Abstract

Remote and hybrid work increasingly requires collaborators to co-produce shared digital artifacts rather than only exchange messages. Yet dominant collaboration theories emphasize communication synchronicity and media capabilities, offering limited guidance for modern 3D co-design systems in which collaborators must coordinate action on shared objects with depth, orientation, and transformation. We define manipulation synchronicity as the degree to which a technology enables collaborators to simultaneously manipulate a shared digital artifact while perceiving each other’s actions and their effects in real time. Drawing on media synchronicity theory and task-technology-individual fit, we propose manipulation synchronicity fit: the degree to which a collaboration configuration aligns (1) the platform’s manipulation synchronicity affordance, (2) the dimensionality demands of the task and object space (2D, 3D-in-2D, 3D-in-3D), and (3) collaborators’ visuo-cognitive abilities. We draw on secondary data from three previously administered laboratory experiments that vary manipulation synchronicity, and progressively increase task-space dimensionality. We are currently using post-hoc synthesis across these studies to deepen our theorizing and articulate the new construct. The expected contributions are extending media synchronicity to account for manipulation synchronicity on shared artifacts, a multi-study methodological template for assessing manipulation synchronicity fit, and actionable design guidance for effective 3D collaboration systems.

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