Talk to the Wall: The Role of Speech Interaction in Collaborative Visual Analytics

Area of Science:

• Human-Computer Interaction
• Collaborative Systems
• Multimodal Interaction

Background:

• Previous research supports individual use of speech commands for data exploration.
• The collaborative application and effectiveness of speech commands remain underexplored.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how pairs utilize speech commands and touch gestures in collaborative sensemaking.
• To understand the interplay between modalities and collaboration dynamics.

Main Methods:

• An exploratory study using a prototype technology probe with 10 participant pairs.
• Analysis of interaction choices, modality interplay, and collaboration styles.

Main Results:

• Touch was the primary modality, but speech commands were preferred for global operations and distant interactions.
• Speech interaction enhanced awareness of partners' actions.
• Speech command usage correlated with agreeableness and was consistent across collaboration styles.

Conclusions:

• Speech commands can effectively support collaborative sensemaking, particularly for specific interaction types.
• Design considerations for multimodal collaborative systems should account for speech interaction benefits.
• Personality traits and collaboration proximity do not deter speech command use.