Shared Visualizations for Remote Collaboration in Asynchronous Industrial Settings

Abstract: In a reliable industrial setting it is essential for system manufacturers to provide efficient support when an error occurs. In order to make this process fast and cost effective the situation should also be handled remotely, without bringing the expert to the site. To address this issue ABB Corporate Research is exploring how future experts in remote service centers could work and collaborate to provide better service for ABB's customers. This thesis work run in parallel and in close collaboration with an ABB research project analyzing the possibilities for a future remote service center in the marine sector. During the thesis project a concept for how the communication could be performed in this kind of service center has been designed, implemented and evaluated. The focus has been to analyze how different visual elements could support text-based communication. The results consist of specific examples of visual elements, an evaluation on how they are perceived and suggestions on how they should be included in a design to achieve the most efficient communication support. Based on the findings it is concluded that there are multiple visual elements that can be used to support the communication, but also that the text still plays an important role in remote collaboration and that this is something that needs to be considered when designing communication support. Furthermore the results include a discussion of how well the method used was experienced to support adapting this concept to user needs.