For the final project for the class, our group decided to study Twiddla, a real-time online whiteboard that needs no downloads. On the board, members can brainstorm and share ideas by chatting or drawing, and also co-browse.
The user-friendly user interface support fluid transitions between activities. When our group co-browsed DVD selections, one member circled one item and wrote something next to it while the other would type something in the chat box and refresh the whole page. We rapidly transitioned back and forth between writing, drawing, and iming, and Twiddla did a good job supporting this with the menu on the top that has buttons with simple icons and texts that people would generally understand. Also, we were able to make transitions between collaboration and external work. I uploaded images from my USB drive and shared it with other members. Finally, simultaneous user interactions allowed us to focus on communicating rather than monitoring other members to know when the system is available for input.
When we first used Twiddla on our laptops in the Information Science building on 301 College Ave, we were unable to collaborate because what we did on Twiddla would appear minutes later on others’ browsers. The wireless connection was really slow in the building. We later changed the location to Upson computer lab, and Twiddla was much responsive and updated to imitate natural interpersonal interactions. There are also privacy concerns. When one member logged into a website, the member’s username and password was displayed in the chatbox as part of the website link. Users need to be aware and careful that private information can be viewed by others on Twiddla.
Several things can be done to improve the experience on Twiddla. For more fluid transitions between activities, tools can be made more user-friendly and flexible. For example, the chatbox or drawing tools can be moved wherever the user wants for convenience. Also, short-cut keys would be created and displayed when the user hovers over the buttons so that the user can use them to transition more quickly to other activities and communicate more effectively with other users. Last but not least, Twiddla needs to protect users’ private information so that users feel safe to co-browse with others.
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I've never actually heard of this, and it sounds really cool. I bet you there's a few different ways to fix some of these problems.
ReplyDeleteFor the unresponsiveness, my first question is that have you tested to what extent does it save the history of members transactions? Will it forget if you do too much? It'd be neat if there was an option to try to connect over a local network as well (ad hoc over multiple laptops).
About the privacy concerns, why was it displayed? Was there a way to turn it off?
Besides these pretty fixable concerns, I think it'd be interesting to look into how this becomes more useful with a touchscreen medium. Take for example, using an iPhone. With an iPhone plugin, you rely on 3G service and wireless, then people could draw on the board much easier than a mouse interface, move around the board easier, zoom in and out, etc. It almost becomes a more natural sharing medium and if you have the phone on speakerphone at the same time.
Cool project! Good luck.
The idea of a digital whiteboard is always one of the most popular collaboration tools. The idea goes along the same lines as a multi-touch surface. It seems as though this interface is more or less one big shared space where people in the group can add and edit things. My question is whether or not there is personal space where people can create things and save work done just in case someone erases something on the whiteboard, that may be needed later. Even though there is no real co-presence I feel as though there should be a level of personal space in the interface. Other than that this is a great project to explore.
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