Supporting distributed spatial collaboration : An investigation of navigation and radar view techniques

Spatial collaboration is a complex problem where people work together within the context of a large, physical place. Our work investigates ways to support distributed, synchronous, spatial collaboration activities. We have conducted an experiment to examine techniques for supporting individual navigation and providing awareness information to the distributed users. Using a collaborative, two-dimensional map interface, we examined continuous and discrete styles of navigation as well as traditional and novel radar view techniques. The results revealed the advantages of continuous navigation, the issues inherent with discrete navigation, and the potential for novel radar view designs. We present the lessons learned from this study as well as some of the issues to consider in designing a spatial collaboration application.