Impact of seating positions on group video communication

  • Authors:
  • Naomi Yamashita;Keiji Hirata;Shigemi Aoyagi;Hideaki Kuzuoka;Yasunori Harada

  • Affiliations:
  • NTT Communication Science Labs, Kyoto, Japan;NTT Communication Science Labs, Kyoto, Japan;NTT Communication Science Labs, Atsugi, Japan;University of Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan;NTT Communication Science Labs, Atsugi, Japan

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the 2008 ACM conference on Computer supported cooperative work
  • Year:
  • 2008

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Abstract

In this study, we examine how changes in seating position across different sites affect video-mediated communication. We experimentally investigated the effects of altering seating positions on conversations in four-person group communication, two-by-two at identical locations: distant parties seated across from each other vs. distant parties seated side-by-side. In the latter seating arrangement, we found that speaker switches were more evenly distributed between distance-separated participants and co-located participants at points without verbal indication of the next speaker. Participants shared a higher sense of unity and reached a slightly better group solution. These findings demonstrate the importance of providing people with various seating arrangements across distant sites to facilitate different group activities.