Conversation modeling: How the 3D aspect can influence collaborative interpretation

Collaboration is a complex process that involves human and non-human factors. Although technology has improved and facilitated collaborative projects, interpretation, as the process of discovering and creating meaning, is often perceived as an individual act. This research aims to facilitate collaboration by better understanding how groups of people can make and maintain multiple interpretations. After a series of more than two dozen prototypes and 40 workshops for co-design and usability testing, the video records of the workshops have been categorized using protocol analysis and the foundations of discourse analysis. We hypothesize that the physical 3D aspect of these prototypes helps users not only in sharing their interpretations but also in co-creating them. Moreover, this is an essential finding for the next steps of this research, which will try to replicate the results of the physical models by attaching them as an interface to an online environment.