Seminars will be held in the Lecture Theatre 1 - William Gates Building, Computer Laboratory at 4.15pm

	See also: Networks & OS seminars Security seminars Logic and Semantics seminars Additional meetings weekly timetable for other meetings

Yvonne Rogers

Transforming Awkward Face-to-Face Consultations into More Equitable, Fluid and Congenial Experiences

Buying a complex product like a financial portfolio, a new kitchen or a round the world trip can be a real headache. Both customer and agent must engage in complex planning and decision-making, using a variety of information sources and technologies. Findings from an ethnographic study of face to face consultations showed them to be disjointed, one-sided and not well supported by information technology. As an alternative approach, we developed a novel arrangement of multiple displays intended to promote shoulder-to shoulder collaboration using a variety of interlinked representations and visualizations. The resulting interactional workspace was used by a travel company as part of a large international trade show attended by the general public. The many consultations that took place between agents and customers were quite different, proving to be more equitable, open, fluid and congenial. In my talk, I discuss the reasons behind this transformation and suggest how other kinds of work settings could, likewise, be improved by introducing new forms of interactional workspaces.