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In this paper we examine tilted tabletops as workspaces for computer-supported group collaboration. The configuration of a tilted tabletop is considered to be in between a fully horizontal tabletop and a vertical whiteboard. We describe related work, and provide an overview of the advantages and disadvantages of such a configuration. Furthermore, we present the results of a user study about tilted tabletops. We captured the tilt angle preference of 78 participants using mock-ups of the basic workspace elements. The study was conducted after they experienced a combined distributed and co-located collaboration. The results of the study reveal that the majority of the participants prefer a tilted workspace rather than a fully horizontal one for interaction. We discuss the implications of these results for the design of tabletop-based collaborative environments.

This paper reports on a laboratory study into the gesture representation interface for remote collaboration on physical tasks. Measured by task performance and user's perception of interaction, the experiment assessed two gesture representations (hands vs. cursor pointer) in the context of a video mediated interface which included a view of the remote partner. We did not find any significant difference between the hands condition and the pointer condition when measuring user's task performance. However, our result showed that participants reported an overall preference of using the pointer functionality than using the hands'. We found that participants perceived higher quality of interaction in the hands condition than in the pointer condition and there was a significant difference. Additionally, majority of the participants valued the ability of being able to see each other's face during the collaboration. We conclude with a discussion on the importance of accounting for the user's perception of interaction in addition to the traditional task performance measure in evaluating gesture representation interface, and the importance of considering these two factors in recommending the most suitable interface design with gesture representation for collaboration on physical tasks.

We present an exploratory lab study that provides observations and measures about the usage of interaction devices in colocated cooperative work situations at a tabletop display. We designed our experiment with the aim of providing a context for the collaboration that shares as many characteristics of real life as possible. Twenty-two participants were instructed to perform a shared goal task. They worked in co-located pairs on solving three sets of two jigsaw puzzles concurrently. They were allowed to use any combination of direct and indirect input device, i.e., touch and mouse, to achieve the goal. Additionally, a hidden task was imposed on the participants in the second and third puzzle task: They had to discover that pieces were mixed up between the two displayed puzzles. The role of the hidden task was to trigger spontaneous transitions from individual to collaborative work. Our observations focused on the participants' selection and usage of input devices during the task execution. Our study revealed amongst others that participants stuck to their preferred input device even when they got more engaged in coordination and communication with their partner. Our findings are based on log data, questionnaire data and video recordings.