We conducted an empirical study of teams to explore how users integrate information across computer tools to accomplish shared activities with others. We concurrently collected data from members of three small teams to observe how they coordinated their work with each other around shared activities. We used screen recording software to unobtrusively capture a rich, high-fidelity record of users’ interactions with and through their computers.
Our analysis of the data revealed the amount of extraneous work that users currently do to:
- find references to people
- find files to attach in email
- manage attachments that are received in email
- manage the multiple media involved in an activity
- track what work they owe to other colleagues
Much of this extra work involves finding recently accessed objects that are needed again in the user’s current task focus, as seen in the following screenshots recorded during the study.
A user saves a document, goes into email to send the document to someone else, and then spends significant time trying to locate the file they just saved.
These observations suggest design implications for tools to better support coordination around shared activities.
The results from this study are informing our work on Unified Activity Management as a whole, and have also led to specific innovations such as Recent Shortcuts
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