Chapter 11: Communication and Collaboration
Discussion Topics with Answers
1. Take a position on whether you feel user interfaces for work will remain isolated or
if they will become more collaborative. Present evidence to support your argument.
Clearly user interfaces will evolve as we move into our more “connected”
2. Describe your opinion of why collaborative interfaces, such as email, are much
more popular than others, such as video-conferencing.
Email has become mainstream for users, whether expert or novice. Video
conferencing still has some technology limitations such as throughput
3. Differentiate the roles of face-to-face encounters and collaborative interfaces.
Explain the limitations and benefits of each type of communication.
For face-to-face encounters, there are still benefits to the human-human
interface to gain attention, increase understanding, and to influence decision
4. Below is 7 dimensions of the Model of Coordinated Action (MoCA) model (Lee and
Paine, 2015). Cite examples of each and how you feel it might influence a
successful collaboration.
5. Explain how collaborative interfaces can improve or harm teamwork.
Effective communication is essential for collaborative interfaces to succeed. In
6. Explain how an interface designer can protect users of a collaborative interface
from hostile or malicious behavior.
Continuing the train of thought from Question #5 above, there are people
who choose to take a less honorable path of disrupting or destroying shared
workspaces. To prevent this, companies are now routinely doing background