gain a way to speak about the empirical research findings in this thesis and for extensibility, relevance and invention as supported by Zimmerman et al. (2007).
I stress that the design suggestions of others are not used in this thesis beyond potential inspiration, like related work.
4.1 Informal Communication
Kraut et al. (1990) studied informal communication and summarized that it is a dominant general workplace activity. There, they provided a way to talk about informal communications, classified it into three groups:
- Where the initiator set out to find a specific party (intended)
- Where the initiator planned to talk with other participants and took advantage of a chance encounter to have the conversation (opportunistic)
- Interaction which is spontaneous where the initiator had not planned to talk with other participants (spontaneous)
It was found that most conversations are informal, with half unplanned. They argued that co-located informal communication is a product of proximity and physical locality, where half of informal communication occurs within the same corridor, and 87% in the same shared floor of a building. This suggests that proximity is a deciding variable in the facilitation of informal communication, why is this the case? Kraut et al. (1990) suggest proximity gives people an easy channel of communication and lowers the cost of communication together with providing a suitable person to engage with.
Engagement was hinted to be a result of topic salience and the ease of conversational execution and available communication channels, the cost of communication. They further group informal conversations into “product”
work, and “social” functions which were shown to be correlated, supporting the idea that these are intertwined in work related groups, where if one is satisfactory, the other tends to be as well. In unison they were used to coordinate, get feedback, create work bonds, acquaintanceship with others, workplace learning, trust and familiarity.
The findings of Kraut et al. (1990) are however not isolated and remain generally consistent with related work and in this case, the thesis research.
Whittaker et al. (1994) found informal conversations are frequent, that lacking them decreases effective collaborations and suggest the individuals prior activity influences perceived interruptibility. Azudin et al. (2009) showcase the role of informal communication with knowledge sharing and coordination during lunch, where such conversations improved co-worker trust together with over 70% of workplace occupational learning occurring from such interactions in their case study. Fay (2011) approached informal communication in a workplace setting, with a focus on remote employees and the social aspect. The results suggest that informal communication plays an important part in achieving a common ground, strengthening co-worker relationships, giving a sense of belonging, where this was more difficult with remote contexts. Fay (2011) identified themes to informal contribution and suggest they contribute to sociality, receiving or granting support, commiseration and complaining, and work-related exchanges showing that remote workers typically achieve greater need fulfilment informal communication. Fay and Kline (2012) suggest informal communication aids in job satisfaction, building trust, liking, organizational commitment, alleviating frustrations, giving a sense of belonging and reducing feelings of isolation.
Röcker (2012) advocates the importance of informal communication and ties it to the concept of “awareness”. It is stressed that informal communications contribute to sharing a mental model, coordination, planning, definitions of early projects, workplace learning, knowledge management and joint problem solving. Further benefits identified exist on more social functions such as colleague co-worker satisfaction, familiarity, social relationships and trust. Röcker (2012) argues that “awareness” and “informal communication”
are closely interrelated and complement each other, where informal communications maintain awareness and awareness leads to informal communication (Röcker, 2012). With such a term coming up in the empirical research and with the apparent connection, further investigation was warranted.
4.2 Awareness
The concept of awareness has no strict definition and shifts depending on the field of study. Dourish (1997) argues that awareness as a concept is to “make one's activity visible to others”, where one does not have to actively seek out awareness, nor manage it; where it comes out from a person's activity itself, building upon earlier with by Dourish and Bly (1992) and awareness facilitation. Within co-located spatial physical places, such as offices or other workspaces, Dourish (1997) claim this sense of “awareness” is gathered by
the senses and the perceived activity of others (Dourish & Bly, 1992; Dourish, 1997).
Researchers Heath and Luff (1992) studied cooperation in the Line Control Rooms in the London Underground. They found that co-workers
“surreptitiously” monitor and “systematically distribute information” in order to efficiently cooperate with each other and understand the state of affairs. Notice was placed on how colleagues made activities visible together with occurrences of reciprocity. Cooperating individuals were shown to their own actions visible as appropriate and needed for feedforward and to spread awareness to others. Schmidt (2002) defines this idea as “complementary aspects” where monitoring is facilitated by displaying and cueing others into an awareness of their “concerns, expectations, and intentions”. While they are complementary, Schmidt (2002) notes that obtrusiveness with monitoring and displaying and with respect to the situation is adjustable, compared to previous notions of it being deft and unobtrusive. This suggests that disruption is fluid and adjustable where related parties choose what to do, seen in the studies by Whittaker et al. (1994) and Kraut et al. (1994) as well, where people seemingly examined the situation, circumstances and requirements before initiating or displaying oneself.
In contrast to the definition of the passivity of awareness by Dourish (1997), Schmidt (2002) challenges it, elaborating that while awareness is a concept of potentially effortlessly aligning and integrating one’s activities with others, it becomes a problem when trying to understand how awareness can be supported, as it clearly goes beyond merely “being there”. Schmidt (2002) surmises that “awareness” is a product of “some highly active and highly skilled practices” and not merely passive intake, as with the approach of Dourish (1997). Such findings suggest that to support awareness related to people and the workplace, one must allow people to control how they perceive and display it.
4.3 Types of awareness
Early attempts to define awareness did not explicitly focus on awareness, and found it as a product of organizational memory, task awareness and situation awareness (Gutwin et al., 1996). Initial definitions of the type of awareness we are approaching include “general awareness” as defined by Gaver et al.
(1992), who use it to refer to the “pervasive experience” of understanding who is around (presence), what they are doing (activity) and if they can be engaged (availability), which they then further tie to proximity as a concept and why it so extensively related to collaboration. Gutwin et al. (1996) give their own view on awareness and define the concept of awareness in group work as the knowledge one has about the state of affairs of others. Gutwin et al. (1996)
created a diagram showing their theory of group awareness and produce the following.
- Informal - The information of “who is around and what are they up to”.
- Group Structural - The roles, responsibilities, status, positions of an issue and group processes
- Social - The perceived attentional, emotional state or level interest of others maintained through backchannel feedback and bodily cues.
- Workspace - Combined information about actions, intentions, abilities, objects, expectations and others of a co-worker
Figure 7. Group awareness venn diagram (Gutwin et al., 1996)
Gutwin et al. (1996) claim that informal awareness is the “glue” that facilitates casual interaction in general, which adds to the nuance of informal communication. Building upon awareness, Gross (2001) separates presence and availability from “informal awareness”, as they deem technological mediation of awareness for cooperation support to be essential in the absence of co-location. Gross (2001) splits them apart, claiming that presence awareness and availability awareness are not equal in their purpose and use.
“Presence awareness” is described as the essential information pertaining to the knowledge of who is, with availability awareness, focusing more on the knowledge about someone, namely their activities, attention, emotions all used in order to assess practical availability (Gross, 2001).
4.4 Problems of Modern Remote Awareness
While various types of modern communication afford content-oriented communication capabilities, they rarely provide awareness. The telephone does not warrant informal awareness, where the initiator cannot know about the presence or availability of the receiver, together with high degrees of interruptibility, disruption and time required to refocus on a task (Röcker,
2012). Video conferencing offers no awareness if not active together with difficulties of privacy, small view ports, limited space for body language and sound and picture quality (Röcker, 2012). Instant messaging applications support presence some availability information status indicators. Research suggests they are not trusted, unreliable, interrupting and require effort (Nardi et al., 2000; Washington, 2001). This information for the purposes of presence and availability is quite problematic where keystrokes or mouse activity is too vague and do not account for situations not related to them (Röcker, 2012).
A limiting factor of all systems is that much work is not at a spatially constant, which goes beyond computing devices. (Bellotti & Bly, 1996; Röcker, 2012).
Therefore, a question is are there other ways one can support informal information beyond computers?
Röcker (2012) further showed implications for informal communications through media richness theory, which states that the output of a should be appropriate to its purpose. This suggests supporting informal awareness with remote co-workers can be transmitted through simpler and go beyond the design of “all-encompassing” systems for the effective facilitation of informal communication. It shows that there is a possibility for using varied and novel means to mediate information.
4.5 Summary
This theoretical research suggests that informal communication is a normal component in various environments, where many claim it is a generality among all work featuring cooperation. Many models exist to classify it, and its subcomponents.
Some researchers have tied the concept of “awareness” to informal communication, and I believe such a connection is warranted, based on empirical findings, and therefore adopt it for usage in this thesis. I specifically adopt “informal awareness”, which denotes the notion of presence and availability of others, as a term and use it henceforth.
5 Related Work
Before designing, I deemed it necessary to contextualize my research in relation to others and get inspiration. This section will seek to investigate related work with a focus on the activity of people, rather than passive data streams or natural phenomenon.
5.1 Virtual environment approaches
Roseman and Greenberg (1996) present “TeamRooms” which attempts to simulate a physical room in a virtual desktop environment. There people can synchronously and asynchronously collaborate through tools and awareness of others through information on presence and availability. Similarly, Pravta by Gross (2001) provides users with presence, availability and task information through an integrated desktop user interface. There users can set status, see who is online, write messages, log tasks, task status, present others with a ticker which contains information and even see 3d representations of connected individuals. FreeWalk by Nakanishi et al. (1996) provide similar functions with their desktop environment aimed at supporting informal communications. This was done by allowing connected users to “walk”
around in a virtual environment with 3d avatars and initiate conversations like they would in real life. Volume was relative to the avatar distance, with a visual channel provided once near other avatars.
Figure 8. Example of a “Freewalk” group chat
5.2 Feather Scent Shaker
Going beyond all-encompassing simulated environments, Strong and Gaver (1996) focus more on abstract and embodied representations, presenting the feather, scent and shaker, three experiments aimed at supporting awareness at a distance. The feather aims to support closeness and awareness by allowing one user with a device to to grasp a picture frame which floats up a feather connected to the fan inside the home of the other user. The scent, a variation of the feather, has the same function where the home device instead vaporises essential oils which fill the home with a smell, indicating that the other user is thinking of them. Lastly, the shaker is two interconnected
devices, where one device shakes if the other is shaken and vice versa. Based on their design, Strong and Gaver (1996) present the premise that such devices can allow one to go beyond detailed media spaces and mediate more simpler awareness through visual, olfactory or tactile ways. It shows how the notion of “presence” does not require this grand system and could be as simple as shaking a small object.
Figure 9 Feather, scent and shaker, left to right, (Strong & Gaver, 1996)
5.3 Sixth Sense
Tollmar and Persson (2002) attempt to provide connectedness between geographically distant family members through presence information by their physical artifact “6th sense”. Their functional prototype of the 6th sense consists of a lamp-like device which is connected to a sister lamp at another location. Relative to the amount of movement registered by sensors, the prototype interprets this as the presence of others and increases the amount of light until it reaches max brightness. An in-situ study of the 6th sense suggested that it was easy to interpret, effectively provided awareness in terms of presence and improved closeness between geographically separated family members.
Figure 10. 6th sense artifact, (Tollmar & Persson, 2002)
5.4 PictureFrame & AugmentedMirror
Dey et al. (2006) go beyond screens and present various concepts pertaining to presence displays, physical peripheral awareness displays. They prototype the “PictureFrame” and “AugmentedMirror”, devices aimed at supporting the presence and availability awareness and connectedness among more intimate persons. With the PictureFrame, these states are conveyed through visual icons on the artifact such as an open door for available and closed door for unavailable. The AugmentedMirror has equal functions and displays them through color around the mirror frame. In-situ deployment showed significant improvements to awareness and connectedness compared to the GUI displays.
5.5 ComSlipper
Chen et al (2006) present the ComSlipper, which has the same goal of presenting presence and availability for geographically separated people, however, focuses on two people in an intimate relationship and emotions. It is manifested as a physical slipper with in-built sensors and different outputs where, depending on the foot placement, pressure and movement, it produces various outputs to a connected pair of ComSlipper in the form of warmth, light and vibration. These have symbolic meanings such as different lights representing happy, sad and anxiety. These inputs and outputs were shown to be appropriate, understandable, lightweight and most important provide such awareness between people remotely.
5.6 CoasterMe
Shen & Kelly (2020) present CoasterMe, a widget aimed at supporting presence awareness remotely. Here, when a cup is placed on a coaster, all part of CoasterMe, it lights the OLED screen of a connected CoasterMe indicating presence. Evaluation showed it to be used, became habitual and improved informal communication through presence information without being obtrusive, breaking the workflow or requiring greater effort through leveraging natural human capabilities and social behaviours.
