Extending software development environments onto collaborative multi-user interactive table displays

What is it about?

Software development is a highly collaborative process, but the tools we use often force us to work heavily through our displays. We propose and explore a software development environment that expands beyond the computer screen and onto a collaborative tabletop surface. We developed and performed an initial study on a functional Java development environment. This environment allows for multiple co-located developers to physically work simultaneously on the same codebase, with code objects and properties visualised and spread across the tabletop. These code and project elements can be edited on the table (collaboratively) or dragged on to a person's computer for more efficient coding and editing with a keyboard and mouse.

Featured Image

Photo by Scott Graham on Unsplash

Photo by Scott Graham on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Drawing on similarities to pair-programming and other methods, we observed changes in social dynamics and an increased awareness between developers of what each other are working on. For example, we observed quick social negotiations around which software objects (e.g., classes in Java) a person has in their physical vicinity, akin to their active work area. Inital results suggest that this could produce better quality code, though with a trade-off with different development dynamics.