An application framework for developing collaborative handheld decision-making tools

Abstract

Abstract. This paper describes an application framework supporting Collaborative Handheld Decision-Making (CHDM). The main characteristics of the framework are:(1) extensive usage of visual elements and gestures; and (2) independence from specific decision-making methods, processes and tasks. The research departed from the analysis and systematization of several CHDM scenarios, highlighting repeatable behavior across multiple decision-making contexts. From these scenarios we distilled a coherent set of common functional requirements organized in three main categories: process, macro and micro functionality. The proposed framework has been validated at length through the development of several CHDM tools. Six different tools are described in the paper. The main contribution of this work is a common foundation for developing CHDM tools.