Alternative interfaces for chat

Abstract

We describe some common problems experienced by users of computer-based text chat, and show how many of these problems relate to the loss of timing-specific information. We suggest that thinking of chat as a real-time streaming media data type, with status and channel indicators, might solve some of these problems. We then present a number of alternative chat interfaces along with results from user studies comparing and contrasting them both with each other and with the standard chat interface. These studies show some potential, but indicate that more work needs to be done.