Considering Guidelines in Group Interface Design: a New Group Friendly Interface for the CHAOS System

At present most software applications have been designed to assist single users working individually, but recently the disciplines of groupware have arisen, concerning the use of the computer to facilitate human interaction. The diffusion of groupware has determined the development of a wide range of co-operative applications with multimedia user interfaces. User interfaces have evolved from the point of view of the type of communication that they determine between user and computer. Traditionally, user interfaces involve three aspects: the system, the user and the way in which they interact. The goal of user-friendly design is to reach a level of interaction with the user that enables him/her to achieve communication with the computer in the most natural way. Similarly, group-interface design aims to create a new means of communication among people. However, through this means modalities of interpersonal interaction differ from previous types of interaction (face to face, telephone, mass-media, etc...). In the design of a group interface it is necessary to determine and use different heuristics (linked to the study of organised activities, the work environment, etc...) and models relating to human behaviour in communication. Concepts such as roles and organisation, ignored in systems centred on interaction between individual user and computer, must become an integral part of the design of interfaces for groupware systems. This paper describes the design and prototype of CHAOS-I, the interface of the co-operative system CHAOS (Commitment Handling Active Office System), which handles a network of conversations and commitments for a group of people. CHAOS-I provides the user with three work environments : communication, commitments and the organisation of personnel. The design of CHAOS-I has been guided by a set of heuristic principles for group interfaces that take into account the roles, organisation, objects, awareness and personalisation of views. Finally, an initial evaluation of the interface will be given and the effectiveness of the applied guidelines and their generalisation to groupware interfaces will be discussed.