A Model for Cross Boundary Collaboration Li Zhu Dipartimento di Informatica e Comunicazione Università degli Studi di Milano Via Comelico 39, 20139 Milano (Italy) [email protected] ABSTRACT

As designing software systems becomes more complex, the involvement of multi-disciplinary design teams is increasingly necessary. The considered boundaries of this collaboration are not only from the technological perspective per se, but also from social and cultural aspects, since design teams are from heterogeneous cultural and professional background. Moreover, future emergent problems and practices need an open development software environment allowing users to create their situated applications. Finding new models for supporting this collaboration thus becomes valuable. We propose the Hive-mind Space (HMS) model to bring diverse teams together in performing collaborative and creative design activities. The model provides domainoriented habitable environments and tools for design teams to tailor the system to their situated needs. The meta-design approach allows different levels of participation and provides different levels of tailoring and system complexity. The mediation mechanism within the model is built around the concept of boundary objects - shared artifacts that can be manipulated and negotiated across boundaries to support communication amongst all the stakeholders. We are implementing a reflective meta-wiki for the collaborative design of iPhone applications as a proof of concept for this conceptual model. The reflective meta-wiki will explore the use of boundary objects to facilitate participation and communication in the collaborative design process. Author Keywords

Collaborative Design, Social Creativity, Meta-design, Boundary objects. ACM Classification Keywords D.2.6 [Software Engineering]: Environments – Interactive environments. D.2.11. [Software Engineering]: Software Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. NordiCHI 2010, October 16–20, 2010, Reykjavik, Iceland. Copyright 2010 ACM ISBN: 978-1-60558-934-3...$5.00.

Architectures-Domain-specific architectures H.5.2. [Information Interfaces and Presentation]: User Interfaces – Prototyping. RESEARCH PROBLEM

As collaboration in designing software systems becomes more frequent and more complex among multi-disciplinary teams, finding new models for supporting this collaboration becomes valuable. However, the main challenge of collaboration is the bridging of the communication gaps that arise among stakeholders with different cultural backgrounds utilizing different systems of signs, languages and representations [8] and possibly having different perceptions as well as interpretations. Communication is therefore needed to reach a common meaning about the messages they exchange. Moreover, future uses and issues cannot be completely anticipated at design time and we must provide for the coevolution of the users and the system with an open development software environment that can be evolved and tailored in opportunistic ways. The aim of this research is to investigate End-user Development (EUD) [4] and meta-design [5] approaches for supporting creative collaborative design and to design a space to facilitate diverse stakeholders communicating with each other as well as participating in the iterative design process. My research addresses the stakeholders, who share a concern, a set of problems, or a passion about a topic, and deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by interacting on an ongoing basis, grouped as a Community of Practice (CoP) [10]. CoPs come together to collaboratively solve a problem, bringing their own expertise and forming a Community of Interest (CoI) [6]. It is necessary to create a common language as a common field of interaction in order to support creative collaboration among these diverse CoPs. The elements of this language are boundary objects [9], which different CoPs can refer to, discuss and debate, thus reaching a common understanding [1]. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

This research stems from computer supported cooperative work (CSCW), participatory design and collaborative design, and focuses on providing web-based tools to support collaboration among diverse design communities.

This research also addresses EUD and the meta-design approach in order to support social creativity and tackle the co-evolution issues. The main concept for meta-design is empowering users to be active designers in a process [5]. EUD is a set of methods, techniques and tools that allow end users - who are non-professional software developers but domain experts (e.g. physicians, archeologists, industrial designers) active participation in the software development process, creating, modifying or extending software artifacts [3, 4]. Nevertheless, collaboration among heterogeneous groups is not always easy. The barriers of collaboration are not only from the technological perspective, but also from social and cultural aspects, since design teams are from different cultural and professional background. Much CSCW research has been focused on the role of inscription and material artifacts in cooperative work to the creation of shared understanding [2, 7, 9]. The boundary objects concept, as a useful theoretical construct, has been used to understand the coordinative role of artifacts in practice. Boundary object are created and shared artifacts in collaboration, which can be utilized to mediate communication gaps. Many studies have suggested that the creation of boundary objects is a key for collaboration between CoPs [9, 10]. In our research, we focus on easing the boundary between professional designers and users. We do not distinguish between design time and use time, but between design or meta-design activities and use activities. Therefore, the collaborative design activity becomes a continuous process, which does not end with a final product but with perpetual beta artifacts.

that simple “low-tech” tools, such as colored pencils, paper, post-it notes, etc., can support complex communication and rich interaction. It is the very simplicity of these tools that allows for their appropriation by design communities and encourages improvisation during the design and problemsolving process. However, it is a challenge to achieve this flexibility with most collaborative software. Since each feature has to be planned in advance, this tends to foreclose such interactions and communications ahead of time. The novelty in this model is that it introduces a boundary zone, allowing CoPs to create and exchange the virtual boundary object and their metadata. Boundary objects, shared artifacts, serving as a means to externalize domains knowledge can be manipulated and negotiated, thus reaching a common understanding among CoPs. The model provides localized habitable environments for diverse CoPs and tools for them to tailor the system and to pursue collaborative design, allowing for the co-evolution of systems and practices. The locally controlled and globally interconnected environments also encourage emergent behaviors and social creativity. Layered levels of participation give access to different levels of tailoring and system complexity. Additionally, the HMS model provides meaningful information to diverse CoPs to support them reaching a common understanding. Materialization is the process by which the abstract information of a boundary object is made visible, understandable and actionable to users by generating a specific interface on a specific device.

RESEARCH APPROACH

The conducted research follows a meta-design approach and aims to provide the socio-technical conditions empowering users to perform EUD activities. Exploiting the socio-technical approach also means that we address the creativity of groups and communities rather than of any specific individual. Following the meta-design approach, based on our previous Software Shaping Workshop (SSW) methodology [3], a restructured Hive-mind Space Model has been proposed to support multidisciplinary design teams collaboration as well as to foster their creativity [11]. This model retains the SSW methodology on three levels: i) meta-design level, which is inhabited by software engineers and domain experts who design and maintain the interactive system; ii) design level, where domain experts design habitable environments for end users; iii) use level, where end users tailor and use their habitable environments. By observing collaboration, the flow of ideas, negotiation process and creativity emerging from brainstorming in the real world, we can abstract some collaborative patterns and apply them to software design. It is important to understand

Figure 1 Hive-mind space model

For example, when designing an apartment, the same information might be materialized differently to different users, i.e. floor plans for an architect, construction details for a civil engineer, a 3D rendered model for the resident, and an excel price table for a contractor. The abstract boundary object will be instantiated according to a

mediation mechanism that considers a CoP’s culture (i.e. meaning of colors, shapes, writing direction, use of pictograms), role (i.e. software engineers, domain experts, end user) and device in use. The exchange information needs to be presented in a meaningful way to different users. Hence, the same abstract boundary object will have different materializations for an Italian software engineer using a laptop and for a Japanese tourist using a mobile phone. Boundary objects are a means of communication cross role, culture and device boundaries. CURRENT STATUS OF OUR RESEARCH

The reflective meta-wiki for collaborative design of iPhone applications is an ongoing project and we have already implemented the environments for some CoPs. Figure 2 shows the communication and interaction between different CoPs through different design levels. Software engineers, at the meta-design level, design workflow and interactions, which generate domain-oriented habitable environments for different CoPs. Figure 2 shows one habitable environment at the design level, where designers can create iPhone mockup applications by simply drag-and-drop components. The designers can share their iPhone mockups with all team members. In this case the mockups map to wiki pages, and act as exchangeable boundary objects. At the bottom use level, users can annotate and rank the design samples, asking for new features or modifications. The collaborative design process is iterative and is improvable along the way via feedback and by leveraging the reflective capabilities of the system. All mockups as well as associated metadata are saved in the knowledge base and can be used as sources for future reference and inspiration.

different levels of accessibility. In this case design teams can not only perform activities with their familiar tools, but also socially explore and refine their habitable environment. In addition, the mediation mechanism within the HMS model allows stakeholders to modify how a boundary object should be displayed according to the CoP's role, culture and device. Therefore, the whole system is editable and can be explicitly redesigned along with the collaborative design process. In the real world, simple low-tech tools can be easily adapted to the situated design problems and support complex collaboration and rich interaction. The HMS model aims to provide simple small components by analyzing common features of boundary objects from the social level (i.e. online social collaborative tools) and pragmatic level (i.e. face-to-face offline teamwork). We provide a set of these basic elements within the wiki, such as images, videos, calendar, annotation, comments, versioning, notifications, rating etc. Design teams can use these components, modify them or remix them to create new boundary objects according to their context. The implementation process will be continuously evaluated through informal meetings and experiments with all the stakeholders involved in order to analyze the value of the model as well as redesign it and improve its usability. My plans are to finalize the first prototype implementation by the end of 2010, complete the feedback data analysis and prototype modification by April 2011, defend the dissertation in September 2011, and complete final revisions by April 2012. REFLECTIONS AND EXPECTED CONTRIBUTIONS

The HMS is a conceptual framework based on meta-design and cultures of participation, which creates opportunities for creativity. The meta-design approach encourages collaboration across technological and cultural boundary, offering the tools needed to socially negotiate communication gaps. However, assessing the meta-design framework and social creativity are difficult and need long-term study. In future work, I will focus on visualizing the life cycle of communication activities and negotiation processes among CoPs to gain useful insights. In addition, to enhance the common understanding among design teams, the next step aims to break down the concept of belonging to fixed roles, cultures and devices. Users will be able to switch to other CoPs habitable environments to gain new perspectives.

Figure 2 Reflective meta-wiki for collaborative design of iPhone applications

Other boundary objects, such as comments and ratings, are represented as wiki pages. All the domain-oriented habitable environments are also defined as wiki pages with

To sum up, the HMS model can be applied to any kind of collaborative software environment that needs to take cultural, domain and device differences into consideration. The model will demonstrate a possible way to overcome the complex, evolving and emerging nature of the collaborative process.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Special thanks to Professor Piero Mussio for inspiring and commenting on this research. The work of Li Zhu is supported by the Initial Training Network "Marie Curie Actions", funded by the FP 7 - People Programme with reference PITN-GA-2008-215446 entitled "DESIRE: Creative Design for Innovation in Science and Technology." BIOGRAPHY

Zhu Li received her Bachelor degree in Architecture from the Xi'an University of Architecture and Technology in China in 2000. She also obtained an M.Arch degree in Advanced Architectural Studies from the University of Sheffield in 2007 and a M.Sc degree in Design and Digital Media from the University of Edinburgh in 2008, earning distinctions in both. Zhu Li is currently a PhD student at the Department of Computer Science and Communication (DICo) of the Università degli Studi di Milano. She is also a Marie Curie early stage researcher. Her current research is investigating End-User-Development and meta-design approaches for creative problem solving in cultural information and communication environments. REFERENCES

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