INVOLVE: Developing interactive workspaces that impact communication and task performance when using virtual prototypes

Industry shifts to the use of digital tools have created a need for new means and methods for approaching team interaction and planning for collaborative tasks, in particular, the shift from typical and understood interactions based on paper media to dynamic multimedia when using virtual prototypes in alignment with advanced visualization, analysis, and simulation tools. The INVOLVE framework was developed to respond to the need for planning for collaborative tasks focused on the architecture, engineering, and construction industry when using virtual prototypes. This study presents the elements of the INVOLVE framework, then demonstrates the validation in team interaction when different media configurations are used for two different collaborative tasks, a schematic site plan development, and a four-dimensional schedule review. The team interactions were implemented through a series of quasi-experiments within a collaborative interactive workspace. Observational methods were used to quantify the timing and duration of different team and media interactions. The findings show that changes in media traits have a measurable effect on a team's communication and can shift the performance of certain tasks between a cooperative process and a collaborative one. The findings suggest INVOLVE provides an effective framework for determining and planning the needed infrastructure to improve engagement and communication to support collaborative tasks.