A Case Study on Interdisciplinary Collaboration in Unfamiliar Domains

Abstract

This paper reports a case study in which two designers [one experienced and one inexperienced] and two experienced educators were observed while designing two chemistry educational interfaces for topics with different levels of complexity. The aim was to observe how the designers and educators would collaborate in unfamiliar domains. Variables related to collaboration and topic misunderstandings were measured. The variables related to topic misunderstanding did not point to an effect of topic complexity. Observations suggest an effect of personality interplay on collaborative construction, regardless of the experience of the professionals and the topic under consideration.