Beyond intelligent interfaces: Exploring, analyzing, and creating success models of cooperative problem solving

Cooperative problem-solving systems are computer-based systems that augment a person's ability to create, reflect, design, decide, and reason. Our work focuses on supporting cooperative problem solving in the context of high-functionality computer systems. We show how the conceptual framework behind a given system determines crucial aspects of the system's behavior. Several systems are described that attempted to address specific shortcomings of prevailing assumptions, resulting in a new conceptual framework. To further test this resulting framework, we conducted an empirical study of a success model of cooperative problem solving between people in a large hardware store. The conceptual framework is instantiated in a number of new system-building efforts, which are described and discussed.