Remote collaboration software tools, such as Zoom or Google Docs, have become essential for teamwork – but they often overlook the fact that people do not all approach collaboration in the same way. Researchers have now developed a new human-computer interaction (HCI) method called RemoteCollabEval (RCE) to identify barriers to collaboration and inclusivity, allowing designers and developers to build software features that better support diverse teamwork styles.

The work is part of the broader HCI field, which examines how people use digital systems and how interfaces can be optimized for clarity and ease of use.

“At present, most remote collaboration platforms are evaluated by designers and developers using established HCI inspection methods,” says Sandeep Kuttal, the principal investigator behind the work and an associate professor of computer science at North Carolina State University. “One of the most widely used inspection methods is a ‘groupware walkthrough,’ where designers essentially play out how a collaborative effort might unfold between two or three hypothetical users. However, these methods typically assume all users behave in similar ways.”

“It’s well-established that people from various backgrounds often have different collaboration and communication styles,” says Kuttal, who is senior author of a paper on the work. “Existing HCI inspection methods don’t account for these differences, which limits how inclusive and effective these tools can be. That’s what we set out to address.”

As a first step, the researchers drew on established social science and software engineering research to identify six key personality facets that influence collaborative behavior:

• Leadership style: Does the individual take a democratic or authoritative approach?
• Interruption style: Does the individual interrupt others or wait for cues?
• Non-verbal cues: Is the individual expressive or reserved in digital spaces?
• Relationship-seeking: Does the individual focus on building rapport or primarily on achieving goals?
• Social awareness: Is the individual attentive to or unaware of what their teammates are doing?
• Collaborative self-efficacy: How confident is the individual in the group’s ability to perform?

The researchers then created hypothetical users called “personas,” which are detailed representations of different types of users that incorporate descriptions of each of the six facets. These personas allow designers to simulate interpersonal friction and uncover “inclusivity bugs” that might otherwise go unnoticed during standard testing.
“Because we have descriptions of all six facets for each persona, we can incorporate those key characteristics into our assessment of how well a given platform allows for effective collaboration between people of different backgrounds,” says Kuttal.

The researchers then modified existing groupware walkthrough methods, requiring designers and developers to explicitly consider these six facets as part of the process and created a specialized walkthrough. This combination of personas that account for personality facets and the specialized walkthrough forms the RCE method.

As a proof-of-concept study, the researchers recruited 29 undergraduate and graduate students and split them into 10 teams. Five teams inspected an existing remote collaboration platform using the conventional Groupware Walkthrough method; the other five teams inspected the same platform using RCE.

“The teams who used the RCE method identified six times more inclusivity issues than the conventional method,” says Kuttal. “Essentially, RCE did a better job of identifying when conflicting styles would make collaboration between personas difficult.

“This is important, because identifying these challenges gives designers and developers an opportunity to modify features and user interfaces to improve these remote collaborative platforms,” says Kuttal. “And, ultimately, to improve collaboration itself.

“Because RCE is a standardized, systematic method, it can be used by designers and developers anywhere. It doesn’t require a huge budget, or an expensive research effort. It’s a method that can easily be used to make these platforms better.”

The paper, “Equity by Design: A New HCI Method for Surfacing Inclusivity Issues in Remote Collaboration Software,” will be presented at the ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS 2026), being held June 13-17 in Singapore. First author of the paper is Shandler Mason, a Ph.D. student at NC State.

This work was done with support from the National Science Foundation under grant 2313890.