7th
as easy as what?
For many years, my research has focused on ways that geographically distributed work can be better supported. In developing or deploying different collaborative tools, it seems that there is always an incumbent tool that people regularly use in practice that the new technology must be ‘as easy as.’ For instance, video conferencing always seems to have to be ‘as easy as’ and ‘as reliable as’ the telephone.
There are many aspects of this requirement to take issue with, but the tendency of video conferencing and other collaboration technologies to borrow their user interface elements from the telephone world suggests that the telephone comparison is particularly salient.
Is this really the right metaphor, though? There are a huge number of technologies people use to span distance. Do real time collaboration technologies really have to look like the telephone? Widespread enchantment with Second Life and other virtual worlds suggests not.
So, what other metaphors are worth trying? Can video conferencing be more intuitive if we think about it as planning a party? Air travel? A trip to a local restaurant?
