| Motivated by the increasing volume and complexity of real-world data, my research focuses on providing better software support for co-located collaborative information analysis. In particular, I consider mixed-focus collaboration---team work characterized by frequent changes in collaboration styles, which range from loosely coupled, individual work to closely coupled, group work. I identify three concepts---temporal flexibility, spatial flexibility, and scoped interaction---which play important roles in this type of work scenario. To this end, I design and implement Lark: a coordinated multiple view visualization environment where the relationships and connections between individual views are made explicit through an integrated meta-visualization. This provides both visual workspace awareness and explicit collaboration coordination points which provide group members with the freedom to work in concert or independently. The coordination of interactions can help facilitate mixed-focus collaborative work by supporting both individual and group work, and the transitions between these different types of collaboration. |
