The design and building of the graphic user interface for the collaborative desktop

Abstract

In this paper, we describe design and implementation considerations for the graphic user interface for CoDesk (the Collaborative Desktop), which is an environment for CSCW (Computer Supported Cooperative Work). CoDesk is an attempt to make collaboration a natural part of the daily use of a computer. Our way to achieve this is to put the user in the centre of the computing in a similar way that applications and documents are defined and visualised in the desktop metaphor. The Collaborative Desktop is aimed to be a generic environment with a GUI (Graphic User Interface) that can be used by many persons with different backgrounds. We have developed it as an extension of a computer environment we know works for many users: the desktop metaphor that has made daily computing a lot easier and error tolerant. Here, we give an overview of the design and implementation of the CoDesk user interface: design principles, design process, implementation techniques. In an iterative and interactive design process, we have focused on creating a dialogue between the developers and potential users. The last chapter contains some conclusions and a vision how the traditional desktop metaphor could be extended using new ideas of the graphical design.