Configurations

We ran Shape Factory in three different configurations:

All conditions had 10 players. Half collocated and half telecommuters. The collocated grouped shared a large conference room. The telecommuters were each in an individual room. They each played five rounds of the simulation. The first round lasting 20 minutes, while rounds 2-5 lasting 15. A post survey was filled at the end of the simulation.

• Baseline
• Doubles
• Traveling

Baseline Condition –

This condition has the ten participants evenly split between collocations and telecommuting. Five players representing each specialty shape are located in the same room. These players have face to face communication opposed to the five other telecommuters who are isolated in their own room and only have computer mediated communication options.

Doubles Conditions –

Opposed to the baseline condition, this condition did not have all the five specialty shapes in each condition. The collocated group and the telecommuters had 4 different shapes where one of them was present twice.

Traveling Condition –

The setting of the shapes was similar to the baseline. Five different shapes in each condition. However, after the 3rd round two of the collocated participants switch their location with two telecommuters. The same shapes are swapped (for example, Blue Square and Orange Square), so after the change both sides still have all five shapes.