Abstract Coordination is an important aspect of group work. Previous studies have shown how collocated multi-user interfaces, such as interactive tabletops, support coordination by providing a shared space that enhances workspace awareness. However, only little is known about the coordination processes that occur during problem-solving on such shared devices and how the design of features and interaction techniques can impact coordination behaviour. In this paper we analyse users’ coordination mechanisms during joint manipulation tasks in Orbitia, an interactive tabletop-based problem-solving activity. The proposed design integrates a series of “breaches” seeking to challenge participants’ collaboration by confronting them to different limitations. We report on a case study with five groups of three users (N = 15), jointly solving tasks while facing different challenges related to the activity interface and the environment. By analysing 135 min of video material along with their transcripts, we identified nine different coordination mechanisms that relate to either coordination of information or coordination of actions. By exploring the occurrences of these mechanisms, we found that sharing unsolicited task-relevant information is a common coordination behaviour that can be observed at interactive tabletops, and that with breaches, more explicit coordination in the form of direct requests, orders, or shadowing is used.

The required skills for medical personnel in surgical operating rooms are not confined to medical and technical expertise. To understand how scrub nurses perform their critical role, cognitive, social, and collaborative skills are at the centre of interest. To navigate in a life-critical environment and react both appropriately and in a timely manner to the surgeon's actions, nurses need to have a fast and accurate understanding of the situation. We present how this reading of the situation is conducted during microsurgeries, where a surgical microscope takes a central role in the treatment. We employed contextual observation, gaze-tracking, video recordings, and interviews to describe the reliance of the surgeons’ work on the microscope, as well as the situation-understanding strategies of the nurses in such a setting. Also, we present pieces of evidence of anticipation strategies that the nurses exploit in the face of challenges due to the main surgeon’s lack of attention toward them because of the constant use of the microscope. To ameliorate these circumstances, the scrub nurse proactively employs a set of mechanisms to obtain and maintain situation awareness. Lastly, we present the implications of future technologies for operating rooms aiming to improve collaborative microsurgical work and patient safety.

In this paper, we present DeBORAh, a front-end, web-based software layer supporting orchestration of interactive spaces combining multiple devices and screens. DeBORAh uses a flexible approach to decompose multimedia content into containers and webpages, so that they can be displayed in various ways across devices. We describe the concept and implementation of DeBORAh and explain how it has been used to instantiate two different cross-device scenarios.

This paper is about a multilingual chatbot developed for public administration within the CEF funded project ENRICH4ALL. We argue for multi-lingual chatbots empowered through MT and discuss the integration of the CEF eTranslation service in a chatbot solution.

The design space of tangible and multi-touch tabletop interfaces is complex, and little is known about how the different characteristics of tangible and multi-touch interactive features affect collaboration strategies. With this work, we report on five different features designed for an interactive tabletop application to support collaborative problem-solving. We present the design details and describe preliminary results obtained from a user study with 15 participants.