Pattern-Based Tool Design for Shared Knowledge Construction - Collaborative Technologies and Applications for Interactive Information Design - page 36

ConClusion uses section of the patterns helped to select required

technology from larger frameworks for groupware
applications. For involving end-users, the patterns
provided the developers with a common language
and metaphors that eased the communication
within the development team and between the team
and the end-users. The check section of each pat-
tern helped the designers and developers to focus
their design on the important issues. The related
patterns section pointed the developers to related
problems and solutions which they could have
ignored otherwise. Finally, the patterns helped to
focus development activities on small problems
and thus encourage iterative development and
piecemeal growth of all tools.
In future research, we want to empirically eval-
uate the use of patterns when designing tools for
computer-mediated interaction. For that purpose,
we are developing questionnaires that will allow
us to measure the usefulness of a pattern as well as
the learning effect of a pattern. We will use these
questionnaires in future development projects for
tools for computer-mediated interaction.
The above examples already indicate that some
patterns are used more often when developing tools
for computer-mediated interaction, e.g. u s e R l i s it
or e m b e d d e d C h a t . Other tools or extensions to
CURE , e.g. support for visual tailoring (Lukosch &
Bourimi, 2008), merging diverging pages (Luko-
sch & Leisen, 2008), or structuring wiki pages (A.
Haake et al., 2005), support this finding. This raises
the research question whether there is a canonical
set of patterns for computer-mediated interaction
that are necessary for building a successful tool.
To pursue this question, we will analyze exist-
ing tools for computer-mediated interaction and
describe their design using patterns. We will also
carry on using patterns for computer-mediated
interaction in future development projects. We
expect that this analysis and usage will reveal a
canonical set of patterns which then can be used
in teaching as well as professional development
to improve the quality of tools for computer-
mediated interaction.

Shared knowledge construction aims at supporting
the creation and gathering of new knowledge. It
relies on tools for computer-mediated interac-
tion. The design of tools for computer-mediated
interaction is a challenging task. To develop a
successful tool, end-users have to be involved
in the development process, developers have to
be educated, and a shared understanding of the
requirements and solutions between the developers
and the end-users has to be established.
In this chapter, we analyzed the problems
when developing tools for computer-mediated
interaction in general. To overcome the identified
problems, we presented a pattern-based approach
for supporting developers as well integrating
end-users in the development process. This de-
velopment process is based on a pattern language
for computer-mediated interaction that can like
other patterns (Erickson, 2000) serve as a Lingua
Franca for designing tools for computer-mediated
interaction. We showed how this pattern language
influenced the design and specification of tools
for shared knowledge construction by introducing
CURE , Fountain of Wisdom , and offlineCURE .
The patterns for computer-mediated interac-
tion have been used in several other projects. In
these projects it became clear that some patterns
are used more often than others. Future research
will reveal if there is a canonical set of patterns
that can improve teaching as well as professional
development of tools for computer-mediated
interaction. If this canonical set can be identi-
fied the end-user oriented development of tools
for computer-mediated interaction and the tools
themselves can be improved.

reFerenCes

Alexander, C. (1964). Notes on the Synthesis of
Form (7th Ed.). Cambridge, MA: Harvard Uni-
versity Press.