KMDI Speaker Series – Designing Ubiquitous Collaboration: Tools for anytime, anywhere work

Designing Ubiquitous Collaboration:
Tools for anytime, anywhere work

Guest Speaker:  Anthony Tang, University of Calgary

Abstract

We are increasingly using digital technology to communicate and collaborate with others in a variety of contexts. Yet, how do we design effective tools for discussion, analysis and decision-making about information with collocated and distributed team members? In this talk, I will outline my group’s approach to this challenge, where we consider specific domains, taking a design thinking approach in designing and evaluating prototype solutions. I will show how we apply this approach to remote assistance, where remote collaborators offer help to one another in solving physical task. As collaboration moves beyond the desktop, we need to understand how to design and build effective tools for group activity. These cannot be designed as thought experiments — instead, building them is an important first step to evaluating them effectively.

About Our Speaker

Dr. Anthony Tang is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Calgary. He leads the RICELab (Rethinking Interaction, Collaboration and Engagement) group, which focuses on Human-Computer Interaction, Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Ubiquitous Computing with applications in digital workrooms, augmented reality, and mobile computing. Tony’s work has consistently been published at top-tier international venues, and has been recognized with awards at ACM DIS 2016, DIS 2014, ACM CHI 2014, ACM CSCW 2013, ACM CSCW 2012, and CHI 2009. Tony is also the recipient of the NSERC Discovery Accelerator (2017), and was recently awarded a GREAT Supervisor Award by the Faculty of Graduate Studies (2015).