Mine, Yours, Ours

Previous research shows that territories help people coordinate their task and social interaction at large interactive tabletops. However, little is known about the interplay between territorially and the reorientation of digital objects and their influence on task performance. In this paper, we advance the hypothesis that territories are states of spatial arrangements continually changing during the collaborative activity and seek to better understand their role as a main mechanism in coordinating group activities. We report results from an explorative tabletop study that compares two types of technical settings workspaces supporting a brainstorming task. Our results show evidence of different territorial strategies dependent on the two conditions. We discuss the role of territoriality and orientation of digital notes as a mechanism for coordinating group activity and their influence on task performance and outcome. Finally, we present design recommendations derived from our findings.