Abstract:
In order for a workplace to function there are a multitude of requirements needed, yet out of all of them communication is the most essential. Without it, nothing would be able to progress as workplace participants would not know what to do. However, even with communication's known importance, there are circumstances that arise where communication breaks down and in turn, workplace progress comes to a halt. In order to overcome this stalled progress, usage of informal communication is often the key, where more direct, less "official" communication gets workplace progress back on track. From this known usefulness of informal communication and its ability to help keep workplaces functioning, it is proposed that informal communication can be better supported in location critical workplaces via the use of geographically placed notes by context aware mobile devices. Systems exist to help collate notes, however recall and collaboration with the collected note set is absent in these systems. As such, the proposed geospatial note system focuses on the recall of notes and what techniques are needed to recall notes back to a user in an effective, usable way. This thesis discusses the research, design and implementation of the Digital Field Note Retrieval System (DFNRS). An asynchronous, collaborative focused system intending to expand otherwise simplistic note data by evoking collaborative features. This is done by visualising note content data, context data and providing shared feedback on this visualised data. Additionally the DFNRS intends to be able to be focused into specialised domains where the use of digital, location-based notes is wanted. Through the implementation of the DFNRS this thesis is shown to provide useful methods for assisting informal communication across a wide variety of domains and overall the creation of a unique collaborative communication system utilising the strength of visualisations to relay note context and content information.